(Herbst 1997) There are an estimated 100,000 to 300,000 Arabs and Chaldeans (a Christian ethnic group from Iraq) in southeast Michigan. Virtually all nationalities and ethnicities from the Middle East are represented — Lebanese, Yemenis, Syrians, Palestinians, Egyptians, and since the Gulf War, an increasing number of Iraqis. There has been a steady stream of immigrants to the Detroit area for over a hundred years, and each wave of arrivals adds another layer to the rich history of this heterogeneous community. Arab immigrants hope Dearborn will offer chances of finding work. They also look to Dearborn for the social networks, mosques and churches where they may pray in a familiar manner, stores where they may buy the clothes they prefer and the foods they grew up with: in sum, a cultural milieu that dulls the edges of the experience of dislocation and adjustment.

Traditionally, however, this concentration of Arabs in southeast Michigan has not translated into either political power or a cohesive social community. Here I will focus on the organization ACCESS and its efforts to provide a structure in which the Arab population in Dearborn can find solidarity and economic security amid the challenges of immigration. ACCESS offers an entree to the story of Arab American political and community organizing.