As a consequence of growing inter-religious tension and violence between the Muslim and Christian population of the Late Ottoman Empire, an increasing number of Assyrians came to consider emigration the only solution for survival and peace. Thousands from areas such as Diyarbakir, Kharput, and Mardin, indigenous people of the region, decided to leave an ancient heritage and deep roots in Near Eastern culture and lifestyle behind. The majority of the Assyrian emigrants who left Anatolia in the period between 1890 and 1920 travelled through Constantinople and European ports to the “New World”. Many would settle in the New York/New Jersey area, in Chicago, and all of California. Within a generation, a network of social and cultural associations came to be established, resulting in the foundation of a nation-wide federation in 1914, the Assyrian National Union. Through a number of preserved local and universal newspapers, journals and magazines, often written in Ottoman Turkish and Assyrian, the early period is quite well documented. It appears most likely that many Assyrians assimilated within only two decades of time. Thus, the second generation Assyrian American community left much fewer sources, which is why very little is known about it. Most recently, a magazine named “Assyrian Progress” (Shushoto Othuroyo) was rediscovered, digitalized and made available for research after having remained completely unknown for seventy years. It was published as the official organ of the “Assyrian American Benevolent Association of Los Angeles” between 1932 and 1938. The association constituted of members belonging to the Syriac Orthodox Church of Antioch who had emigrated the Ottoman Empire some twenty years earlier. In the Assyrian Progress, we read of the many socio-cultural activities of Assyrians from California, but also of the East Coast. Articles about history, culture, language, politics, daily life and other contemporary subjects offer a unique source for the study of one of the earliest Assyrian communities in the West. Also, it offers the possibility of studying a hitherto unknown chapter of American immigration history. The paper will analyze identity and self-perception of Assyrian Americans during the 1930s. It aims to contribute to the understanding of integration and assimilation processes of stateless minorities in the “Melting Pot” of the first half of the 20th century as well as to the transformation of Assyrian identity in the early Diaspora.