Turkish Americans

Turkish Americans are one of the growing group of immigrants in the United States, with an estimated almost half a million Americans identifying [Page 2095]themselves as being of Turkish descent. Although the Turkish American population in the United States is relatively small, it is becoming significant part of the American tapestry, and its members take great pride in both their American identity and their Turkish heritage and traditions.

Despite the growing visibility of Turkish people in North America, in fields from arts to science, the population remains largely unknown and undocumented. The actual number of Turks in North America is estimated to be larger than the official statistics. There are 117,575 Americans who claimed Turkish ancestry according to the 2000 Census. In addition to Turkish people from Turkey, a number of ethnic Turks from the Balkans, Bulgaria, Cyprus, and the former Soviet Union have migrated to the United States. The largest populations of Turkish Americans are in New York City and Rochester, New York; Paterson, New Jersey; Washington, D.C.; and Detroit, Michigan.

Turkish migration to the United States took place in three phases: 1820 to 1921, 1950 to 1970, and post-1970s. The motives behind each phase are complex, and each reflects the history of the Ottoman Empire, the sociopolitical evolution of Turkey, and the search for a better life. As the Ottoman Empire started declining during the 18th and 19th centuries and lost Greece, North Africa, Romania, Bulgaria, and the Middle East, early Turkish immigrants began to emigrate from the Ottoman Empire to North America in significant numbers around 1900.

Turkish immigrants to the United States were predominantly from rural communities in Turkey. They settled in large, industrial cities and found employment as unskilled laborers. Approximately 20,000 immigrated during this period, more than 90 percent of these immigrants being men. Muslim Turks were about 5 percent of the total emigration in this phase. Many returned to Turkey to participate in the Turkish War of Independence in the 1920s, and others returned when the Republic of Turkey was established in 1923. It has been estimated that 80 percent of Turkish immigrants to the United States between 1899 and 1924 returned. In this phase, most immigrants were ethnic minorities from the Ottoman Empire: the majority of the first-phase migrants were of Greek and Armenian origin; migrants were also Sephardic Jews, Serbs, Bosnians, Bulgarians, Romanians, Ukrainians, Azeri, Georgians, and Arab Christians. They settled the industrial cities of the northeastern and midwestern United States, such as Detroit, Michigan. Because of their common cultural practices, similar cuisine, and use of Turkish language, these immigrants stayed close, keeping strong connections among one another.