Capitol Fax.com - Your Illinois News Radar

Illinois’ “most unusual” ancestry

Posted in:

Illinois

* I know quite a lot of Assyrians, so this popped out at me…

Based on Census data, 24/7 Wall St. reviewed the percentage of state residents who identify as one of 158 different ethnicities — the most common answers to the ancestry question. Survey respondents were not given a list of options. The largest percentage relative to the comparable national proportion is a state’s most unusual ancestry.

A state’s most unusual ethnic group is not necessarily the state’s largest demographic. In fact, the most unique heritage group in only three states made up more than 10% of that state’s population. In every other case, members of the most unusually concentrated demography accounted for less than 1% of state residents. However, that demographic accounts for an even — and often much smaller — share of the U.S. population. […]

Illinois
Most unique ancestry: Assyrian
> Percentage of state residents identifying as Assyrian: 0.1%
> Share of U.S. Assyrian population living in state: 27.8%

Although just 0.1% of Illinois residents identify as Assyrian, it is 10 times the 0.01% of Americans who do, making Assyrian the most unique heritage in the state. America is home to just 38,626 Assyrians, and 27.8% of them live in Illinois. Assyrian immigrants came to the United States in two large waves — the first concurrent with start of World War I and the second with turmoil in the Middle East during the 1970s. Assyrian refugees relocated mostly to Chicago, Detroit, and Northern California, where some Assyrian American settlers and sojourners had established communities before WWI. Today, Chicago is home to the largest Assyrian population in the country, and the second largest in the world after Iraq. Illinois is also home to high relative concentrations of residents with Luxemburger, Palestinian, and Jordanian ancestry.

I had no idea we had a lot of Luxemburgers here.

posted by Rich Miller
Friday, Nov 6, 15 @ 9:16 am

Comments

The Luxemburgers are taking all our jobs!

(Just a joke, don’t ban me Rich)

Comment by Just Observing Friday, Nov 6, 15 @ 9:21 am
They are going to open a Luxem Burger franchise on LaSalle and Randolph as soon as JRTC is torn down…

Comment by DuPage Dave Friday, Nov 6, 15 @ 9:32 am
Welcome to United States. I could never be an Assyrian but all can be part of the United States. What a wonderful thing for us.

Comment by Niblets Friday, Nov 6, 15 @ 9:35 am
This post brings to mind a well known passage in English Lit:
“The Assyrian came down like a wolf on the fold,
And his cohorts are gleaming in purple and gold…”
Lord Byron

Comment by Lord Byron Friday, Nov 6, 15 @ 9:36 am
It’s not the legal Luxemburgers I have a problem with, it’s the illegal ones.

Comment by Bogey Golfer Friday, Nov 6, 15 @ 9:36 am
Rich, thanks for the very useful information. I am a proud Assyrian. My grandfather was an Assyrian deacon and built the first Assyrian church in Yonkers, New York. He came to the United States and experienced the American Dream!

Comment by Dan Shomon Friday, Nov 6, 15 @ 9:36 am
In other news, there have only been five governors or ex-governors sent to jail since 2000, and Illinois has two.

Comment by Six Degrees of Separation Friday, Nov 6, 15 @ 9:40 am
The patriarch of the Assyrian Christian Church resides in Chicago.

The sectarian knives that were allowed to come out after we deposed Saddam weren’t just Sunni vs. Shia. Elements of both directed them at the Christian community in Iraq, which has existed in that region since the git-go.

Since we knocked off Saddam, three-quarters of the
Christian community, one million people, have fled Iraq.

An unintended consequence, but not unforeseeable. It happens when the strongman goes away: Turkish Muslim genocide directed vs, Armenian Christians after the fall of the Ottomans, Serbian Orthodox Christian genocide vs. Muslims and Roman Catholics after the breakup of Yugoslavia.

Comment by Wordslinger Friday, Nov 6, 15 @ 9:41 am
Cool. One of my favorite literary characters is Yossarian from Catch-22.

Comment by phocion Friday, Nov 6, 15 @ 9:58 am
So - did you hear the one about the Assyrian, the Luxemburger, and the Jordanian going into a bar?

The joke is only good in Illinois, where this commonly happens!

Comment by VanillaMan Friday, Nov 6, 15 @ 10:03 am
Just curious, but are the Assyrians mostly in Chicago proper or a suburb?

Comment by Team Sleep Friday, Nov 6, 15 @ 10:06 am
We should all get out in front of this Assyrian problem and insist the the Code of the Assurance can never be applied in U.S. courts of law. Let’s just pass a law stating that.

Comment by Gish Friday, Nov 6, 15 @ 10:08 am
I believe Dennis Hastert is Illinois’ most prominent Luxembourger.

Comment by Lottie O'Neill Friday, Nov 6, 15 @ 10:08 am
Rich, thanks for sharing. Like Dan, I am proud of my Assyrian heritage. Too few people know about Assyrian history, Assyrian culture, and contributions to society. On a personal note, I will always be proud of my family’s role in Chicago’s Assyrian community: my grandfather was a charter member in 1917 of the Assyrian American Association of Chicago, and my father served in leadership roles in that same association; the Assyrian Church of the East; and the Assyrian American veterans organization (AMVETS Post 5), He also sponsored many families to come to this great country and hired many Assyrians at his northside manufacturing company.

Comment by Bob Yadgir Friday, Nov 6, 15 @ 10:12 am
Dennis Hastert is Greek lol

Comment by Anonymous Friday, Nov 6, 15 @ 10:25 am
Isn’t unique an absolute modifier?

Comment by kissinger Friday, Nov 6, 15 @ 10:42 am
I believe Senate President Emeritus Phil Rock is of Luxembourgian decent.

Comment by In the Know -- Maybe Friday, Nov 6, 15 @ 10:48 am
Yes but I am the Assyrian-iest Assyrian of them all.

Comment by Ramsin Canon Friday, Nov 6, 15 @ 10:55 am
We invented everything

Comment by Anonymous Friday, Nov 6, 15 @ 11:22 am
==I had no idea we had a lot of Luxemburgers here.==

The eldest of them meet regularly on the East end of Springfield to dine on fried lobster

Comment by Anonymous Friday, Nov 6, 15 @ 11:42 am
My grandmother came from Luxemburg in 1908. There is still a large community in Morton Grove and Skokie (and Wisconsin).

Comment by very old soil Friday, Nov 6, 15 @ 11:44 am
Anon 11:42 … Good one! Back on point, just who is the most prominent Luxemburger in Illinois?

Comment by Keyser Soze Friday, Nov 6, 15 @ 12:20 pm
“Yes but I am the Assyrian-iest Assyrian of them all.”

Confirmed.

– MrJM

Comment by @MisterJayEm Friday, Nov 6, 15 @ 1:12 pm
very interesting fact about Assyrian Americans in Illinois, and surprising because I know so many Assryian Americans and would not have figured the numbers to be so low! love love love their preferred version of baklava. amazing! and, yes, they invented oh so much and people don’t really realize it!

Comment by Amalia Friday, Nov 6, 15 @ 1:57 pm
I know quite a few Assyrians, they all live in Chicago.

Comment by Tone Friday, Nov 6, 15 @ 2:03 pm
Keyser Soze - is your a rhetorical question? If not, then I think my 10:48 comment holds.

Comment by In the Know -- Maybe Friday, Nov 6, 15 @ 3:21 pm
^^yours^^

Comment by In the Know -- Maybe Friday, Nov 6, 15 @ 3:22 pm
DEVON Ave!!!!

Comment by Citizen A Friday, Nov 6, 15 @ 3:30 pm
When you drive by a construction site and see Gehl equipment, know that you are looking at a company founded by 4 young men of Luxemburger descent. I am descended from Nicholas Gehl, who was the uncle of these 4 gentlemen. Nicholas himself was the village clerk of Sigel, Illinois, within a few years of its founding, and supervised the construction of a Catholic church in a nearby town. If you ever shopped at Gehl Hardware in Mattoon, you were doing business with some descendents of Nicholas.

So lots of Luxemburgers are hiding on the Census under “German” or “French”, but they put down roots here, just like our Assyrian friends, and helped build this country.

Comment by Lynn S. Wednesday, Nov 11, 15 @ 1:52 am