First titled “Immigrants in America”, this post was a video exploration of the stories of Syrian Americans during the 20th century. In first history course during my first year, I wrote about migration from Syria across the Atlantic ocean, but not what life was like when they arrived. These videos help to contextualize that work, and tell the next story.
Syrian American Immigration
In this three-part video series by Al Jazeera, beginning with “The Lost Syrian Neighborhood in Boston,” which details the Syrian community in Massachusetts, and ending with “A Syrian Refugee Story,” the narrative of Syrian migration takes shape.
In late nineteenth and early twentieth century sources, Arab Americans and Syrians are largely omitted from news coverage, usually Orientalized and generalized. For example, the migrants were written about in “unabashed racism” by journalists and even the U.S. federal government and so it is difficult itself to find the facts in the stories. (Shakir) In contrast, these videos counter that narrative by showing three individual histories in a modern film format.
