Angela Batuure
Issue Brief
Race and Ethnicity in American Politics
April 17th 2015
Middle Eastern Americans and Public Health
Description: Despite the fact Middle-Eastern Americans are continually the focus of news and media outlets post 9/11, there is very little research on how Public Health affects Middle-Eastern Americans. There are few studies with not enough significant evidence to make conducive reports that prove a significant difference between Middle Eastern American public health compared to the public health of the United States.
Key Words: Middle Eastern American, Arab American, Public Health, Racism, Discrimination, Prejudice, Stress, Study, Hatred, September 11th.
Key Points:
•Many Middle Eastern health concerns are linked to their practice of Islamic religion which has many dietary restrictions.
•Middle Eastern Americans tend to be relatively wealthier than their white counterparts
•Middle Eastern Americans tended to be less healthy than their white counterparts.
•While the Muslim religion does not pertain to race, the line between race and religion is often blurred.
•Only a decade after 9/11 are we beginning to see the results of the fallout of public health in the Middle Eastern American bloc. Racial discrimination and social marginalization have an adverse effect on people’s health
•There is very little conducive research to make firm claims about Middle Eastern Americans and Public Health.
•While the Muslim religion does not pertain to race, the line between race and religion is often blurred.
Relevant Websites
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Issue Brief:
According to the United States census, Middle Eastern Americans are classified as those from West Asia who are from 22 countries in the Middle East including: Turkey, Afghanistan, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Cyprus, Georgia, Iran and Israel. The majority of Middle
Eastern Americans reside in California with nearly half a million Middle Eastern Americans. Middle Eastern Americans make up roughly 4% of the United States’ population. Yet, they are one of the fastest growing populations in the United States. [1]
Because of their relatively recent immigration to America, health indicators among Middle Eastern Americans are different from those of the general population. This could also be attributed to the fact that many Middle Eastern Americans share a culture influenced by Islamic behavior religions that may affect their health.
Despite the fact that as a minority population, Middle Eastern Americans are, on the whole, better educated, more affluent and more likely to own businesses compared to the general United States population, primarily due to cultural practices, Middle Eastern Americans tend to be less healthy than other Americans in similar educational and financial demographics. For example, Middle Eastern Americans have a 36% greater chance of getting liver cancer, a 44% greater chance of getting thyroid cancer and a 28% greater chance of getting brain cancer. [2]
It would be impossible to discuss the health of Middle Eastern Americans without discussing the impact of September 11th on the mental health of these individuals. Since
2001, hate crimes towards Arab Americans have risen 1,700%.[3] While the Muslim religion does not pertain to race, the line between religion and race is often blurred. Racial discrimination and social marginalization have an adverse effect on people’s health.[4] There seems to be a generalization that all Arab Americans are similar to the terrorist of 9/11. Because of this, it would be expected, perhaps, that Middle Eastern Americans are more prone to stress due to racial discriminations. However, studies and research have shown that this is not the case. There has been unconducive evidence to suggest that there is any link between Middle Eastern Americans and an increase in stress/ mental health related health issues post 9/11.[5] This could perhaps suggest that prejudice towards manifest themselves in specific social context where prejudice are more likely to be expressed. For example, Middle
Eastern Americans who wear turbans might be more prone to racial discrimination than
Middle Eastern Americans who do not.
While there is no direct link between the general Middle Eastern American population and stress, there is an interesting link between Middle Eastern American women and post 9/11 childbirth. After September 11th, Middle Eastern Women had increased amounts of stress during pregnancy. This information is tracked by the noticeable increase in birth weight (often used to track stress during pregnancy) of newborns from Middle Eastern mothers, six months after the September 11th attacks compared to the birth weights of non-Middle Eastern Women 6 months after September 11th.[6] There is however no evidence for what explicitly causes the increase of stress for Middle Eastern women during pregnancy.
Further, attempting to identify the specific reason for the increase in stress is near impossible since so many factors during childbirth can cause an elevation in stress levels.
Perhaps the largest difference between Middle Eastern Americans and other ethnoracial blocs is seen in the differing perspectives on domestic abuse. Almost 58% of women and 59% of men believe a man is allowed to slap his wife if she hits him during an argument. 48% of women said a man may slap his wife if she is unfaithful whereas only 23% of men agreed with this sentiment. On a more extreme scale, 18% of women believed that a man had the right to kill his wife if she was unfaithful. [7] This can be attributed to strong cultural and religious beliefs about fidelity.
On the whole, there is very little information about the public health of Middle Easterners. A comprehensive search done in 2009 only yielded 34 studies ever done analyzing the intersection between Middle Eastern Americans and public health. In about half of the studies found, the information in one study produced evidence that countered the information found in another study. [8] Another limitation to studying public health in the Middle Eastern demographic is that, 76% of the surveys on Middle Eastern Americans and public health occurred in southeast Michigan due to its high density of Middle Eastern Americans. These factors in combination argue that most studies done on Middle Eastern health are not substantive and one must be cautious to draw any firm assumptions or conclusions from this evidence. Any and all study results cannot be seen as conclusive since there are so few of them. Until there is more of a focus on the health of Middle Eastern
Americans there are few concrete conclusions to be made from the data presented.
Figure 1.1
Middle Eastern Americans gathering in solidarity
Figure 1.2
Chart Showing the link between Social Discrimination and adverse health effects
Figure 1.3
Middle Eastern American girl showing how she identifies as both Middle Eastern and American
Figure 1.4
Discrimination Muslim Americans face in the United States
Figures Cited
- Figure 1.1 - “Health of Muslims.”Getty Images. Web. 11 Apr. 2015.
- Figure 1.2 - “Arab American Discrimination on the Rise Ever Since 9/11 – Global Health Middle East. 18 August 2014. Web. 10 Apr. 2015.
- Figure 1.3 - “Voice of America .” Madness Realty. Web. 17 Apr. 2015.
- Figure 1.4 “Lofty Ideas Mask Discomfort Towards Muslims” Brookings 6 September 2011. Web. 12 April 2015
Works Cited
1.El-Sayed, Abdulrahman M, and Sandro Galea. "The Health Of Arab-Americans Living In The United States: A Systematic Review Of The Literature." BMC Public Health, 2009, 272.
2.Thomas Gryn; Christine Gambino (October 2012)."The Foreign Born From Asia:2011". U.S. Census Bureau. Retrieved 26 February 2015.
3.Sriram, Shyam. "Whitewashed: Americas Invisible Middle Eastern Identity." PopMatters. Accessed March 1, 2015.
4.Khan, Mussarat, and Kathryn Ecklund. "Journal of Muslim Mental Health." Attitudes Toward Muslim Americans Post-9/11. 2012. Accessed April 11, 2015.
5.El-Sayed, Abdul, and Aasim I. Padela. "Health of Muslims, Arab Americans Another Victim of 9/11." Global Public Square RSS. September 11, 2012. Accessed April 21, 2015.
Batuure 1
[1]Thomas Gryn; Christine Gambino (October 2012)."The Foreign Born From Asia: 2011". U.S. Census Bureau. Retrieved 26 February 2015.
[2]El-Sayed, Abdulrahman M, and Sandro Galea. "The Health Of Arab-Americans Living In The United
States: A Systematic Review Of The Literature." BMC Public Health, 2009, 272.
[3] Khan, Mussarat, and Kathryn Ecklund. "Journal of Muslim Mental Health." Attitudes Toward Muslim Americans Post-9/11. 2012. Accessed April 11, 2015.
[4] El-Sayed, Abdul, and Aasim I. Padela. "Health of Muslims, Arab Americans Another Victim of 9/11." Global Public Square RSS. September 11, 2012. Accessed April 21, 2015.
[5] Khan, Mussarat, and Kathryn Ecklund. "Journal of Muslim Mental Health." Attitudes Toward Muslim Americans Post-9/11. 2012. Accessed April 11, 2015.
[6]Ibid.
[7]ibid
[8]ibid.