| Dearborn Michigan is perhaps the most notable Arab American community in the United States. This dissertation examines how Arab Americans in Dearborn have altered landscapes to suit their needs and tastes. Using qualitative approaches to landscape observation and participant engagement, I have explored the Dearborn community and neighborhood, focusing on the visual built environment to identify alterations to the landscape affected by Arab Americans. Informants also offered varied perceptions of the neighborhood's ongoing redevelopment and Dearborn's symbolic position as an Arab American enclave. In the context of Dearborn's ethnic enclave and two of its major Arab American Organizations, the Arab Community Center for Economic and Social Services (ACCESS) and the Arab American National Museum (AANM), I discuss the development of Arab American identities. The relationship between the various subgroups in the Arab American community is complex, and Dearborn is not perceived as an ingroup enclave by all Arab American groups. It appears that the sense of pan-Arabism fostered by major organizations has yet to become salient among the majority of Arab Americans. There is, however, a growing level of comfort for Arabs, non-Arab Muslims, and other Middle Easterners within the Dearborn neighborhood and the surrounding area. Dearborn offers an inviting setting for visitors and students who wish to practice traditional culture without drawing notice. |
