Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

‘We’Re Just Like The Irish’: Narratives Of Assimilation, Belonging, And Citizenship Among Arab American Activists, Caroline Nagel, Lynn Staeheli

Caroline R. Nagel

This paper examines narratives of assimilation and belonging as activists attempt to position Arab-Americans as citizens and full members of the American polity. In interviews with activists, the experience of the Irish as immigrants and citizens was often invoked as the paradigmatic example of how immigrants are incorporated as citizens—an example that activists promoted as one that Arabs would follow. By invoking the Irish experience, activists hope to remind Americans that immigration history is not one of effortless assimilation, but is rather characterized by systematic exclusion and marginalization. In so doing, they articulate narratives of assimilation and belonging that draw …