CLASS AND ETHNICITY IN RURAL CALIFORNIA: THE ASSYRIAN COMMUNITY OF MODESTO-TURLOCK, 1910-1985 (HISTORICAL MATERIALISM, MIDDLE EAST, MINORITY GROUPS, IMMIGRANTS, CORPORATE CAPITALISM)

This is an in-depth historical study of an Assyrian emigrant and refugee enclave numbering close to 4,000 persons in the Turlock-Modesto region of San Joaquin Valley, California. It covers the period from 1910, at which time the first settlement was established, to 1985, the year in which the work on the dissertation was completed. Primary data were collected in the form of detailed family histories from a sample of 108 respondents during ten months residence in the town of Turlock (August 1981-May 1982). The methodology is historical materialism that is, the community is analyzed in the context of developing class and ethnic relations in a concrete setting and during a specific historical time period. The de-peasantation of the Assyrians in the Middle East and their overseas migration as a mobile labor force are viewed in the context of the penetration of monopoly capitalism into the Third World in the nineteenth century which resulted in the subordination of the political economy of the Third World to centers of capitalism. The various parts of the dissertation trace the settlement of the Assyrians in the Turlock region as they migrated in successive waves from other parts of North America or as refugees from Iran and Iraq.;The internal dynamics of the Assyrian community reveal a conflict between the traditional Americanized leadership composed of settlers from the larger urban centers of the United States, and the post 1970 immigrants from the Middle East. A significant finding is the extent to which the on-going class and national/factional struggles engulfing the Assyrians in the Middle East are replicated in this seemingly far-removed emigrant outpost.;A historical survey indicates that the elite in Turlock, who defined the standards of acceptability in the community, prevented the integration of the ethnics into the main local institutions. The Assyrians remained a distinct ethnic group despite the quick cultural assimilation of the immigrants.