Discrimination, entrepreneurship, and the economics of being Arab and believing in Islam in America

The author looks for measures of economic discrimination that exist against and within the Arab-American and Arab immigrant economy. However, the focus is on the economic impacts of intra-group conflicts between Muslims and Christians (and social distance from Palestinians) in the Arab-ethnic economic enclave. Results from this sample group show trends indicating that prejudice against Muslims makes them inordinately dependent on selfemployed earnings, but also that Muslims are not compensated evenly over time for taking extra entrepreneurial risks. It is also determined that significant finance-gaps exist between Muslims' and Christians' access to capital at the time of initial investment and at the point of expansion. The researcher concludes that there are both occupational and wage-related costs to being Arab and believing in Islam in America. In addition, the author finds that within the Arab-ethnic Muslim community that some segments are avoided socially or excluded from the relative enclave. This places Palestinians in the worst economic position and Syrian Christians in the best.