Turkish Americans
Turkish Americans or American Turks are Americans of ethnic Turkish origin. The term "Turkish Americans" can therefore refer to ethnic Turkish immigrants to the United States, as well as their American-born descendants, who originate either from the Ottoman Empire or from post-Ottoman modern nation-states. The majority trace their roots to the Republic of Turkey, however, there are also significant ethnic Turkish communities in the US which descend from the island of Cyprus, the Balkans, North Africa, the Levant and other areas of the former Ottoman Empire. Furthermore, in recent years there has been a significant number of ethnic Turkish people coming to the US from the modern Turkish diaspora, especially from the Turkish Meskhetian diaspora in Eastern Europe and "Euro-Turks" from Central and Western Europe.
History
Ottoman Turkish migration
The earliest known Turkish arrivals in what would become United States arrived in 1586 when Sir Francis Drake brought at least 200 Muslims, identified as Turks and Moors, to the newly established English colony of Roanoke on the coast of present-day North Carolina. Only a short time before reaching Roanoke, Drake's fleet of some thirty ships had liberated these Muslims from Spanish colonial forces in the Caribbean where they had been condemned to hard labor as galley slaves. Historical records indicate that Drake had promised to return the liberated galley slaves, and the English government did ultimately repatriate about 100 of them to the Ottoman realms. The Sumter Turks, who settled in the 18th century, are another community of people who were officially identified as Turkish descent.Significant waves of Turkish immigration to the United States began during the period between 1820 and 1920. About 300,000 people immigrated from the Ottoman Empire to the United States, although only 50,000 of these immigrants were Muslim Turks whilst the rest were mainly Arabs, Armenians, Greeks, Jews and other Muslim groups under the Ottoman rule. Most ethnic Turks feared that they would not be accepted in a Christian country because of their religion and often adopted and registered under a Christian name at the port of entry in order to gain easy access to the United States; moreover, many declared themselves as "Syrians" or "Greeks" or even "Armenians" in order to avoid discrimination. The majority of Turks entered the United States via the ports of Providence, Rhode Island; Portland, Maine; and Ellis Island. French shipping agents, the missionary American college in Harput, French and German schools, and word of mouth from former migrants were major sources of information about the "New World" for those who wished to emigrate.
The largest number of ethnic Turks appear to have entered the United States prior to World War I, roughly between 1900 and 1914, when American immigration policies were quite liberal. Many of these Turks came from Harput, Akçadağ, Antep and Macedonia and embarked for the United States from Beirut, Mersin, İzmir, Trabzon and Salonica. However, the flow of immigration to the United States was interrupted by the Immigration Act of 1917, which limited entries into the United States based on literacy, and by World War I. Nonetheless, a large number of Turks from the Balkan provinces of Albania, Kosovo, Western Thrace, and Bulgaria emigrated and settled in the United States; they were listed as "Albanians", "Bulgarians" and "Serbians" according to their country of origin, even though many of them were ethnically Turkish and identified themselves as such. Furthermore, many immigrant families who were ethnic Albanians, Bulgarians, Greeks, Macedonians or Serbians included children of Turkish origin who lost their parents during ethnic cleansings committed by Bulgaria, Serbia and Greece following the Balkan War of 1912–13. These Turkish children had been sheltered, baptized and adopted, and then used as field laborers; when the adopting families emigrated to the United States they listed these children as family members, although most of these Turkish children still remembered their origin.
Early Turkish migrants were mostly male-dominated economic migrants who were farmers and shepherds from the lower socioeconomic classes; their main concern was to save enough money and return home. The majority of these migrants lived in urban areas and worked in the industrial sector, taking difficult and lower-paying jobs in leather factories, tanneries, the iron and steel sector, and the wire, railroad, and automobile industries, especially in New England, New York, Detroit, and Chicago. The Turkish community generally relied on each other in finding jobs and a place to stay, many staying in boarding houses. There was also cooperation between ethnic Turks and other Ottomans such as the Greeks, Jews, and Armenians, although ethnic conflicts were also common and carried to some parts of the United States, such as in Peabody, Massachusetts, where there was tension between Greeks, Armenians, and Turks.
Unlike the other Ottoman ethnic groups living in the United States, many early Turkish migrants returned to their homeland. The rate of return migration was exceptionally high after the establishment of the Republic of Turkey in 1923. The founder of the Republic, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, sent ships from Turkey, such as "Gülcemal", to the United States to take these men back to Turkey without any charge. Educated Turks were offered jobs in the newly created Republic, while unskilled workers were encouraged to return, as the male population was depleted due to World War I and the Turkish War of Independence. Those who stayed in the United States lived in isolation as they knew little or no English and preferred to live among themselves. However, some of their descendants became assimilated into American culture and today vaguely have a notion of their Turkish ancestry.
Mainland Turkish migration
From World War I to 1965 the number of Turkish immigrants arriving in the United States was quite low, as a result of restrictive immigration laws such as the Immigration Act of 1924. Approximately 100 Turkish immigrants per year entered the United States between 1930 and 1950. However, the number of Turkish immigrants to the United States increased to 2,000 to 3,000 per year after 1965 due to the liberalization of US immigration laws. As of the late 1940s, but especially in the 1960s and 1970s, Turkish immigration to the United States changed its nature from one of unskilled to skilled migration; a wave of professionals such as doctors, engineers, academicians, and graduate students came to the United States. In the 1960s, 10,000 people entered the United States from Turkey, followed by another 13,000 in the 1970s. As opposed to the male-dominated first flows of Ottoman Turkish migrants, these immigrants were highly educated, return migration was minimal, migrants included many young women and accompanying families, and Turkish nationalism and secularism was much more common. The general profile of Turkish men and women immigrating to the United States depicted someone young, college-educated with a good knowledge of English, and with a career in medicine, engineering, or another profession in science or the arts.Since the 1980s, the flow of Turkish immigrants to the United States has included an increasing number of students and professionals as well as migrants who provide unskilled and semi-skilled labor. Thus, in recent years, the highly skilled and educated profile of the Turkish American community has changed with the arrival of unskilled or semi-skilled Turkish labor workers. The unskilled or semi-skilled immigrants usually work in restaurants, gas stations, hair salons, construction sites, and grocery stores, although some of them have obtained American citizenship or green cards and have opened their own ethnic businesses. Some recent immigrants have also arrived via cargo ships and then left them illegally, whilst others overstay their visas. Thus, it is difficult to estimate the number of undocumented Turkish immigrants in the United States who overstay their visas or arrive illegally. Moreover, with the introduction of the Diversity Immigrant Visa more Turkish immigrants, from all socioeconomic and educational backgrounds, have arrived in the United States, with the quota for Turkey being 2,000 per year.
File:Pro-Northern Cyprus in New York 2.jpg|thumb|right|Turkish Cypriot Americans in New York City supporting recognition of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus
Turkish Cypriot migration
The Turkish Cypriots first arrived in the United States between 1820 and 1860 due to religious or political persecution. About 2,000 Turkish Cypriots had arrived in the United States between 1878 and 1923 when the Ottoman Empire handed over the administration of the island of Cyprus to Britain. Turkish Cypriot immigration to the United States continued between the 1960s till 1974 as a result of the Cyprus conflict. According to the 1980 United States census 1,756 people stated Turkish Cypriot ancestry. However, a further 2,067 people of Cypriot ancestry did not specify whether they were of Turkish or Greek Cypriot origin. On 2 October 2012, the first "Turkish Cypriot Day" was celebrated at the US Congress.Turkish Macedonian migration
In 1960, the Macedonian Patriotic Organization reported that a handful of Turkish Macedonians in American "have expressed solidarity with the M.P.O.'s aims, and have made contributions to its financial needs."File:Meskhetian Turks in front of White House.jpg|thumb|right|Meskhetian Turks protesting outside the White House in Washington, D.C.