Lilette Mocio
Professor Smith
February 28, 2015
The Socioeconomic Status of Middle Easterners in the United States
http://www.permanentculturenow.com/introduction-to-education/
Key Words: Middle Easterners, Arab Americans, Socioeconomic status (SES),
Education, Income, Employment
Description: This issue brief details the experience of Middle Easterners in the United
States through the lens of socioeconomic status, with emphasis on education, income, and
employment.
Key Points:
 Middle Easterners are generally more educated than Americans and other
immigrants, attaining more advanced degrees than the non-Middle Eastern
population
 It is not uncommon for Middle Easterners to immigrate to the United States to
pursue a high-level education or a professional career, particularly in the legal and
medical field
 Middle Eastern households generally have higher incomes than American
households
 Americans typically have higher unemployment rates than the Middle Eastern
population
 It can be difficult to obtain specific data regarding Middle Eastern Americans
because of the classification of Middle Easterners as “White” in the US Census
and various other studies
Brief: Although associating immigrants with low education levels and low incomes
might be considered a fairly standardized practice—especially since immigrants face the
multitude of challenges related to adjusting to life in a foreign country, such as
assimilating to a new culture, finding employment, and overcoming language barriers—
this is a misconception with regard to the Middle Eastern immigrants in America. While
it can be difficult to analyze Middle Easterners separately from their ethnoracial
categorization as “White,” (which results in the conflation of various ethnoracial groups),
the data that is available shows a strong Middle Eastern commitment to education. The
Middle Eastern population in the United States is extremely well-educated, with very few
individuals having just high school degrees, and 21.2% of Middle Eastern immigrants
having a graduate or professional degree, while only 10% of locals and natives each have
such a degree, as shown in Figure 2 (Camarota). Figure 2 also indicates that 27.5% of
Middle Easterners have a Bachelor’s degree, compared to 19.1% of Americans and
17.6% of other immigrants (Camarota). More than 87% of Middle Easterners in the US
have a high school degree, and over 64% of the Middle Eastern population is employed
(Arab American Institute).
According to the Arab American Institute, there are more than 1.9 million Middle
Easterners in the United States, with these individuals being scattered throughout each of
the 50 states. More than 80% of these Middle Eastern immigrants are citizens of the
United States, and these citizens are employed in each of the major sectors of the
American economy (Arab American Institute). According to Table 5, nearly half of the
Middle Eastern population had a college or graduate degree in 2000 (Camarota). Only
28.2% American citizens, contrarily, had attained a degree at the college or graduate level
at the turn of the century (Camarota). Many of the Middle Eastern Americans who
immigrate to the US do so in pursuit of attaining a professional degree, particularly in the
legal and medical fields, which accounts at least partially for the high percentage of
Middle Eastern individuals with graduate degrees relative to the generic American
population.
Though factors other than education obviously impact an individual’s ability to
obtain employment (such as experience level, ability to network, availability of careers in
the job market, and various other elements), higher levels of education tend to be
correlated with higher income levels (Camarota). This seems to be the case among
Middle Easterners, since the highly-educated Middle Eastern population tends to have
lower unemployment rates than the general American population, boasting an
unemployment rate of roughly 5% (Smith). Additionally, the average Middle Easterner
has a higher median household income than the average US citizen. An average
American household earns approximately $52,000 annually, while a Middle Eastern
household income is about $59,000 (Smith). Individually, Middle Easterners have an
average salary of about $39,000, exceeding the average American salary by $1,000
(Camarota). When analyzed more specifically, Table 5 indicates that Iranians are the
wealthiest Middle Easterners, earning a median salary of $60,000. This high income
correlates directly with high percentage of individuals having a college or graduate
degree, as 60.9% of Iranians are college or graduate-school educated (Camarota). This
percentage makes Iranians the second most educated Middle Eastern immigrant group,
with only Egyptians being a more educated population—and just slightly so at that—with
63.4% of the Egyptian population having attained a college or graduate education
(Camarota).
As the status of minority groups in the United States continues to change over
time, the Middle Eastern population should certainly not be ignored, as immigrants from
the Middle East continue to play a crucial role in American society and will surely
continue to do so in the future. The high levels of Middle Eastern education and income,
paired with the low levels of Middle Eastern unemployment, have cemented the role of
the Middle Eastern immigrant in the American economy, and the socioeconomic status of
Middle Easterners in the United States will gradually become more entrenched in
American culture.
http://cis.org/MiddleEasternImmigrantsProfile
http://cis.org/MiddleEasternImmigrantsProfile
Works Cited
Camarota, Steven A. "Immigrants from the Middle East." Center for Immigration Studies,
Aug. 2002. Web. 28 Feb. 2015.
"Demographics.” Arab American Institute, 2015. Web. 28 Feb. 2015.
Smith, Raymond A. “A Study of Socioeconomic Status of Arab Americans.” Columbia
University Academic Commons. Columbia University, 2010.
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Relevant Websites
http://www.cis.org
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http://www.aaiusa.org
http://www.arabamericanhistory.org