Arab diaspora

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Arabs
العرب
Ibn al-Haytham • Abd-ar-Rahman III • Abu al-Qasim al-Zahrawi • Averroes
May Ziade • Philip the Arab • Gamal Abdel Nasser • Fairuz
Total population

approx. 350 to 422 million[1]
Regions with significant populations
Middle East (Fertile Crescent · Arabian Peninsula)
Northern Africa
Languages
Arabic
Religions
Islam, Christianity, Judaism, Druze among others
Related ethnic groups
Jews and other Middle Eastern groups

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, The Caribbean, and West Africa, particularly in the Ivory Coast (home to over 100,000 Lebanese), Senegal (roughly 20,000 Lebanese), Sierra Leone (roughly 6,000 Lebanese 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 side of the Arabian Peninsula, It's Hadramout the 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, Jamaica, Dominican Republic, Haiti, Trinidad & Tobago, 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 Lebanese, Syrian, or Palestinian ancestry and are mostly Christian while there are also sizeable minorities of Jews and Muslims.

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.[2] 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.[3][4][5] 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.[6]

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.[7] An estimated 1,000,000 Arabs live in the United Kingdom representing 1.7% of the country's population, the vast majority of these originate from the Middle East (250,000 Iraqis live in the UK) and Egypt (some 150,000). 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 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. Enclavism is evident in Australian Arab culture, where most Arab immigrants associate only with other Arab immigrants and avoid assimilation or even acclimatisation, with even Australian born Arab's being unable to speak English at a native level.[citation needed]

[edit] Notable persons

Prominent members of the Arab diaspora include;

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

[edit] References

  1. ^ Arabic Language - ninemsn Encarta
  2. ^ Lebanon's Brain Drain by Tim May. Edinburgh Middle East Report Online. Winter 2006.
  3. ^ Iraq refugees chased from home, struggle to cope
  4. ^ U.S., West seen skirting Iraqi refugee crisis
  5. ^ "U.N.: 100,000 Iraq refugees flee monthly". Alexander G. Higgins, Boston Globe, November 3, 2006.
  6. ^ US in Iraq for 'another 50 years', The Australian, June 2, 2007
  7. ^ Sweden urges EU to take in Iraqis
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