Newly assertive Arab Americans could swing US presidential vote

Support from their sizeable populations in keenly fought states can be key

- Bhagyashree Garekar

At first glance, Dearborn looks like any city in the Midwest. It is laid out with a main street converging onto a stretch of shopfronts, dusty with age but still at the centre of social life.

The roads may be potholed, but the landscape is open and, at this time of the year, verdant with evergreen trees.

However, look closer and the universe of the Arab American opens up. The names of the businesses grocery stores, butcheries, restaurants and hair salons are written in flowing Arabic calligraphy.

Instead of Bob's Bakes, there is AI Nour Bakery. Instead of H&R Block, there is Alabasi, which advertises its tax and accounting services. Another offers English lessons in a city where the sounds of Arabic can be heard at street corners and the local Arab American News produces weekly magazines in both languages.

Posters put up on glass shopfronts proclaim that the Palestinian struggle for liberation is under way.

In 2023, Dearborn became the largest US city with an Arab majority, with 55 per cent of its population of 110,000 having roots in the Middle East or North Africa.

Its mayor is Arab American, as is the police chief. In 2018, it made history by electing Ms Rashida Tlaib as the first Palestinian American woman to the House of Representatives.

It wasn't always this way.

Immigrants from the Middle East, who began arriving in streams in the 1800s, faced years of bias and marginalisation.

As recently as four decades ago, a mayor in Dearborn ran on the promise to address the "Arab problem", describing them as immigrants who did not "share our values and were ruining our darn good way of life".

Today, the Arab American population, and its food, culture and politics, dominate Dearborn.

So much so that in February 2024, the Wall Street Journal controversially called it America's "jihad capital" in a commentary.

Only two other cities match Dearborn's Arab American twist.