Census change will lead to more data on health of Middle Eastern, North African people in US

Inclusion would “give a better picture of who these communities are and what their needs might be,” Stiffler said.

Population counts

So far, federal population counts of MENA communities have been estimates. For the first time, the 2020 census offered a write-in option so respondents could mark their race and ethnicity as “white” but write in their ancestry. About 3.5 million people wrote in MENA countries of origin, with Lebanese, Iranians and Egyptians making up nearly half of them.

California, Michigan and New York had the largest MENA populations, with more than 300,000 residents combined. Those states were trailed by Texas, Florida, Illinois and New Jersey. Prior to the 2020 write-ins, the American Community Survey, an ongoing survey by the U.S. Census Bureau, provided limited estimates.

According to the Migration Policy Institute, a think tank that analyzes immigration policy, the 1920 census reported around 50,000 people from the MENA region. In the years since, a steady flow of Palestinians, Egyptians, Iraqis, Syrians and others have immigrated to the U.S., some after the 1948 Arab-Israeli War, and many more after the U.S. loosened its restrictive immigration policies in 1965. By 1980, the MENA population in the U.S. had risen to about 224,000.

Last August, Illinois became the first state to enact a law mandating all state agencies that collect race and ethnicity data include a MENA category. Lawmakers in California and Michigan are considering similar bills.

“We should incorporate this at all levels, whether in our health system data or educational systems, like on university levels,” said Sarah Abboud, an assistant professor at the University of Illinois Chicago who studies health outcomes among Arab immigrants.

Some critics argue that the census should move away from categorizing people by race, instead of adding new racial categories. They point to the Human Genome Project, which found that humans share 99.9% of their DNA. Race, some argue, is a social construct, a relic of the 18th century.

But public health experts have demonstrated that racism affects people’s health, and Abboud said that Arab Americans experience worse health outcomes because of it. Additionally, immigrants displaced by war, such as Palestinian and Syrian refugees and their children, may have unique stressors around trauma.

Shalabi, of Arab American Family Services in Chicago, said inclusion of MENA in data is long overdue.

“We’re so excited because it’s about time that our community was identified, was visible, and in a way that really works toward their betterment of health and … being part of the American fabric,” she said.