Why was Latin America able to integrate Arabs so well, while the rest of the world seems incapable of this?

The question was asked by a reader of Quora and answered by my co-editor and mi hermano, Les. His reply rings true for me - I am Canadian, born and raised in Toronto which is described by the UN as the most ethnically diverse city in the world. While there are certainly instances of prejudice and exclusion, for the most part the city's widely diverse communities get along well.

I can't help but notice that the land to the south of Canada has a very different relationship with immigrants, especially those from the Arab world.

- prh, ed.

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Very good question. Two reasons stand out for me, both of them anecdotal and speaking generally:

First, I've found the people in Latin America and the Arab world whom I've come to know personally and/or as casual acquaintances to be the most welcoming and least judgemental in both the Arab world and Latin America. So in that sense they are a good match.

Second, the reasons that “the rest of the world seems incapable” of integrating Arab people seems obvious to me. The US government and the powerful western mainstream media has a long history of promoting racism and xenophobia against minorities, people of color and, particularly, Arabs. The US government and media have led the way in influencing western populations in the US and Europe, depicting Arabs and Muslims as ignorant and aggressive and nowadays even as “terrorists.” In similar fashion, for centuries they have portrayed Latinos as simple minded, uneducated, unreliable, lazy and their countries as “unstable,” never mentioning the history of colonialism, neocolonialism and foreign intervention as significant factors of instability. (ref. “Open Veins of Latin America” by Eduardo Galeano)

During my travels in the Arab world, I was without exception treated as an honored guest with courtesy and respect, a long Arab tradition of welcoming strangers into their countries and homes. I've also found that during my numerous visits and more than 12 years living in Venezuela as a US citizen, Arab immigrants here have always been friendly toward me - without prejudice - even as my native country commits war crimes in their homelands.

Likewise, Venezuelans have welcomed me first as a visitor and now as a resident with open minds and hearts. That's been my experience even as my native country has ramped up its brutal neocolonial assault on the Venezuelan people and has done its best to overthrow their government of choice. As such, Venezuelans of all skin colors, classes and political perspectives have never once generalized or stereotyped me as a white male “gringo”, but have treated me as a fellow human being with love, warmth and respect. This experience dismantled whatever negative images and stereotypes I may have had emanating from my early development in the US. I've also found *most* Venezuelans to be hard workers, rich in community, honest, sincere, intelligent and many are highly educated and more geopolitically astute than almost anywhere in the world.

Ironically, during my youth, most of my adulthood, and in my annual visits I *generally* find people in the US to be short of those qualities. For that I don't fault them; rather, I see them as victims infected almost from infancy by serial political regimes, militarism & war, media and a culture of individualism, divisiveness, racism, paranoia, lack of community, interpersonal distance and competition. That said, I love the US people and the land itself, the magnificent mountains, plains, deserts and seas of North America and Canada which I've been fortunate to travel many times from coast to coast.

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