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{{disputed|date=August 2011}}
{{Infobox Ethnic group
|group = Azerbaijani Americans {{flagicon|United States}}
|group = Azerbaijani Americans {{flagicon|United States}}
|image =
|image =

Revision as of 12:20, 27 September 2011

|group = Azerbaijani Americans United States |image = |caption = |popplace = State of New York, New Jersey, California, Texas, Maryland, Virginia, Illinois, Florida, Massachusetts, Washington DC, Arizona, New Mexico, Michigan, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, Ohio, North Carolina, Wisconsin, Nevada, North Dakota, Tennessee, Georgia, Minnesota and other[1] |poptime = 14,205[2] (Census 2000), 24,377 (Census 2000 + naturalization since 2001) and 400,000 (non-census estimate)[3] |langs = American English, Azerbaijani, Russian, Persian, Turkish |rels = Predominately Muslim |related = |image = Lotfi ZadehRustam Ibragimbekov
|caption = Lotfi Zadeh • Rustam Ibragimbekov
Ali Javan • Sona Babai
}}

Azerbaijani Americans (Azerbaijani: Amerikalı azərbaycanlılar), or Azeri-Americans, are U.S. citizens and permanent residents of ethnic Azerbaijani background, or those who were born in Azerbaijan. Most Azerbaijani-Americans have immigrated to the United States from the Republic of Azerbaijan, Iran,[4][5][6] Russia or Turkey.

History

The earliest identified immigrant from Azerbaijan to the United States was a Russian Jew Merza Ali Akbar, resident of Baku who arrived at Ellis Island on the RMS Mauretania in June 1912.[7]

The first major wave of Azerbaijanis came to the U.S. in 1940s and 1950s, as many Azerbaijani émigrés and POWs left parts of Europe during and after World War II. Among those were also a number of expatriates, who fled to Turkey, Iran or parts of Europe upon the Soviet occupation of Azerbaijan in 1920, and in 1950s and 1960s, moved to the United States in pursuit of economic opportunities. This wave of Azerbaijani immigrants settled mainly in New York City and vicinities, which hosts the largest population of Azerbaijani-Americans, in Northern New Jersey and Massachusetts; and later in Florida, Texas and California, especially in Los Angeles area. In 1957, a group of these Azerbaijani settlers in New Jersey founded the Azerbaijan Society of America, a first Azerbaijani-American community organization.[8][9] By 1980 there were around 200 families that identified themselves as Azerbaijani in the United States, with about 80% of them being endogamic.[8] In 1976, Houston and Baku established the first sister-city association between the cities in the U.S. and Azerbaijan. It was followed with a sister city between Honolulu, Hawaii and Baku in 1988[10], Newark, New Jersey and Ganja (second largest city in Azerbaijan) in the early 2000's, and Monterey, California and Lankaran in 2011.[11]

Demographics

Year U.S. Citizens
2001 946
2002 1,187
2003 886 [12]
2004 793 [13]
2005 904 [14]
2006 997 [15]
2007 606 [16]
2008 834 [17]
2009 1,005 [18]
2010 1,233 [19]

According to the 2000 U.S. census, there were an estimated 14,205 Americans born in the Republic of Azerbaijan,[2] out of which 5,530 were naturalized U.S. Citizens[2] and 5,553 identified themselves as Azerbaijani in a primary or a secondary ancestry.[20] Census 2000 did not count Azerbaijani-Americans born in countries other than the Republic of Azerbaijan.

According to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), in 2001-2010, a total of 9,391 people from the Republic of Azerbaijan were naturalized as U.S. citizens. The table to the right presents the distribution for each year between 2001 and 2010.

These statistics do not include the legal permanent residents (green card holders) who numbered 781 in 2010,[21] refugees, legal non-immigrant aliens (temporary visitors) who numbered 4,938 in 2009, as well as a very large number of ethnic Azerbaijanis born in other countries, such as Iran, Russia, and Turkey. Thus, based only on Census 2000 and DHS data, the official estimate of the U.S. citizens born in the Republic of Azerbaijan is approximately 14,944, and the number of U.S. residents born in Azerbaijan is approximately 24,377, minus the natural decline.

According to the US Census 2000 data, the Azerbaijanis who immigrated from Azerbaijan have settled primarily in New York (12,540), New Jersey (4,357), Texas (3,178), California (2,743), and Minnesota (1,559).

Socio-political Activity

The first mention of the nascent Azerbaijani-Americans in the U.S. political life appears in the 1990 issue of The Economist.[22] By the late 1990s, the Azerbaijani-Americans became more active in the American sociopolitical life, including the U.S. Congress,[23] mainly advocating Azerbaijani interests in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.[24] By 2002, the Azerbaijani-Americans became active enough to be mentioned in the speeches in the U.S. Congress.[25] In 2004, a group of Congressmen founded the Congressional Azerbaijan Caucus in the U.S. House of Representatives.[26] By 2011, the Azerbaijani-Americans have been honored in several U.S. legislative bills and resolutions.[27]

Azerbaijani-themed parks, streets and monuments

The Azerbaijan Garden, a park, was dedicated on May 12, 2008, in Cleveland, Ohio. Khanlar Gasimov's sculpture, "Hearth," stands at the center of the Garden. Made of polished stainless steel, the bowl-shaped sculpture allows viewers to see the reflection of the earth and sky in its exterior and interior curves. [28] The Azerbaijani Garden is part of the Cleveland Cultural Gardens, which was opened in 1916, along Doan Brook in Cleveland’s Rockefeller Park. The opening of the garden was celebrated by Congressman Dennis Kucinich.[29]

TV, radio, media and newspapers

  • GunAz TV (TV broadcast from Chicago via satellite and Internet, in Azerbaijani only)
  • Voice of Karabakh (radio on WUST 1120AM in Baltimore and Washington DC and via Internet, in Azerbaijani and English)
  • Azerbaijan International (Los Angeles based quarterly magazine published since 1993, in English)
  • Azerbaijan Review (monthly newspaper published in New York since 2007, in Azerbaijani, Russian and English)
  • Caspian Crossroads (Washington D.C.-based quarterly journal published since 1996, in English)

Prominent Azerbaijani-Americans

Sciences

Arts

Military and defense

Business and politics

Sports

  • Emil and Rufat ("Baku Brothers")[36][37]

Other

  • Sona Babai - fourth oldest person in the American history to ever naturalize[38]

See also

References

  1. ^ List of proclamations received from mayors and governors around U.S. by Azerbaijani-Americans
  2. ^ a b c "Table FBP-1. Profile of Selected Demographic and Social Characteristics" (PDF). Census 2000 Special Tabulations (STP-159). U.S. Census Bureau. Retrieved 2011-09-07.
  3. ^ Margaret Kaeter. The Caucasian Republics. Infobase Publishing, 2004; ISBN 0816052689; p. 74
  4. ^ Touraj Atabaki, Sanjyot Mehendale. Central Asia and the Caucasus: transnationalism and diaspora, Psychology Press, 2005, p. 102
  5. ^ Shirin Hakimzadeh, Iran: A Vast Diaspora Abroad and Millions of Refugees at Home, Migration Policy Institute, September 2006 (Retrieved 2011-06-23.)
  6. ^ James S. Kessler, Iranians, The Encyclopedia of Chicago, 2004 (Retrieved 2011-06-23.)
  7. ^ Ellis Island Immigration Station (Jun 7, 1912). "Passenger Record: Merza Ali Akbar". The Statue of Liberty-Ellis Island Foundation, Inc. Retrieved 2011-09-07.
  8. ^ a b Thernstrom, Stephan (1980). Harvard Encyclopedia of American Ethnic Groups. Harvard University Press. p. 171. ISBN 0674375122. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
  9. ^ Pope, Hugh (2005). Sons of the conquerors: The rise of the Turkic world. Overlook Duckworth. p. 371. ISBN 9781585676415. {{cite book}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
  10. ^ Honolulu, Hawaii and Baku - Sister Cities
  11. ^ City of Monterey, California and Lankaran, Azerbaijan establish Sister City relations
  12. ^ U.S. Department of Homeland Security, Naturalized U.S. citizens from Azerbaijan in 2003
  13. ^ U.S. Department of Homeland Security, Naturalized U.S. citizens from Azerbaijan in 2004
  14. ^ U.S. Department of Homeland Security, Naturalized U.S. citizens from Azerbaijan in 2005
  15. ^ U.S. Department of Homeland Security, Naturalized U.S. citizens from Azerbaijan in 2006
  16. ^ U.S. Department of Homeland Security, Naturalized U.S. citizens from Azerbaijan in 2007
  17. ^ U.S. Department of Homeland Security, Naturalized U.S. citizens from Azerbaijan in 2008
  18. ^ U.S. Department of Homeland Security, Naturalized U.S. citizens from Azerbaijan in 2009
  19. ^ U.S. Department of Homeland Security, Naturalized U.S. citizens from Azerbaijan in 2010
  20. ^ "Table 1. First, Second, and Total Responses to the Ancestry Question". Census 2000 PHC-T-43. U.S. Census Bureau. Retrieved 2011-09-07.
  21. ^ U.S. Department of Homeland Security, Legal Permanent Residents from Azerbaijan in 2010
  22. ^ The Economist, Volume 314, Issues 7635-7648, p. 27: "One answer, impossible for the administration to state openly, is that while Azeri- Americans may be thin on the ground, Lithuanian-Americans are not, and know how to lobby Congress."
  23. ^ Cheney, Richard B. (1999). "Defending Liberty in a Global Economy". In Singleton, Solveig; Griswold, Daniel T. (eds.). Economic casualties: how U.S. foreign policy undermines trade, growth, and liberty. Washington, D.C.: CATO Institute. p. 24. ISBN 9781882577743. {{cite book}}: |first2= missing |last2= (help); Cite has empty unknown parameters: |laydate=, |coauthors=, |separator=, |laysummary=, |trans_title=, |month=, |trans_chapter=, and |lastauthoramp= (help); External link in |chapterurl= (help); Unknown parameter |chapterurl= ignored (|chapter-url= suggested) (help)
  24. ^ Perlmutter, Philip (1996). The dynamics of American ethnic, religious, and racial group life: an interdisciplinary overview. Greenwood Publishing Group. p. 66. ISBN 9780275955335. {{cite book}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
  25. ^ Foreign operations, export financing, and related programs appropriations for 2003: hearings before a subcommittee of the Committee on Appropriations, House of Representatives, One Hundred Seventh Congress, second session, Volume 4, U.S. G.P.O., 2002
  26. ^ Boren, Dan (May 26, 2011). "Honoring the Republic of Azerbaijan on its 93rd anniversary of "Republic Day": Statement by Hon. Dan Boren of Oklahoma". Congressional Record, Extension of Remarks. U.S. Government Printing Office. p. E973. {{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameters: |month= and |coauthors= (help)
  27. ^ JOINT RESOLUTION HONORING THE AZERBAIJAN COMMUNITY OF MAINE, SP0512, LR 2187, Item 1, First Regular Session - 125th Maine Legislature, May 28, 2011
  28. ^ Cleveland Cultural Gardens, accessed September 2011
  29. ^ [http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/CREC-2008-05-07/pdf/CREC-2008-05-07-pt1-PgE843-2.pdf IN HONOR OF THE AZERBAIJANI CULTURAL GARDEN, HON. DENNIS J. KUCINICH OF OHIO IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, Wednesday, May 7, 2008]
  30. ^ Family website of U.S. Marine Mourad Ragimov
  31. ^ Los Angeles Times: California's War Dead: Mourad Ragimov, 20
  32. ^ Marine Lance Cpl. Mourad Ragimov
  33. ^ Fallen Heroes of Operation Iraqi Freedom
  34. ^ Steve LeVine, The oil and the glory: the pursuit of empire and fortune on the Caspian Sea, Random House Digital, Inc., 2007, p. 136
  35. ^ Steve LeVine, The oil and the glory: the pursuit of empire and fortune on the Caspian Sea, Random House Digital, Inc., 2007, p. 136
  36. ^ [http://articles.baltimoresun.com/1997-08-08/sports/1997220134_1_kos-emil-rufat Lem Satterfield, Emil Baku wins by knockout Rufat earns majority draw, The Baltimore Sun, August 08, 1997]
  37. ^ Alan Goldstein, Baku brothers are ringing up attention from near and afar Native Azerbaijanis win notice of head of state, The Baltimore Sun, August 07, 1997
  38. ^ Teresa Watanabe, 105-year-old realizes dream of citizenship, Los Angeles Times, October 26, 2006
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