Arab diaspora

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Arabs
العرب
Image:Ramallah-Family-1905.jpg
Arab family from Ramallah, 1905.
Total population

approx. 300 to 340 million

Regions with significant populations
Image:Flag of Algeria.svg Algeria
Image:Flag of Bahrain.svg Bahrain
Image:Flag of Brazil.svg Brazil[1] 17.800.000
Image:Flag of Djibouti.svg Djibouti
Image:Flag of Egypt.svg Egypt
Image:Flag of Eritrea.svg Eritrea
Image:Flag of Europe.svg Europe
Image:Flag of Iraq.svg Iraq
Image:Flag of Iran.svg Iran (Ahwaz, Khurasan and Hormozgan and Bushehr)
Image:Flag of Israel.svg Israel
Image:Flag of Jordan.svg Jordan
Image:Flag of Kuwait.svg Kuwait
Image:Flag of Lebanon.svg Lebanon
Image:Flag of Libya.svg Libya
Image:Flag of Mauritania.svg Mauritania
Image:Flag of Morocco.svg Morocco
Image:Flag of Oman.svg Oman
Palestinian territories
Image:Flag of Qatar.svg Qatar
Image:Flag of Saudi Arabia.svg Saudi Arabia
Image:Flag of Somalia.svg Somalia
Image:Flag of Sudan.svg Sudan
Image:Flag of Syria.svg Syria
Image:Flag of Tunisia.svg Tunisia
Image:Flag of the United Arab Emirates.svg United Arab Emirates
Image:Flag of Yemen.svg Yemen
Language(s)
Arabic and other minority languages
Religion(s)
Sunni Islam, Shia Islam, Christianity, Druzism and Judaism

Arab diaspora refers to the numbers of Arab immigrants, and their descendants, who voluntarily or as refugees emigrated from their native countries and now reside in non-Arab nations, primarily in Western countries as well as parts of Asia, Latin America and West Africa, particularly in the Ivory Coast (home to over 100,000 Lebanese), Senegal (roughly 20,000), Sierra Leone (roughly 6,000 today; about 30,000 prior to the outbreak of civil war in 1991), and Liberia. Since the end of the civil war in 2002, Lebanese traders have become reestablished in Sierra Leone.

Arab traders have long operated in Southeast Asia, trading in spices, timber and textiles. But an important trading minority in the region that goes largely unrecognised comprises the local descendants of Arabs. Most of the prominent Indonesians, Malaysians and Singaporeans of Arab descent have their origins in southern Yemen in the Hadramawt coastal region. They are the Hadramis. As many as 4 million Indonesians are of Hadrami descent and today there are almost 10,000 Hadramis in Singapore.

The Americas have long been a destination for Arab migration, with Arabs arriving in some countries at least as early as the nineteenth century, but even as early as 1492 with several Moors among Christopher Columbus' crew . The largest concentration of Arabs outside the Middle East is in Brazil, which has over 12 million Brazilians of Arab ancestry. Of these 12 million Brazilian Arabs, over 9 million are of Lebanese ancestry, making Brazil's population of Lebanese three times greater than that of Lebanon. Most other Brazilians of Arab descent are mainly Syrian. There are also large Arab communities in Mexico, Argentina, Colombia, Ecuador, and Venezuela. Palestinians cluster in Chile and Central America, particularly El Salvador and Honduras. The 300,000-strong Palestinian community in Chile is the fourth largest in the world after those in Israel, Lebanon and Jordan. In the United States there are around 3.5 million people of Arab ancestry. Most Arabs of the Americas are of either Palestinian, Lebanese or Syrian and are mostly Christian.[2] (Note: The identification of Egyptians as "Arab" is frequently contested -- see Egypt#Identity for more information.)

The Lebanese diaspora, while historically trade-related, has more recently been linked to the Lebanese Civil War and the 2006 Lebanon War. In October 2006, shortly after the war between Hezbollah and Israel had concluded, the Edinburgh Middle East Report ran an article covering the brain drain from Lebanon's universities.[3] Increasing numbers of Lebanese students are travelling abroad to further their education in safer environments.

As of June 21, 2007, the U.N. High Commissioner on Refugees estimated that over 2.2 million Iraqis had been displaced to neighboring countries, with up to 100,000 Iraqis fleeing to Syria and Jordan each month.[4][5][6] As a result of growing international pressure, on June 1, 2007 the Bush administration said it was ready to admit 7,000 Iraqi refugees who had helped the coalition since the invasion. According to Washington based Refugees International the U.S. has admitted fewer than 800 Iraqi refugees since the invasion, Sweden had accepted 18,000 and Australia had resettled almost 6,000.[7]

In France, the Benelux countries, Spain and much of the rest of Europe, the Arab communities are of North African origin, particularly Algeria and Morocco, and are mostly Muslim. In Marseille, Arabs make up 25% of the total population. About 80,000 Iraqis live in Sweden, forming the country’s second largest immigrant group.[8] There is also a medium sized Arab community in Australia, where Arabic is the fourth most widely spoken second-language. The number of Muslim and Christian Arab Australians are roughly equal with a slight upper hand to Christians. See Australian population: ethnic origins.[1]

Contents

[edit] Challenges

There are no exact figures of how many Arabs live in diaspora (expatriates). There are many challenges facing Arabs in diaspora, especially in the post 9/11 world: First: Suspicion of Arabs and Muslims has reached almost a paranoid proportion. Racism towards Arabs has reached new heights.

Second: Another delicate issue for the Diaspora Arabs is the relationship with motherlands and/or fatherlands. These challenges depend on which generation of Arab immigrants we are talking about. Usually, the first generation Arab immigrants are caught between a love for the motherland that on hand increased by leaps and bounds following immigration and fueled mainly by nostalgia and a certain degree of “culture shock,” and resentment stemming from feeling driven out by unfavorable circumstances.

Third: After an initial period of “shock,” the first generation Arab immigrants start the slow process of acculturation/assimilation. The Arab in his self-imposed-exile faces the ambivalence associated with the love-hate relationship with the motherland and/or fatherland.

Fourth: Nostalgia: The memory of the Arab immigrant polishes events, people and places and plays “tricks” on his mind. The things that used to irritate the Arab immigrant in the motherland start to seem so trivial after a few months away. Arabs in diaspora start forgetting or minimizing the bitterness that drove them out and remember only the sweet. In a way nostalgia becomes deceptive and memory turns selective. The first generation immigrant Arab is perplexed and his nostalgia leaves him or her with a heavy heart. Even a song that reminds an Arab of his childhood or adolescence puts a lump in his throat. The bond to the motherland becomes like a rubber band the draws the emigrant Arab ever stronger the longer and the farther he stays away.

[edit] Notable persons

Prominent members of the Arab diaspora include;

  • Abdalá Bucaram (Lebanese origin), former President of Ecuador
  • Alberto Dahik (Lebanese origin), former Vice President of Ecuador
  • Andres Dauhajre (Syrian origin), prominent Dominican Economist
  • Antonio Saca (Palestinian origin), current President of El Salvador
  • Carlos Alfredo Fatule (Palestinian origin0, famous Dominican showman

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

[edit] References

  1. ^ http://www.brazzil.com/2004/html/articles/sep04/p118sep04.htm
  2. ^ The Dynamics of Identity Reconstruction among Arab Communities in the United States by Al-Sayed al-Aswad. Anthropos Institute. 2006.
  3. ^ Lebanon's Brain Drain by Tim May. Edinburgh Middle East Report Online. Winter 2006.
  4. ^ Iraq refugees chased from home, struggle to cope
  5. ^ U.S., West seen skirting Iraqi refugee crisis
  6. ^ "U.N.: 100,000 Iraq refugees flee monthly". Alexander G. Higgins, Boston Globe, November 3, 2006.
  7. ^ US in Iraq for 'another 50 years', The Australian, June 2, 2007
  8. ^ Sweden urges EU to take in Iraqis
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