Turkish Americans
The size of the Turkish-American community was considered insignificant compared to that of other ethnic groups in the U.S. throughout the 20th century. However, this started changing in the last two decades. Starting from the early 1990s, growing number of Turks, mostly students, started coming to the U.S. This trend has gotten much stronger in the last decade, especially after the 2001 economic crises in Turkey. The 10% shrunken Turkish economy as a result of the crises and the related grim job prospects at the time encouraged many Turks to come to America.
An important portion of Turkish-Americans are either students or first generation white-collar immigrants, who landed to corporate jobs after attending university in the U.S. and got their U.S. citizenships in the years thereafter. This continuous demand for the U.S. schools earned the Turkish student community the top 7th place within the international student body in America. Many of these students land jobs upon graduation and start families here, although some of them go back to Turkey after working for a few years in America. Most Turks adapt to life in America easily and a growing number of them marry American spouses every year.
It is difficult to make a sound prediction about the population of Turkish-Americans for a couple of reasons. The main reason is that there is no single coherent Turkish community to speak of, as most Turks easily blend in in American society and don't live as a community. Many of these Turks have failed to declare their heritage in the census. Secondly, since many Turkish-Americans were born outside of Turkey in former Ottoman territories, the U.S. Census figure does not reflect the real number. Having said that, according to 2008 American Community Survey, the number of Turkish-Americans is 189,640, however, the unofficial estimates are close half a million, including the students. It is estimated that there are close to 100,000 Turkish-Americans in the metropolitan New York area alone, with small pockets living in Brooklyn, Long Island, Sunnyside (Queens) and in various small towns in northern New Jersey, the most well-known one being Paterson, NJ.
Turkish American Organizations
With their growing number, Turkish-Americans are getting more organized and vocal in American social and political life. Currently, there are three umbrella organizations that represent most Turkish American associations all across America. The oldest one is the Federation of Turkish American Associations (FTAA), founded in 1956, and it is based in New York. The second one, the Assembly of Turkish American Associations (ATAA), was founded in 1980 to pursue the interests of Turkish Americans in Washington, DC and beyond. The third and the newest one is the recently founded Washingon-based Assembly of Turkic American Federation (ATAF). In additon, although not an umbrella organization, the Washington-based Turkish Coalition of America (TCA), founded in 2007, has become one of the most active and effective Turkish-American organizations in a short time in the last couple of years.