The US Department of State will recognize April as ‘National Arab American Heritage Month’ in honour of the more than 3.5 million people of Arab ancestry living in the country.
In a video statement, State Department spokesperson Ned Price said that “like their fellow citizens, Americans of Arab heritage are very much part of the fabric of this nation, and Arab Americans have contributed in every field and profession.”
“Many of them serve here at the State Department and throughout the interagency, and their careers are as diverse as their backgrounds,” Price said.
“We mark National Arab American Heritage Month noting these contributions are as old as America itself.”
The move was quickly applauded by Arab Americans.
Among them is Sarah Elzeini, the founder and CEO of the DC-based global advisory firm SMZ International, whose father moved first came to the US from Saudi Arabia for university.
“He always planned to go back to his family, but stumbled upon love, married my mother, and the rest is history,” she said. “At that time, citizenship could be obtained through marriage immediately.”
“That is our Arab-American story, one of love, and one of reverence for the United States, but also an enduring connection to the Middle East,” she added.
Elzeini’s grandfather, she added, was a Palestinian businessman working between the United States and the region.
“My father took his entrepreneurial spirit, and I took his,” she added. “I’d like to think we are contributing to the betterment of America, be that economically or politically.”
“Not all Arab-Americans have the same experience of ours, and that some came as immigrants or refugees who come from a hard lived experience,” Elzeini said. “But that is what makes our demographic so beautifully dynamic and wise.”
Sarah Elzeini, founder and CEO of the DC-based global advisory firm SMZ International
Fayrouz Saad, a former Obama administration Department of Homeland Security appointee who co-founded Arab Americans for Biden ahead of the November election, said that “as a proud Arab-American, it is so encouraging to see April being recognized as Arab-American Heritage Month by Governors, Mayors and other government leaders.”
“I am especially proud that my Governor, Governor [Gretchen] Whitmer, has issued a proclamation recognizing the important role that Arab-Americans have played in Michigan’s history, economy and culture,” she said.
Saad added that “this recognition helps ensure that we are recognized for our contributions and continues to up-lift us as a community.”
To date, the Biden administration has appointed more than 10 Arab-Americans to positions in the White House and State Department, including Reema Dodin, the White House Director of Legislative Affairs and White House Senior Legal Affairs Adviser Dana Shubat.
Although small in number relative to other populations of Americans from immigrant backgrounds, Arab-Americans played an important role in the election that saw Joe Biden elected to the White House.
The US Department of State will recognise April as ‘National Arab American Heritage Month’ in honour of the more than 3.5 million people of Arab ancestry living in the country
In the key swing state of Michigan, for example, statistics indicate that the Arab-American vote may have had an outsize influence on the election’s results.
In the four municipalities with the highest concentration of Arab-Americans (Dearborn, Dearborn Heights, Melvindale and Hamtramck), 68 percent of voters supported Joe Biden, compared to 30.6 percent who supported President Donald Trump.
Additionally, statistics show that more than 43,000 additional voters came out for Biden in heavily Arab-American areas compared to 2016 – a number which factors significantly into Biden’s winning vote margin of 150,000 in the state overall.
“It all makes a difference at the end of the day and compounds on top of each other,” Saad told Arabian Business in November. “We do have communities in swing states and concentrations in areas where it matters. Michigan is one place, Pennsylvania another. We’ve always believed that we are an important constituency and campaigned [for candidates] to take us seriously and be engaged in a thoughtful and meaningful way.”
Ahead of the election, the Biden campaign released an Arab-American “platform” in which the candidate outlined his positions on a number of specific domestic and foreign policy issues that are broadly of interest to Arab-American voters.
“We’d never seen that before,” Saad said. “That sets a tone for the future. That’s meaningful.”
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