Syrian Americans are
Americans of
Syrian descent or background. Syrian Americans may be members of a number of differing ethnicities, including
Arabs,
Armenians,
Arameans,
Assyrians,
Syrian Jews,
Kurds,
Syrian Turkmens and
Circassians. It is believed that the first significant wave of Syrian immigrants to arrive in the United States was in 1880. Many of the earliest Syrian Americans settled in
New York City,
Boston, and
Detroit. Immigration from Syria to the United States suffered a long hiatus after the
United States Congress passed the
Immigration Act of 1924, which restricted immigration. More than 40 years later, the
Immigration Act of 1965, abolished the quotas and immigration from Syria to the United States saw a surge. An estimated 64,600 Syrians emigrated to the United States between 1961 and 2000.