Lebanese Immigrants Research Articles

Lebanese Emigration to Brazil

Abstract This article deals with the reasons and dynamics of the Lebanese immigration to Brazil since the end of the 19th century onward, adding figures and charts to better expose and explain this social economic phenomena. For this, the article relied on a number of fugures, statisctics and studies to explain the reasons for this mass immigration of the Lebanese people.

Examining Social Relationships among Older Muslim Immigrants Living in Canada: A Narrative Inquiry

Social connectedness and engagement are particularly important among groups who are at risk of experiencing social isolation, such as immigrant older adults. The objective of our study was to understand the social relationships of aging Muslim Lebanese immigrants living in Canada by exploring their lives in their ethnic and wider communities. This study used a life course perspective and adopted a constructivist narrative inquiry to understand the diverse lived experiences of four older adults who immigrated to Canada during early adulthood. Participants engaged in a narrative interview and follow-up session in which they storied their lived experiences. Findings describe one core theme, cultivating social relationships through family, friends, and community interdependence, and three related sub-themes: (1) navigating and creating family interdependence and planting new roots; (2) family interdependence in later life: the important role of grandchildren; and (3) cultivating ethnic and local interdependence to support aging in place. The participants’ stories provided an understanding of how culture, religion, aging, family, and immigration experiences interrelated throughout their life course and shaped their social relationships during later life. This study sheds new insight on the importance of culturally tailored activities and awareness about the social needs of immigrant older adults.

Major histocompatibility class I antigens in the Lebanese population

Except for two reports on Lebanese immigrants, there have been no studies on the major histocompatibility [MHC] antigens in the Lebanese population. We describe the frequency and distribution of MHC class I antigens present in the A, B and C loci based on data obtained from 200 healthy unrelated individuals from different parts of Lebanon. The highest gene frequencies were as follows:A2 [24.8%], B35 [17.9%] and Cw4 [18.6%], making this haplotype the commonest. Comparison of genetic distances revealed a pattern closer to the Caucasoid population than to the Mongoloid, Oriental or Black populations

Language attitudes and language practices of the Lebanese community in the UK

Abstract The number of Lebanese immigrants in the UK has dramatically increased in recent years, motivated by socio-political and economic pressures and in pursuit of academic excellence. This is one of the first studies to explore the attitudes of Lebanese parents and British-Lebanese children towards Arabic (Lebanese Arabic [LA] and Modern Standard Arabic [MSA]) in the UK. The data were collected from semi-structured interviews with 24 parents and 15 children, participant observation and field notes. Results indicate that Lebanese parents and children believe that HL maintenance can foster a sense of Lebaneseness, and help children access the highly valued socio-cultural significance of LA. MSA is regarded in high esteem, but Muslim children appreciate MSA more for its “pride” value than for instrumental “profit” purposes. This illustrates that the notions of “pride” and “profit” are not clear-cut in a linguistic market where multilingualism is undervalued and European foreign languages outweigh Arabic varieties, even MSA despite its global significance. For HL speakers, the “pride” value of the HL in family, culture and religion may outweigh both profit incentives and hegemonic language ideologies.

Identity Crisis in Arab Diasporic Novel: A Case Study of Lebanese American Novel

Very little has been written on cultural identity and national identity in contemporary Lebanese novel in the diaspora. This study explores how border identity is presented in Rabih Alameddine's Koolaids (1998), I, the Divine (2001), and The Angel of History (2016), three novels about the failure of the Lebanese immigrants to establish their cultural identity in the diaspora. It also gives a bird's-eye view of the myriad problems encountered by the immigrants while trying to build their cultural identity. Rabih Alameddine, a Lebanese American writer whose early literary pursuits focus on melting in the new homeland, represents the impossibility of redefinition and introduces the immigrants' remarkable preoccupation with the quest for national identity and nationhood. He mixes melancholic and ridiculous moments to represent the quest for cultural identity in order to subvert the neo-orientalist discourse which is based on the East/West dichotomy. Moreover, the use of multiple settings and narrators in each novel is also a common theme that explains the physical and psychological effects of the Lebanese civil war and the Lebanese ethnic categories in the diaspora.

ПРАКТИКИ СОЛИДАРНОСТИ ЛИВАНСКОЙ ДИАСПОРЫ В МИРЕ В ПЕРИОД ПАНДЕМИИ КОВИД-19

The article examines the Lebanese diaspora, its relations with the Lebanese society and the situation in the world. The data is analyzed and the location of Lebanese diasporas in different parts of the world is considered. Lebanese immigrant communities around the world make up the largest groups of Arab immigrants. As a diaspora, Lebanese communities have historical roots in almost every corner of the world. A more significant fact of the migration of Lebanese society is considered to be the beginning of the second half of the 19th century, the Lebanese immigrated to America, Africa and Northern Europe. Many factors have contributed to the spread of Lebanese society around the world. Lebanon has a free market economy and a strong commercial tradition of non-interference. The government does not restrict foreign investment, but the investment climate suffers from bureaucracy, corruption, arbitrary licensing decisions, complex customs procedures, high taxes, tariffs and fees, archaic legislation, and inadequate protection of intellectual property rights [4. Р. 143]. The idea of a diaspora-a dispersed ethnic group spanning national borders-has been revived by the intensity of global processes over the past few decades towards understanding the immigrant experience. In its Greek origin, the term diaspora means the scattering of seeds and thus means an association with migration and colonization, implying acculturation and assimilation while preserving an ingrained tradition. Also, the diaspora captures much of our analytical and popular imagination and requires explanatory power in describing the presence and conditions of the immigrant population. Understanding their position as a product of global economic, political and cultural dynamics, Lebanese immigrants demonstrate forms of identification, social ties and ways of cultural expression that take into account the global diaspora consciousness [2. Р. 82]. The diaspora, on the other hand, provides an entry into the study of the global situation and the dynamics of the economy. It should be noted that the Lebanese diaspora is an important group for studying the dynamics of immigration and how immigrants are affected by global economic, political and cultural processes.

“GAME OF THRONES”. LEBANESE CLANS AND STATE IN GERMANY

In the article it is analyzed the process of criminalization of Lebanese clans arrived in Germany in the early 1980s. It is noted that it was caused by a number of reasons, including the marginal situation of Lebanese immigrants, the lack of attention of the authorities to integration problems, specifics of mentality, etc. Starting with petit thefts and street drug trafficking, the clans gradually began to create their own economic structures, which included both legal business and criminal activities (extortions, robbery, money laundering, etc.). At the end of the article, it is concluded that an effective fight against clan crime involves a set of measures that include not only police operations, but also the fight against the “business” of clans and work with their individual members.

How Mismanagement, Political Intrigues, Bad Monetary Policy and Corruption Doomed a Country

This paper reviews the causes of the economic failure in Lebanon. It demonstrates that corruption, mismanagement of the public sector, political intrigue, and a misguided monetary policy have produced an economic calamity in the country. They turned Lebanon into one of the most indebted countries in the world and impoverished its citizenry. The Central Bank (BDL) pursued a policy focused on keeping the exchange rate at 1,500 LL/$. To achieve this objective it offered the bankers very lucrative interest rates to insure they flow their dollar deposits to its coffers to stabilize the currency and to purchase dollar denominated country debt. With an underperforming economy, falling confidence in the governance of the country, and a massive drop in remittances from Lebanese immigrants living in various parts of the world, Lebanon defaulted on its international debt in 2020 despite numerous attempts through international organizations to prevent such an outcome. The paper argues that Lebanon has failed in stabilizing its currency and the economy and proposes dollarization as a permanent answer. It offers numerous ways for Lebanon to earn the necessary dollars for a well functioning economy.

Maksuna Brasileira: figurações do imigrante árabe nas narrativas de Salim Miguel

Embora a imigração de povos de ascendência árabe para o Brasil remonte a 1884, é possível identificar a “aparição fantasmagórica” dessa figura em nossa literatura ainda no período colonial. Posteriormente, na medida em que se consolida o projeto nacional romântico, a figuração[1] do árabe modifica-se em nossas letras, percorrendo o tortuoso caminho da “exotização” à sua assimilação. Até o momento em que ocorre a inserção no cenário literário nacional de descendentes de imigrantes sírios e libaneses, redefinindo e problematizando a imagem unívoca e distante pintada anteriormente. A fim de refletir acerca desse complexo processo, selecionamos alguns momentos importantes da dinâmica de figuração do árabe na literatura brasileira, conferindo especial atenção à representação do imigrante árabe nas narrativas de Salim Miguel. Esse escritor não apenas dialoga com as formas de figuração do sujeito árabe ao longo da tradição literária brasileira, como também problematiza a própria ideia de uma memória única, homogeneizadora e sem fraturas em torno da qual se organiza a identidade nacional.
 
 
 
 

Sírios e libaneses no oeste paulista – décadas de 1880 a 1950

O artigo busca explorar os condicionantes e características distintivas da inserção socioeconômica de sírios e libaneses no interior paulista, entre as décadas de 1880 e 1950. Do início difícil como mascates, portadores de uma cultura distante, os sírios e libaneses lograram se firmar como comerciantes, aproveitando as oportunidades que suas redes (de parentes e conterrâneos) e a economia cafeeira em expansão ofereciam, estabelecendo-se sobretudo nos ramos de roupas, tecidos e armarinhos de secos e molhados e de gado e cereais. Tomando como fonte principal uma série de obras – acadêmicas e memorialísticas –, nas quais o imigrante sírio e libanês é retratado no interior, o artigo indica ainda as principais regiões do oeste paulista nas quais o grupo se concentrou, discute trajetórias que ilustram algumas das possibilidades de mobilidade, a formação de lideranças, o modo como as práticas religiosas se transformaram e a mobilidade acentuada – como doutores e políticos – conquistada por estratos da primeira geração nascida no Brasil.

الحقائق الاجتماعية في رواية الأرواح المتمردة

Lebanon refugees are the most numerous immigrants among other Arab countries. Substantially, the Lebanese immigration occurred in the period of 1860-1914 with a total of approximately 330,000 refugees. Massive immigration is happening to Arab countries, North America, South America, Africa, Australia, and Europe. Historians claim that the cause of the massive immigration is a conflict between religions and political suppression. Researcher wanted to examine other factors that cause immigration, which was written in the novel Al-Arwāḥal-Mutamarridah by Jibrān Khalīl Jibrān, which describes events that took place in Lebanon at that time. So as works of art, the novel also reveals the historical facts. This research led to the conclusion that some expressions in this novel identify the factors that contribute to the Lebanese immigration, which is not revealed in the history books.

Venezuela’s Toxic Relations with Iran and Hezbollah: an avenue of violence, crime, corruption and terrorism .

Venezuela’s relations with Iran date back into the sixties when both were founding members of the OPEC. Iran’s influence in Latin America has become quite large since the Iranian revolution. Iran sees Latin America as a strategic priority for its global positioning. The Lebanese immigration towards South America has begun a while ago. But there’s a period, during the Lebanese civil war (1975-1990) when a large number of Lebanese immigrants came to the continent. Back then, according to some experts, Hezbollah and Iran took advantage of this mass migration and infiltrated their agents and recruiters among the Muslim migrants. Hezbollah is probably the most organized terrorist organization in the World in respect to its illegal financing activities. The group funds its regular operations through all sorts of crimes. Hezbollah has a tight relationship with Iran. Ever since Iran has established its covert operations in Venezuela, Hezbollah has come along, as its proxy. Venezuela is submerged in crime and corruption. The Venezuelan government has been infiltrated by transnational organized crime for more than a decade. The convergence of corruption, crime, violence and terrorism in Venezuela was enabled by a set of conditions and circumstances that basically surfaced after Chávez was elected president in 1998. From that time onwards, Venezuela became a crucial source of political, financial and logistical support for Hezbollah. Their relationship impacts the neighboring countries, particularly Brazil.

Sense of community among Muslims in the Brazil–Paraguay border: narratives of belonging and generational differences

ABSTRACTThe so-called ‘Triple Frontier’—the border between Paraguay, Brazil, and Argentina—is the ‘host society’ of an important Muslim community, composed mainly of Lebanese immigrants and their descendants born in Brazil and Paraguay. In less than two decades, Shi’i and Sunni Arab Muslims created mosques, religious centres, a cemetery, and three schools. Mosques, schools, and religious centres are spaces for the production of a sense of community. The institutional discourse of these entities emphasises the connection between religion and community origin, considering Islam as part of ‘Arab culture’. Taking generational differences into account, this article aims to analyse the narratives of plural identity expressed in the meanings attributed to the immigrants’ self-identification as Muslims. Based on fieldwork in the South American border area, this work aims to shed light on the way in which immigrants and their descendants reinterpret their religious belonging, informed by the new experience of living in multi-religious societies.

Emotional Intelligence and Immigrant Entrepreneurship Development: A Correlation Analysis of the Lebanese Family Entrepreneurships in Nigeria

The arrival of the first Lebanese immigrant in Lagos in 1890 has been followed by increase in the number of Lebanese immigrants in Nigeria. The immigrants get attached to their families on arrival. This is owing to the instrumental, financial, psychological and emotional supports they receive from their families to enable them assimilate into the Nigerian community. In spite of their contributions to the economic and infrastructural development of Nigeria through the family-owned immigrant entrepreneurships they have developed, no study seems to have been conducted in this area. Consequently, based on data from selected Lebanese family-owned entrepreneurships, this study examines the relationship between emotional intelligence and immigrant entrepreneurship development. The study adopted mail questionnaire survey design. The generated data through questionnaire were analyzed using Pearson’s correlation. It was found that emotional intelligence is significantly related to the dimensions of immigrant entrepreneurship development, that is, entrepreneurial intention, entrepreneurial capabilities, entrepreneurial networking and entrepreneurial success. Based on the results, the study recommends exposing new immigrants and immigrant entrepreneurs to trainings and programs that will improve their emotional intelligence, entrepreneurial behaviour, capabilities, networking attitude and success mindset. The ultimate effect of these trainings and programs is increase in the development of immigrant entrepreneurships.

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The Mandela Soccer Academy: Historical and Contemporary Intersections between Ghana, Lebanon, and the West

Since their arrival in the late nineteenth century, Lebanese immigrants have come to play an important role in Ghanaian society, especially in commerce. In community development, however, their influence is considered to be less salient, and therefore it is less researched. The present paper tries to fill this lacuna by focusing on the Mandela Soccer Academy, which was established in 2012 in Ghana by Mohammed Issa, a Lebanese-Ghanaian entrepreneur. The paper argues that Issa’s hybrid identity is reflected in his vision for the Mandela Soccer Academy, and is central to understanding children’s experiences there. The functioning and vision of the academy reflect an attempt by Issa to expose the academy’s children to cosmopolitan messages that he believes will broaden their horizons and improve their prospects. At the same time, the academy provides him with an opportunity to bolster the social collateral of the Lebanese in Ghana. The paper explores the ways in which the academy has become a juncture of translocal cultural production that transcends national boundaries, and assesses the extent to which the children have embraced Issa’s worldview.

Milton Hatoum’s Amazon Theater: Unsettling an Icon

THE Amazon Theater--built on a hill in the center of Manaus and topped with a shimmering green and yellow cupola--has an imposing presence. It was built to display triumph and grandeur, to tell a story of a city and a nation stepping boldly into modernity. However, as we learn from Henri Lefebvre, spaces that are produced to assert a specific message are among the most deceptive because, in telling one story, they strategically conceal others (143). Moreover, buildings change. In the case of Manaus's opera house, physical changes to the building (decay, restorations, and changes to the exterior color) are apparent, but more significant are the ways in which perceptions and uses of the theater have changed throughout the decades. Examples abound in much of Milton Hatoum's fiction of how the Amazon Theater asserts meaning. In his novel Relato de um certo oriente (1989), the opera house reminds a Lebanese immigrant of a mosque depicted in storybooks from his youth, thus giving his newfound tropical home an air of familiar fantasy. In Orfaos do Eldorado (2008), a man shows the theater to foreigners eager to visit the colosso de arquitetura na selva, which suggests how Manaus's main attraction appeals to tourists not just because of its architectural components, but because of the anomaly of finding a conspicuous opera house in the rainforest (21). Boys spy on performers in their dressing rooms in the story Varandas da Eva (2004), giving readers the impression that locals possess a shared knowledge of the building that allows them to enter it undetected and deftly navigate its interior. In the novel Cinzas do Norte (2005), the fresco on the ceiling of a Manaus mansion is a replica of the ceiling of the theater's Salao Nobre. The theater's artwork serves as a legible code among the local elite, connoting sophistication and status. The Amazon Theater is prominent in much of Hatoum's fiction, but no work showcases the legendary opera house more than do teatro Amazonas, originally published in 1996 in O EsTado de Sao Paulo to commemorate the theater's one-hundredth anniversary and later included in Hatoum's 2009 collection A cidade ilhada. (1) Ellen Dore Watson's excellent English translation of the original story appeared in 2006 in the Oxford Anthology of the Brazilian Short Story, edited by K. David Jackson. When flaunted on the city's postcards, the Amazon Theater is commonly viewed simply as the icon of Manaus. But Hatoum's work transcends such formulaic ways of seeing the theater. ninfa employs literary techniques such as unlikely juxtapositions, intentionally disorienting exposition, and a style that blurs distinctions between public and private, real and imagined, and belonging and displacement in order to upend simplistic conceptions of the Amazon Theater and challenge us to expand our conception of urban public space. In ninfa, set over two days in the mid-1990s, the Amazon Theater is closed to the public one morning, but it is not unoccupied. Eighty-seven-year-old Alvaro Celestino de Matos, a mentally ill man born in northern Portugal, has snuck inside the theater where he used to be a guard and believes he still works. A pregnant young woman in labor also finds the door unlocked and promptly gives birth in the seating area of the first floor. Afterward, Alvaro secretly observes the mother and newborn from the theater's stage through a hole in the closed curtain. Or so we are told by the narrator, a reporter who interviewed Alvaro and inquired about the unnamed pregnant woman. By having this theater--a locale seeped in highbrow customs--shelter two social outcasts, ninfa presents an exaggerated illustration of what a more egalitarian public space might look like. The story's depiction of the theater has a defamiliarizing effect, allowing us to see the building afresh. Defamiliarization, an artistic technique identified by Viktor Shklovsky in 1917 in his seminal essay Art as Technique, refers to the way in which literary language can make the familiar strange by heightening our perception: art exists so that one may recover the sensation of life; it exists to make one feel things, to make the stone stony. …

O Islã no Brasil: malês e “árabes” - dois momentos da presença muçulmana no contexto brasileiro

Este artigo apresenta alguns aspectos históricos da presença do Islã no Brasil e analisa acontecimentos como a revolta dos escravos Malês na Bahia e os fluxos migratórios de sírios e libanesas para o Brasil. Trata, portanto, de questões sobre a religião e sua estruturação nesses dois contextos históricos. O objetivo central é demonstrar que a presença do Islã em solo brasileiro desde o século XIX, proporcionada pelo tráfico de escravos trazidos da África, conhecidos como malês, nada tem a ver com as comunidades muçulmanas que aqui se estabeleceram a partir do século XX, com as imigrações de sírias e libanesas. Esses dois momentos históricos foram relatados aqui a partir de pesquisa bibliográfica que procurou analisar condições de possibilidades de estabelecimento desta religião em campo brasileiro, sendo que da fase das imigrações sírias e libanesas resultaram as comunidades contemporâneas. Nos dois casos, constata-se que o Islã no Brasil foi uma religião de estrangeiros, étnica, e que só agora parece se abrir para uma realidade mista, com a entrada de convertidos sem ascendência árabe. Não obstante, observa-se que mesmo tendo feito parte de um período da história, esta religião ainda é vista com certo estranhamento, mas se apresenta como mais uma opção no contexto religioso do país.

'Better than anywhere else'

Until the 1960s, the settlement of Lebanese migrants in Queensland was characteristically regional, with the immigrants dispersed widely throughout the state. Immigrant settlement involves a dynamic and complex interaction between the immigrants and the social, political and economic structures of the receiving society. An analysis of the settlement experience of Lebanese immigrants in Queensland from the 1880s reveals the interplay of several factors, which resulted in a distinct pattern of settlement. Fundamental to this experience was the influence of racially exclusive state and Commonwealth legislation and immigration policies. Additionally, Queensland’s particular geography and style of development, in conjunction with the predominance of self-employment and the segregation of Lebanese in petty commercial occupations such as hawking and shopkeeping, significantly determined the immigrants’ geographic settlement pattern. Finally, a less obvious but nonetheless important factor was the determination of the immigrants to settle permanently in Queensland. Whatever the reasons, this dispersed settlement pattern significantly shaped the lives of the immigrants and their descendants.

From Oysters to Olives at the Olympia Café

Greek cafés were a feature of Australian cities and country towns from the 1910s to the 1960s. Anglophile Australians, who knew the Greeks as dagos, were possessed of culinary imaginations that did not countenance the likes of olive oil, garlic, or lemon juice. As a result, Greek cafés catered to Australian tastes and became the social hubs of their communities. After establishing the diverse and evolving nature of food offered in Greek shops since their origins in the late nineteenth century – oyster saloons, cafés, fish shops, fruit shops, milk bars, snack bars, confectioneries – this article uses the concepts of “disgust” and “hunger” to offer new insights about food and identity in Australia’s Greek community and in the wider Australian culinary landscape. In particular, it applies Ghassan Hage’s work on nostalgia among Lebanese immigrants to the situation of Greek proprietors and reveals how memories of a lost homeland allowed café families to feel “at home” in Australia. In a land of “meat-n-three-veg,” a moussaka recipe the family had known for generations offered both a sense of identity and the comfort of familiarity, and Greek cafés, because they represented hope and opportunity, were familial spaces where feelings of nostalgia were affective building blocks with which Greeks engaged in homebuilding in a new land. And although their cafés did not serve Greek food, Greek proprietors and their families did eventually play a role in introducing the Australian palette to Mediterranean foods and foodways.