Lebanese Australians

Lebanese Australians () refers to citizens or permanent residents of Australia of Lebanese ancestry. The population is diverse, having a large Christian religious base, being mostly Maronite Catholics, while also having a large Muslim group of Sunni and Shia branches.

Lebanon, in both its modern-day form as the Lebanese state (declared 1920; independent 1943), and its historical form as the region of the Lebanon, has been a source of migrants to Australia since the 1870s. 248,430 Australians (about 1% of the total population) claimed some Lebanese ancestry in 2021. The 2021 census reported 87,343 Lebanese-born people in Australia, with nearly 66,000 of those resident in Greater Sydney.

Diaspora history

19th-century migration As part of a large-scale emigration in the 1870s, Lebanese Christians fleeing the Ottoman Empire's declining economy, migrated to the United Kingdom, Brazil, Argentina and other Latin American nations, particularly Venezuela, Colombia, and Ecuador. Many also went to the United States, Canada and Australia, primarily the eastern states, and New South Wales in particular.

In the 1890s, the numbers of Lebanese immigrants to Australia rose, part of the mass emigration from the area of Lebanon that became the modern Lebanese state and the Anti-Lebanon Mountains region that became Syria.

Second wave of migration The Lebanese-born population numbered 24,000 in 1971. Following the outbreak of the Lebanese Civil War in 1975–1990, this wave of migrants were often poor and for the first time, over half of them were Muslim. This influx of new migrants changed the character of the established Lebanese community in Australia significantly, especially in Sydney where 70% of the Lebanese-born population were concentrated.

Christian Maronite and Orthodox Lebanese Christians that settled in Australia over the last two centuries were able to gain some influence within Australian politics. In late 1975, unrest in Lebanon caused a group of influential Maronite Australians to approach Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Fraser and his immigration minister, Michael MacKellar regarding the resettling of Lebanese civilians with their Australian relatives. Immediate access to Australia could not be granted under normal immigration categories, thus the Lebanese people were categorised as refugees. This was not in the traditional sense as the Lebanese people were not fleeing from persecution but escaping from internal conflict between Muslim and Christian groups. This action was known as the "Lebanon Concession".

Between 1975–1990, more than 30,000 civil war refugees arrived in Australia. Most immigrants were Muslim Lebanese from deprived rural areas who learned of Australia's Lebanon Concession and decided to seek a better life. They were Muslims from northern Lebanon as Christian and Muslim Lebanese were unwilling to leave the capital city, Beirut. Immigrants of the Lebanese Concession primarily settled in south-west Sydney; Sunnis in Lakemba and Shias in Arncliffe.

Return migration Lebanese Australians have a moderate rate of return migration to Lebanon. In December 2001, the Department of Foreign Affairs estimated that there were 30,000 Australian citizen residents in Lebanon. During the 2006 Israel-Lebanon conflict, the Australian Government organised mass evacuations of Australian residents in Lebanon.

Demographics Worldwide, most people of Lebanese ancestry today live outside Lebanon, and are known as the Lebanese diaspora which numbers from 8Bassil promises to ease citizenship for expatriates to possibly 14 million.

Locations In New South Wales, most Lebanese Australians were reported to reside in the Western Sydney council areas of City of Bankstown, with City of Holroyd, City of Canterbury and City of Parramatta (all pre-2016 council areas). The area included suburbs such as Lakemba, Greenacre and Punchbowl.

In Victoria, like most Middle-Easterners, Lebanese Australians are mostly found in the North and West of Melbourne, in areas such as the City of Hume, City of Merri-bek, and the City of Whittlesea , particularly in suburbs such as Broadmeadows, Coburg, Preston, Campbellfield, Altona North, and Glenroy.

Religious diversity

According to the , 33.8% of Australians, who were born in Lebanon were Catholics, 7.1% were Eastern Orthodox, 4.4% were Protestant, 1.2% were Oriental Orthodox, 45.1% were Muslims, and 3.8% followed secular or no religious beliefs.

+ Lebanese-born Australian demography by religionReligious group202120162011 Catholic 29,549 26,872 28,008 Eastern Orthodox 6,170 5,635 7,164 Oriental Orthodox 1,010 1,029 1,071 Protestant and Other christian 3,837 3,481 2,225 (Total Christian)40,570 37,026 38,466 Islam 39,406 34,196 33,560 No religion 3,352 2,830 1,274 Buddhism 30 23 26 Hinduism 14 17 3 Judaism 27 35 24 Other (mostly Druze) 1,476 1,055 1,069 Not stated 2,273 3,318 1,909 Total Lebanese Australian population 87,340 78,651 76,450

+ Lebanese Australian demography by religion (Ancestry included)Religious group202120162011 Catholic 124,103 113,319 109,706 Eastern Orthodox 22,335 20,321 23,758 Oriental Orthodox 1,926 1,829 1,694 Protestant and Other christian 15,334 14,256 9,754 (Total Christian)163,703 149,707 144,905 Islam 136,671 126,260 115,928 No religion 23,457 16,685 8,090 Buddhism 201 178 179 Hinduism 57 45 25 Judaism 100 95 88 Other (mostly Druze) 4,599 3,457 3,288 Not stated 6,445 12,467 6,513 Total Lebanese Australian population 335,775 309,523 279,588

Business The peak business body is the Australian Lebanese Chamber of Commerce, with associations in both Sydney and Melbourne.

Arts, culture, terminology In 1996, Lebanon...Imprisoned Splendour the first Australian documentary about the impact of the Lebanese Civil War on Australian Lebanese was released by journalist Daizy Gedeon who was deputy foreign editor at The Australian newspaper. The film featured Omar Sharif and won global acclaim. In 2014, a series of documentaries on Lebanese Australians was presented by SBS under the title Once Upon a Time in Punchbowl.Once Upon a Time in Punchbowl at SBS On Demand, 3 July 2014. Retrieved 7 July 2014

The Lebanese Film Festival was launched in Sydney in 2012. Every year since then, it has showcases films which are either filmed or based in Lebanon, or made by Lebanese film makers throughout the world. The organisation is based in Bankstown, but the film festival travels to cinemas in Newcastle and Bowral in NSW, as well as Adelaide, Canberra, Melbourne and Brisbane from August to November each year.

In 2017–8, two seasons of the sitcom Here Come the Habibs, featuring a Lebanese Australian family who win the lottery and move to the posh eastern suburbs of Sydney, aired on Channel 9.

Michael Mohammed Ahmad's 2018 comic novel The Lebs was shortlisted for the 2019 Miles Franklin Award. He had previously written an essay entitled "Lebs and Punchbowl Prison", the prison referring to his alma mater, Punchbowl Boys' High School. At his school, the term "Lebs" did not refer just to boys from Lebanese family, but to anyone whose family came from the Middle East, and even included boys with African and Indonesian backgrounds. The term "Leb" or "Lebo" has been used as a derogatory term, mostly in Sydney and Melbourne, and gained more widespread use after the 2005 Cronulla Riots. It is listed in the Collins English Dictionary as "Australian (offensive, slang), a person from Lebanon or of Lebanese origin". Ahmad wishes to help reclaim the word through his writing.

Notable Lebanese Australians

Lebanese Australians

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