Politics Culture And The Lebanese Diaspora

This book is a collection of essays that were originally presented at a conference at the Lebanese American University in late May 2007, entitled “Politics, Culture and the Lebanese Diaspora.” It looks at various facets of the Lebanese Diaspora and examines the politics and culture of Lebanese migrants and their descendants in different parts of the world while detailing the communal, national and transnational elements of these practices and exploring the changing characteristics of politics and culture in respect to migration, Diaspora and globalization. The essays raise questions about the (in)compatible and interpenetrating relationships between these dynamics, and analyze processes of identity formation as cultural manifestations of migratory politics. The book is divided into three main sections. The first section deals with issues of identity and multiculturalism among Lebanese emigrants, concluding that identities are continuously molded and negotiated in the diaspora. It examines the formation of identities among second and third-generation migrants, and the changing conceptions of the meaning of roots and homelands. The second section deals with politics and activism in the Diaspora. It looks at how diasporas relate to the political processes in their homelands during post-conflict resolution and explores the role of Lebanese migrants abroad in the process of peace-building back home. The third part deals with the Diaspora in literature and media through the assessment of key writings on the explorations of self of the Lebanese abroad, drawing on how symbols of identification and conventions of representation become sites of conflict over time. The wide variety of perspectives presented in these papers invite us to challenge the notion of a fixed, bounded, and rigid homeland and identity, and move towards one that is more nomadic and fluid. They call us to pay attention to the symbols used in the cultural construction of both homelands and identities in the country of immigration and to think of the complex ways in which transnational politics affect the homeland and are in turn affected by it.

The Lebanese are the largest group of Middle Eastern immigrants in the United States, and Lebanese immigrants are also prominent across Europe and the Americas. Based on over eighty interviews with first-generation Lebanese immigrants in the global cities of New York, Montreal and Paris, this book shows that the Lebanese diaspora – like all diasporas – constructs global relations connecting and transforming their new societies, previous homeland and world-wide communities. Taking Lebanese immigrants’ forms of identification, community attachments and cultural expression as manifestations of diaspora experiences, Dalia Abdelhady delves into the ways members of Lebanese diasporic communities move beyond nationality, ethnicity and religion, giving rise to global solidarities and negotiating their social and cultural spaces. The Lebanese Diaspora explores new forms of identities, alliances and cultural expressions, elucidating the daily experiences of Lebanese immigrants and exploring new ways of thinking about immigration, ethnic identity, community, and culture in a global world. By criticizing and challenging our understandings of nationality, ethnicity and assimilation, Abdelhady shows that global immigrants are giving rise to new forms of cosmopolitan citizenship.

This work is the first comprehensive history of the Lebanese migrant communities of colonial French West Africa, a vast expanse that covered present-day Senegal, Côte d'Ivoire, Mali, Guinea, Benin and Mauritania. Where others have concentrated on the commercial activities of these migrants, casting them as archetypal middlemen, this work reconstructs not just their economic strategies, but also their social and political lives. Moreover, it examines the fraught responses of colonial Frenchmen to the unsettling presence of these interlopers of empire--responses which, with their echoes of metropolitan racism, helped to shape the ways in which Lebanese migrants represented themselves and justified their place in West Africa. This is a work which attempts not just to reshape broader understandings of diasporic life-of Janus-like existences lived in transit between distant locales, and de- pendent on the constant to-and-fro of people, news, and goods--but also to challenge the way we think about empires, and the relations between their constituent territories and diverse inhabitants.

The Lebanese civil war, which spanned the years of 1975 to 1990,caused the migration of hundreds of thousands of Lebanese citizens, many of whom are still writing of their experiences. Jumana Bayeh presents an important and major study of the literature of the Lebanese diaspora. Focusing on novels and writings produced in the aftermath of Lebanon's protracted civil war, Bayeh explores the complex relationships between place, displacement and belonging, and illuminates the ways in which these writings have shaped a global Lebanese identity. Combining history with sociology, Bayeh examines how the literature borne out of this expatriate community reflects a Lebanese diasporic imaginary that is sensitive to the entangled associations of place and identity. Paving the way for new approaches to understanding diasporic literature and identity, this book will be vital for researchers of migration studies and Middle Eastern literature, as well as those interested in the cultures, history and politics of the Middle East.

Perceptions of the Middle East in conflicting discourses from North America, South America, and Europe

Lebanese Capitalism and the Emergence of a Transnational Mode of Existence -- On Being Propelled into the World: Existential Mobility and the Migratory Illusio -- Diasporic Anisogamy -- From Ambivalent to Fragmented Subjects -- On Diasporic Lenticularity -- Lenticular Realities and Anisogamic Intensifications -- The Lebanese Transnational Diasporic Family -- Diaspora and Sexuality: A Case Study -- Diasporic Jouissance and Perverse Anisogamy: Negotiated Being in the Streets of Beirut.

After fifteen years of reconstruction in a relatively peaceful environment spanning the years 1990 to 2004, Lebanon has experienced successive violent political events resulting from complex entangled internal and external struggles. The Syrian crisis and its political, economic and demographic consequences on Lebanon have increased these tensions. This atlas sheds light on these new challenges and adds new data that complete the analyses already published in the Atlas du Liban. Territoires et société (Atlas of Lebanon. Territories and Society) released in 2007 by the same research team. Some of its components are included in this edition. Beyond the international regional crisis and the population movements, it takes into account Lebanon’s socio-economic dimensions, the environmental issues linked to uncontrolled urbanization and to natural risks, as well as conflicts due to local territorial management. This atlas is the result of a collaborative endeavor between French and Lebanese researchers. It uses a geographical approach that puts in the foreground a spatial analysis of social and natural phenomena. Public sources are scarce in Lebanon, especially at the local scale. They are sometimes less reliable and difficult to access. It is particularly the case for the Lebanese census data, conversely data are abundantly available on the refugees population, which is less known than the population of refugees. International data help compare Lebanon to its neighbors. Thematic data produced by some ministries are helpful to provide a detailed view regarding specific domains. Analyses processed on aerial and satellite images have produced essential data on urbanization and environment. Local thematic fieldwork surveys have provided additional data. The book consists of seven chapters. The first one deals with the territorial state-building seen in the light of regional geopolitics, and emphasizes internal violence and the reemergence of militias and armed groups that fight each other and the state army. Lebanon is once again perceived as a territory divided between multiple allegiances. The second chapter is devoted to the analysis of population dynamics, despite the lack of reliable data whose sources are subject to discussion. It includes analyses of internal population flows, the Lebanese diaspora, and the assessment of Syrian refugees’ influx. The third chapter shows the fragility of the Lebanese economic model. Its dependency on foreign investments and on...