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Arab diaspora

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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 place of Arab migration, arriving as early as the nineteenth century in some countries. The largest Arab colony in the world resides 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 Lebanese or Syrian extraction and are mostly Christian.

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. Increasing numbers of Lebanese students are travelling abroad to further their education in safer environments.

As of November 2006, the U.N. High Commissioner on Refugees estimated that 1.8 million Iraqis had been displaced to neighboring countries, with nearly 100,000 Iraqis fleeing to Syria and Jordan each month. 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.

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. 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.

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.

Arab Man of the Year

Arab Man of the Year 2006

Naguib Mahfouz (December 11, 1911 – August 30, 2006) a novelist who won the 1988 Nobel Prize for Literature.

Arab Men of the Year 2005 1) Moustapha Akkad (July 1, 1930 – November 11, 2005) film producer and director. 2) Rafik Baha ad-Din Hariri — (November 1, 1944 – February 14, 2005). Prime Minister of Lebanon from 1992 to 1998 and again from 2000 until his resignation on 20 October


Arab Men of the Year 2004 Abdul Rahman Munif: 1933-2004 Gifted Arab novelist

Arab Men of the Year 2003 Edward Wādi’ Sa‘id) (1 November 1935 – 25 September 2003)

Arab Men of the Year 2002 Prof. Abdel-Rahman Badawi.

Arab Men of the Year 2001 Arab Men of the Year 2000: Arab Men of the Year 1999: Ahmed Zewail (February 26, 1946) Arab Men of the Year 1998: Nizar Tawfiq Kabbani (21 March 1923 – 30 April 1998) Arab Men of the Year 1993: Albert Habib Hourani (March 31, 1915 – January 17, 1993) Baleegh Hamdi (October 7, 1932 –September 12, 1993) Arab Men of the Year 1988 Mikhail Naimy, a Lebanese poet and philosopher, died in East Beirut on Sunday after developing pneumonia, his relatives said today. He was 98 years old. Arab Men of the Year 1987 Tawfiq al-Hakim, Arab Men of the Year 1977 Abdul Halim Hafez (1929 – 1977) Arab Men of the Year 1974: Fareed el Atrash 1914 - 1974. Arab Men of the Year 1973: Taha Hussein (November 14, 1889—October 28, 1973) Arab Men of the Year 1953 Khalil al-Sakakini (January 23, 1878 - August 13, 1953) Arab Men of the Year 1940: Ameen Rihani Born in Freike, Lebanon, on November 24, 1876 Arab Men of the Year 1931: Omar el-Mukhtar is the name of a Libyan nationalist who fought against the Italian occupation and who was hanged by the colonial authorities in 1931. Gibran Kahlil Gibran 1883-1931 Poet, philosopher, and artist, Arab Men of the Year 1883 Butrus al-Bustani (1883-1819) was a notable Arab writer and scholar. Arab Men of the Year 1368 Ibn Battuta Arab Men of the Year 1198 Abu'l-Walid Ibn Rushd, better known as Averroes (1126-1198) Arab Men of the Year 1064 Ibn Hazm (7 November 994 – 15 August 1064 456 AH) in full Abū Muḥammad ʿAlī ibn Aḥmad ibn Saʿīd ibn 980 Ibn al-Jazzar, who died in 980 in Qayrawan Arab Men of the Year 965 al-Mutanabbi (Arabic: 'abū t-tayyibi 'ahmadi bni hussayn 'al-mutanabbi) Arab Men of the Year 915 Baghdad 965) Arab poet, considered the greatest of the classical Arab poets. Arab Men of the Year 897 Abbasid poet, al-Buḥturī (d. 897) Arab Men of the Year 869 al-JAHIZ 776-869


Prominent members of the Arab diaspora include;

See also

External links

References

  1. Lebanon's Brain Drain by Tim May. Edinburgh Middle East Report Online. Winter 2006.
  2. "U.N.: 100,000 Iraq refugees flee monthly". Alexander G. Higgins, Boston Globe, November 3, 2006.
  3. US in Iraq for 'another 50 years', The Australian, June 2, 2007
  4. Sweden urges EU to take in Iraqis
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