Arab American refugees

Abstract

This research proposal is intended to gain permission for research to be conducted on the Arab American refugees. The basic propose of this research will be to extend the already existing research on acculturation of the Arab American refugees. This research will attempt to be new in the sense that it will explore the aspects of different types of stereotypes against the Arab American refugees, and the decrease or increase in the intensity of these serotypes on account of the recent political developments like the 9/11 attacks, the Iraq invasion, the PATRIOTS Act and the Palestinian conflict, while drawing on the theory of acculturation. Another aspect of the Arab American refugees that has been ignored in the past during various researches is the impact that the low level of acculturation has on the mental health of the Arab American refugees. Discrimination, bias and stereotypes result in feelings of being rejected, isolation, anxiety, fear and depression, These need to be studied in details so as to come up with a possible solution that would be aimed at providing the Arab American refugees ways of avoiding these mental health problems. Studying these aspects is necessitated because it is not merely the level of acculturation that is lessened on account of the different stereotypes, but also because, these stereotypes go on to affect the mental health of the Arab American refugees. The research will base its research mainly on the three questions that have been discussed in the introduction.

Arab American refugees

CHAPTER 01: INTRODUCTION

BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY

There are a large number of Arab refugees living in the United States of America (World Bank, 2012). Their integration into the American society has been hindered due to several reasons of which the main significant ones are the bias, prejudice, stereotypes and discriminatory attitude present towards the Arab refugees (Suleiman, 2007). What makes this situation more deplorable is that along with these stated factors that lessen the level of acculturation for the Arab refugees, what we have in America is that prejudice towards the Arab refugees is more tolerated than it is towards other ethnic groups (Suleiman, 2007). The reasons for this increased tolerance include the widespread perception about those refugees as being terrorists, opponents of women rights and other biases.

The idea of acculturation was envisaged in the fields of sociology and anthropology. This occurred in the early twentieth century (Park & Burgess, 1921). It has been employed to render an explanation for the dynamics that become involved when individuals having diverse cultural backgrounds come in constant contact with each other. Over the past many decades, after this theory came to light, the theories surrounding acculturation have been evolving from the original school of thought, and more emphasis is being laid on assimilation and interactive perspectives (Castro, 2003; Chun, Organist & Marin, 2003).

These theories are an important tool in examining the role of Arab refugees in the American society, and how difficult it has been for these immigrants to integrate and assimilate into the ...