Uzbek Americans

Uzbek Americans are Uzbeks that have immigrated to the United States or Uzbek immigrants with green cards mostly received by lottery.

The New York City Metropolitan Area, including Brooklyn and Queens in New York City and Fair Lawn in Bergen County, New Jersey, is home to by far the largest Uzbek population in the United States. Other large Uzbek populations are most centred in Texas. San Antonio and Houston have the largest Uzbek population in Texas, but Dallas and Austin also have a considerable sized population. [3][4][5][6]

Uzbeks in America

Total population
4,000 (Uzbek ancestry or ethnic origin, US census in the year 2000)[1] 62,713 (Uzbek-born, 2014)[2]
Regions with significant populations
New York City Metropolitan Area,[3][4][5][6] New Jersey, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Cleveland, Chicago, San Antonio, Houston, San Francisco, San Jose, Los Angeles
Languages
English Uzbek Tajik Russian Ukrainian
Religion
Islam, Judaism, Orthodox Christianity
Related ethnic groups
Uyghurs, Karakalpaks, and Other Turkic peoples

History

Since the late 1950s, over 1,000 Uzbek families migrated to the United States, according to unofficial data. The first of them came from Europe, but from the mid-1960s they mainly came from Turkey and, to a lesser extent, Saudi Arabia and elsewhere.

According to U.S. Department of State Bureau of Consular Affairs Statistics,[7] 56,028 families has won DV lottery during 1996–2016.

A wave of Uzbek immigrants to the United States settled in the country in the 1980s, because of the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. Since the early 1990s to the present day, most of the Uzbeks who migrate go to the U.S.[8]

Demography

Every year, around 6,000–7,800 Uzbeks win the green card lottery. Thus, more than 20,000 ethnic Uzbeks are citizens of the United States today.[9] The greater percentages of Uzbeks live mainly in New York, San Antonio, Houston, Philadelphia and New Jersey, growing rapidly in populations particularly in the boroughs of Brooklyn and Queens in New York City and in Northern New Jersey. However, smaller pockets of Uzbek Americans can be found in other major American metropolitan areas, such as Chicago, Cleveland, and Pittsburgh. The years of 2012 and 2013 had the largest migration of Uzbeks to the United States in history, much more so than the 1,000–1,800 green card lottery winners that were originally set in place.

Most Uzbek migrants are engaged in business and science, working in various institutions and companies. Part of the Uzbek diaspora is involved in government offices, schools and colleges of the country, as well as in areas like defense, aviation and medicine. Some representatives of the Uzbek diaspora hold senior executive positions in a number of American states. In the United States, according to officials of law enforcement, representatives of the Uzbek diaspora are the most law-abiding and rarely violate the law. Among them are many families of models.[8]

Organizations

As with other ethnic groups in the United States, Uzbek Americans also have several cultural associations. The Central Asian Foundation, established in July 2015, is a non-profit organization that promotes the social welfare of its members by developing and fostering cultural and social awareness and relations between the American and Central Asian communities in the United States.[10]

By other way, from December 13, 1958, Uzbeks of USA formed the "Turkestan -America" Association (ATA) in Philadelphia, which joined the citizens of the former Soviet Turkestan living in United States, taking advantage the growing number of immigrants in the United States of Central Asian origin. Under federal law the U.S. first registered Association in Philadelphia and, later (in 1961), it was recorded in New York.

The " Turkestan -America " Association is a non -profit organization that represents the interests of the community of Central Asia in the U.S. organization and help their integration into American society. Company activities intended to provide assistance and support of the peoples of Central Asia in the United States, through the preservation of cultural and educational organizations and charitable activities of their native language, identity, cultural heritage and national traditions.

In the structure of society has a council homes and offices it comes to issues of women and youth. Comprehensive strengthening and intensifying the relationship between members of society, both within their organizations and with representatives of other U.S. and foreign communities, Turkestan society promotes awareness worldwide about the association " Turkestan America " about the history and culture of the peoples of Central Asia, to foster mutual understanding, trust and friendship between the peoples of Central Asia and America supports and strengthens the links with other similar organizations such as the Federation of American Turkey.

In order to improve their situation and protect the interests of the ATA provides its members a number of privileges and benefits. In particular, the Turkestan Association membership provides access to many resources and programs of society, inclusion on the mailing list of the organization; privileges in the election, the possibility to obtain special discounts on family and personal matters, space guarantees for burial on favorable terms; subscribe to newspapers, the ability to publish news and announcements on the website and ATA.

Currently the company is one of the largest NGOs in the U.S. and is highly respected. The association has a rather narrow and multilateral ties with the U.S. government, is active in the political life of the country. One of the main activities of the ATA was most recently anticommunist propaganda. Members of the public have used all Congress sessions, international conferences, festivals and other events in order to inform the world about the problems of Soviet Turkestan, tried to articulate what the nations of Central Asia are not able to say in conditions of strict censorship and lack of transparency. So they were in charge of the world about Stalin Bans buried without shroud fellow Uzbek people reprisals against Gorbachev.

At the same time, members of the ATA organized rallies and demonstrations outside the UN, wrote memoranda on the release of the Uzbek people . Faced with criticism of the Soviet system and protect the interests of the citizens of CA members of the association were active against the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan.

Besides the above, the Association of Turkestan participated annually in the activities with the "Captive Nations Week". "Captive Nations Week", which refers to Lithuania, Ukraine, Czechoslovakia, Latvia, Estonia, "White Ruthenia" (Belarus), "Idel-Ural" (Volga region), "Cossacks" ("land of the Cossacks "), Turkestan, etc., which is held annually in the U.S. in the third week of July, according to Act of Congress "captive nations", № 86-90, adopted in 1958.[8]

Notable people

• Jacob Arabo – Jeweler, founder of Jacob & Company
• Arthur Kaliyev – Hockey player[11]
• Varvara Lepchenko – Tennis player who has won eleven ITF singles titles and one ITF doubles title
• Sylvia Nasar – Journalist and writer of A Beautiful Mind
• Nazif Shahrani – Professor of anthropology and of Central Asian and Middle Eastern Studies at Indiana University, Bloomington
• Alexei Sultanov – Classical pianist
• Lola Astanova – Classical pianist
• Milana Vayntrub – Actress and comedian
• Rita Volk – Actress

See also

• Central Asians in the United States
• Uzbekistan-United States relations
• Uzbeks

References

1. "Table 1. First, Second, and Total Responses to the Ancestry Question by Detailed Ancestry Code: 2000". U.S. Census Bureau. Retrieved 2010-12-02.
2. "PLACE OF BIRTH FOR THE FOREIGN-BORN POPULATION IN THE UNITED STATES, Universe: Foreign-born population excluding population born at sea, 2014 American Community Survey 5-Year Estimates". United States Census Bureau. Archived from the original on 14 February 2020. Retrieved 1 April 2018.
3. "Yearbook of Immigration Statistics: 2013 Lawful Permanent Residents Supplemental Table 2". U.S. Department of Homeland Security. Retrieved 2014-07-19.
4. "Yearbook of Immigration Statistics: 2012 Supplemental Table 2". U.S. Department of Homeland Security. Retrieved 2014-07-19.
5. "Yearbook of Immigration Statistics: 2011 Supplemental Table 2". U.S. Department of Homeland Security. Retrieved 2014-07-19.
6. "Yearbook of Immigration Statistics: 2010 Supplemental Table 2". U.S. Department of Homeland Security. Retrieved 2014-07-19.
7. US DoS Bureau of Consular Affairs Statistics US DoS Bureau of Consular Affairs Statistics
8. Этнические узбеки в США (in Russian: New Study: U.S. Uzbeks)
9. Новое исследование: Американские узбеки Archived 2013-12-03 at the Wayback Machine (in Russian: ethnic Uzbeks in the U.S.)
10. "Главная - Central Asian Foundation". Central Asian Foundation (in Russian). Retrieved 2018-04-16.
11. KennedyFebruary 11, Ryan; 2019 (2019-02-11). "Sharpshooting Arthur Kaliyev is just getting started in Hamilton". TheHockeyNews. Retrieved 2019-02-19.CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)