Growing up I never heard the word Assyrian mentioned - ever. The closest word that ever graced my ears was the word Syrian, and that word was only really used when someone said "pass the Syrian bread". I find it curious that a group of people nearly identical in every way to myself exists, and that I never heard of them until I did some research.
What makes an Assyrian an Assyrian and a Chaldean a Chaldean? Is there really a distinction? The language is incredibly similar. The storefront religions, while different in name, have the exact same prayers. The genes are similar, and the food is nearly identical. The dances and folkloric garments don't differ. So, what is it?
I believe that perhaps the main difference between Assyrians and Chaldeans, other than a distinction in name, is namely a difference in attitude. I have observed, through verbal stories and research, that Chaldeans back home were generally more educated than Assyrians. They tended to live in the bigger cities rather than the small villages, although there were some of both. They also had a penchant for learning the dominant language and succeeding as minorities in spite of obstacles put in their path.
In America, the same phenomenon is present. Chaldeans in Detroit can be found in every major and minor industry here, from property development to medicine, education to retail, landscaping to politics, and all points in-between. Chaldeans are not a homogeneous group. They are found at all points on the socio-economic scale, from dirt-poor to multi-millionaire with generational wealth. They also assimilate at different stages. Some Chaldeans have no semblance of culture left in them, while others have maintained customs, language, song and dance, culinary arts, reading and writing, arts, and other aspects of our culture remarkably in this melting pot.
Assyrians back home, on the other hand, tended to not learn and master Arabic as much, and acted more like foreigners in their homeland. They stayed more in the backwater areas and remained uneducated. In America, Assyrians aren't as diverse in the fields that they work, in socio-economic status, and in cultural assimilation.
Besides attitude, Chaldeans were slightly more homogeneous in one aspect, namely religion, because they were all Catholic. Assyrians, on the other hand, fragmented into countless denominations – Presbyterian, orthodox, evangelical, seventh-day Adventist, and so on, and so forth.
So how have both groups managed to maintain some sort of identity here in the diaspora? What defines nationality, national identity? There are several aspects to "culture" that can be analyzed here. Culture can be defined as behavior patterns, arts, beliefs, institutions, and all other products of human work and thought. Intellectual thought defines culture, and this is especially relevant when dealing with the arts and humanities.
The Chaldeans are severely lacking in the humanities! I have lived in metro-detroit for my entire life, and I have yet to see more than one or two albums that are in our language! The majority are in Arabic, while some are in English. Chaldean art is rare, and books written in our language is even more rare. Finding someone who can read and write our language is yet even more exceptional! And, finally, encountering someone who has a truly capable grasp of our language (untainted by Arabic) is damn-near impossible.
Assyrians, on the other hand, have numerous artists who sing in our language, a preponderance of people who can read and write our language, and a higher-level understanding of our language and it's grammar. There are more Assyrian artists as well, and more books and periodicals in our language.
So, looking at this situation, I have come to the obvious conclusion that the only solution to the pros and cons of both "groups" (which are in actuality one group) is to merge the groups together so that they can learn from each other. What makes us unique is what makes us one group: a common culture of language, traditions, (cough) religion, culinary arts, humanities, folkloric arts, song and dance, and a common belief in that which makes us unique – that which distinguishes us from "Americans", Indians, Japanese, and the French. We have scattered like leaves throughout this world, but we still recognize and cling to that which we do not want the world to lose – our culture. It can be infectious. This generation and the next one will have the job of preserving, maintaining, and (hopefully) enhancing and strengthening our cultural identity. I am a firm believer that the age of nations is long gone, and that if we continue to cling to the belief that we are "owed" a nation, ours will end in a pool of blood.
