Armenian immigration to the United States 1830 to 1975

Includes bibliographical references (pages 126-134)This study begins with the arrival of young Armenian male students of American Protestant missionaries from the eastern provinces of the Ottoman Empire, who attended universities on the East Coast in the early nineteenth century, and continues through a discussion of the generation of post 1915 Armenian Genocide immigrants who arrived in the United States prior to 1975. Many of these children and grandchildren of survivors were two or three-step migrants whose experiences whose repeated migration facilitated their adaptation to a new language, customs, and surroundings by the time of their immigration to the United States.\ud Armenians first established communities in multi-ethnic, working class neighborhoods in East Coast industrial cities including Worcester, Massachusetts,\ud viii\ud Syracuse, New York, and Providence, Rhode Island, and some later moved to work in factories in Racine, Wisconsin and Detroit, Michigan, but many eventually migrated to Fresno, California, where an Armenian community formed in the first decades of the twentieth century. The next generation of Armenian Americans moved from Fresno to San Francisco to obtain an education or work at the variety of jobs available in the city. Ultimately, Armenians in California outnumbered their predecessors on the East Coast, and Los Angeles became the home of most Armenians in California.\ud Regardless of geographic location, Armenians contributed to their communities as Americans, while retaining many of their cultural traditions. This complex balancing of identities was shaped by their experiences with discrimination and exclusion, which at the same time created opportunities for inclusion in other spheres, such as business and education. Their common Christianity with most white Americans, their familiarity with American culture due to the presence of American Protestant missionaries, and their exposure to American relief workers after the Genocide also provided incentive for Armenians to immigrate to the United States. This study seeks to contribute to the understanding of the history of Armenian immigrants in the United States, the communities they established, and how they helped shape its diverse landscape