Here since the 1880s, concentrated in New York, Detroit and Los Angeles, and assimilated to the point of near invisibility.
Syrians have been in the United States since the 1880s, which makes this one of the oldest Arab communities in the country and one of the most thoroughly assimilated. Around 200,000 Americans report Syrian descent, though like all such figures it depends entirely on what is counted.
Four generations in, the connection is carried in family names, food and faith rather than in language.
They came from Ottoman Greater Syria from the 1880s, mostly Christians, and were registered on arrival as Turks or Syrians regardless of where exactly they were from. New York’s Washington Street became the first Little Syria. Many began as peddlers, moved into dry goods and textiles, and were middle class within a generation.
Detroit drew the largest later concentration, and the Detroit and Dearborn area remains the centre of Arab American life. Los Angeles, Boston and New Jersey hold other long-established communities.
A professional wave followed in the 1960s and 1970s: doctors, engineers and academics, some leaving for political reasons. Abdulfattah Jandali, who left Homs to study and became the biological father of Steve Jobs, belongs to that generation.
Arrivals after 2011 were far smaller than in Europe. The United States admitted comparatively few Syrian refugees, and admissions were curtailed further from 2017, so the post-war American community is modest relative to the German or Swedish one.
Four or five generations in, most Syrian Americans do not speak Arabic, and the connection is carried in family names, food and church or mosque rather than language. There is also a significant Syrian Jewish community, concentrated in Brooklyn, with origins in Aleppo and Damascus, which has retained its distinct identity unusually strongly.
Three distinct arrivals, a century apart, with very little in common beyond the country they came from.
Mostly Christians from Ottoman Greater Syria, beginning as peddlers and moving into dry goods and textiles. Middle class within a generation, and largely English-speaking by the second.
Washington Street in lower Manhattan was the first centre of Arab American life, with newspapers, churches and shops, before redevelopment scattered it.
The industrial economy drew later arrivals, and the area remains the densest Arab American community in the country.
Doctors, engineers and academics in the 1960s and 1970s, some leaving for politics. Abdulfattah Jandali, Steve Jobs's biological father, left Homs to study in this period.
A community with roots in Aleppo and Damascus that has kept its identity, institutions and customs unusually intact across more than a century.
The United States admitted far fewer Syrian refugees than Europe, and admissions were curtailed from 2017, so the newest community here is modest by comparison.