Syrian assimilation
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Prior to these readings, I was unaware of a precedent of Syrian migration to North America, that they could even be considered the first Arabs to have done so. I wonder to what degree my ignorance could be attributed to just that (my ignorance) or to the success of Syrian assimilation. All the readings emphasized that Syrian immigrants to the US and Canada argued for non-Asiatic, white recognition and were varyingly granted it. Their Christian status, which was further tied to the Greek or Russian Orthodox (two ethnic groups further along the white status come up) with substantial institutional power in the West, certainly helped Christian Arabs enter at higher rates than their Muslim compatriots. Asal also provides the example of Challenger victim Christa Corrigan McAuliffe whose parents' anglicized names concealed their Arab origins. It seems that across the many generations, much of the Syrian population intermarried and anglicized to the point of disappearing from the modern conscious.