Cataloged from PDF version of article.This thesis examines early (1890s-1920s) Turkish immigration to Peabody,
Massachusetts. It is a case study which argues that the most prominent factor driving
early Turkish migration to Peabody was economic. Thus the migration movement
constituted a “brawn drain” from Anatolia to the “streets paved with gold.” As was
the case with some European peoples who immigrated to the United States at the
same period, the Turkish immigrants in Peabody, Massachusetts, did not intend to
stay in the United States. They only wanted to earn money and return to the
homeland as soon as possible. More importantly this thesis argues that the Turkish
immigrants were part of a larger Ottoman migration to the United States. The Turks
in Peabody were part of a chain of migration that included Armenians, Greeks, and
Sephardic Jews. They, together with the Armenians, Jews and Greeks constructed an
Ottoman microcosm in Peabody essentially recreating the millets of the Ottoman
Empire in which inter-communal support helped the Turks contend with the strange
new environment. By the early 1930s most of the Turkish immigrants in Peabody
had returned to their homeland. Overall, this thesis provides new insight into the
Turkish and Ottoman diaspora that challenges popular conceptions of continual strife
between the Turks and members of the other Ottoman millets. Additionally, it shows
that this early Turkish immigrant community was, in some ways, strikingly similar to
later twentieth century Turkish immigrant communities, such as those in Germany
during the 1960sAcehan, IşılM.S
