Beyond Home/Host Networks: Forms of Solidarity Among Lebanese Immigrants in a Global Era

Immigrant Entrepreneurship and Economic Adaptation: A Critical Analysis

“…Some national cultures are sceptical towards the wealth accumulation and people living there expect an individual to share his/her wealth with family members, even with distant relatives. Thus, solidarity with members of the same ethnic group becomes an important motivation which influences the economic activity of many immigrant groups, including for instance Lebanese (Abdelhady, 2006) or Mexican immigrants in Northern America (Vallejo & Lee, 2009). In such a case, the immigrant entrepreneur might be expected to contribute with some share of his income in social capital building, by supporting charity and religious organizations and community events -both in the host and home country (Lindley, 2009).…”

An aesthetics of diasporic citizenship: the example of Lebanese women in the UK

“…Yet the contemporary unprecedented level of population movement across borders reveals that citizens are more subjects to right than subjects of right. In addition to that, if globalization accentuates the weakness of national identities, this does not explain the frequent active assertions of ethnicities or specific identities, be they reactionary or progressive (Abdelhady 2006, see also Vertovec 2009). This situation calls for a renewed political anthropology of droit de cité (Balibar 2007, p. 15).…”

“…Lebanese migration therefore represents an illuminating case not only because of the long tradition of travelling across the world but also because it seems to have anticipated what has now emerged as a widespread 'diasporic' condition (Abdelhady 2006, p. 427). The Lebanese community exceeds the actual national perimeter, resulting in a large Lebanese diaspora that outnumbers the population in the home country (Nabti 1992, Abdulkarim 1996, Humphrey 1998, Hage 2002, Abdelhady 2006, Joost Beuving 2006. From the first attempt to address comprehensively the issue of Lebanese migration in a work edited by the Centre for Lebanese Studies in the 1990s to more recent studies that overtly speak of a Lebanese diaspora, it is evident that none focuses on the UK as a destination (Hourani andShehadi 1992, Tabar 2010).…”

Transnationalism among Second-Generation Muslim Americans: Being and Belonging in Their Transnational Social Field

“…On one hand, it facilitates across generation integration into the United States and, on the other, transnationalism supports the maintenance of traditional gender roles (Viruell-Fuentes 2006). In addition because of the convergence of global, national, and local politics around Islam, Muslims and other Americans are conscious of the group boundary that marks Muslim identity (Abdelhady 2006;Al-Ali 2002). For the second generation, relationships with family members in their parents' country of origin, even without actual visits, allows them to develop a transnational identity (Viruell-Fuentes 2006;Louie 2006).…”

“…In general, maintaining ties to the home left behind reorganizes family relationships in light of economic responsibilities (Osirim 2011;Binaisa 2013), gender roles (Das Gupta 1997Fouron and Schiller 2001;Fouron and Schiller 2001;Viruell-Fuentes 2006) and religious identities (Abdelhady 2006;Al-Ali 2002) as they are carried out in both nations. Economic and business opportunities in the United States can provide resources for communities in migrants' home countries and for the revitalization of urban American neighborhoods (Osirim 2011).…”