Emigration

Mark Farha notes in Global Politician:

Over 900,000 Lebanese emigrated between the outbreak of civil war in 1975 and 2001 (about 45 percent during the last decade of Syrian tutelage).

Although it was once assumed that a majority of these recent emigrants are Christian, one study estimates the percentage departure rates within each confession as: 22 percent of Sunnis; 21 percent of Shiites; 21 percent of Maronites; 23 percent of Greek Orthodox; and 15 percent of Druze.

A 2006 study conducted by the Lebanese Emigration Research Center at Notre Dame University (in Lebanon) found that emigration is equally sought by Muslims (59.7 percent) and Christians (61.3 percent), and for virtually the same socio-political reasons.

The available data thus raises questions about the longstanding assumption that the large majority of Lebanese citizens living abroad are Christians.

Picture: Arab Image Foundation