Arab-American Star: 'Kawkab Amirka' and the orientation question

The 'huddled masses' sweeping the American shoreline starting from the second half of the 19th century until World War I, forced both newcomers and Americans to re-define themselves in relation to one another. In his famous The Frontier in American History Fredrick Jackson Turner forwarded the 'Melting pot' model to relieve tensions arising at the junction between the ‘old’ and ‘new’ residents of America. According to Turner, geographical proximity is bound to lead after a single generation to social assimilation or acculturation, which is the exchange of all previous affiliations and behaviors with loyalty to the United States and the adoption of American customs and perceptions. But this description seemed to fit only the earlier immigrants, such as the Swedes, Germans and German Jews and not the variety of newcomers from Eastern Europe, the Middle East or the Far East. Instead, the term 'Nationality' set the border between 'Americans' and the new 'National groups'.