Lebanese Australian
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Lebanese Australian is the name given to an ethnic group in Australia who are either migrants or descended from migrants from Lebanon. Lebanese Australians are the ninth largest ethnic group in Australia, numbering 162,239 or 0.8 per cent of respondents in the 2001 Census.
The census recorded 71,310 Lebanon-born persons in Australia.
According to data from the 2001 Census, Lebanese Australians are heavily concentrated in New South Wales: 74.7 per cent of the Lebanon-born live in NSW — mainly Greater Sydney and in particular the suburbs around Lakemba — compared to only 33.3 per cent of the Australian population as a whole. It is likely that the Lebanese Australian children of the Lebanon-born are also found predominantly in NSW.
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Community history
Lebanese migrants to Australia were not habitually distinguished from Turks prior to 1918 because the area of modern Lebanon was a province of the Ottoman Empire until it passed to French colonial rule. Thereafter the Lebanese were not distinguished from Syrians as Lebanon and Syria were two French colonies in proximity. (This was a common enough practice in Australian immigration information — for example, the UK and Ireland were not statistically separate until as late as 1996). Nevertheless, it is understood that the first Lebanese migrants to Australia were Christian tradespeople who arrived in 1876,making the Lebanese population one of the older established communities in the country — of similar vintage to the Greeks, Italians and Germans. By 1947 there were 1,886 Lebanon-born in Australia, almost all Christian.
Between 1947 and 1961 there was a steady increase in the migration and by 1966 there were 10,688 Lebanon-born in the country. By 1976 this number had nearly tripled to 33,424 in response to the 1967 Arab-Israeli War and the beginning in 1975 Lebanese Civil War For the remainder of the 1970s and 1980s unrest in Lebanon caused a large increase in the number of Lebanese migrating to Australia, and for the first time the settlers included substantial numbers of Muslims. All main Lebanese groups — Maronites, Melkites, Greek Orthodox, Greek Catholics, Druze, Shi'a, Sunnis, Armenians and Kurds (amongst others) — are now represented.
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 25,000 Australian citizens resident in Lebanon. During the 2006 Israel-Lebanon conflict, the Australian Government organised mass evacuations of Australians resident in Lebanon, and at the time of writing — February 2007 — the number of Australians — whether Lebanese Australian or not — remaining in the country is no longer accurately known.
Religion
According to census data released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics in 2004, Lebanese Australians are, by religion, 43.0 per cent Catholic, 0.9 per cent Anglican, 11.8 per cent Other Christian, 40.2 per cent Muslim (mainly Shi'a and Sunni), and 4.0 per cent No Religion.
Language
In 2001, the Arabic language was spoken at home by 209,400 persons in Australia, including the majority of the Lebanese Australian community.
Notable Lebanese Australians
- Anthony Alexander Alam — member of the New South Wales Legislative Council
- Ron Bakir — Cellular phone retailer
- Marie Bashir — Governor of New South Wales
- Steve Bracks — Premier of Victoria
- Sam Doumany — former Attorney-General and Minister for Justice in Queensland
- Benny Elias — former National Rugby League player
- Hazem El Masri — Canterbury Bulldogs Rugby league player
- Ahmad Elrich — footballer, Australian national football team
- Ahmed Fahour — CEO National Australia Bank
- Joe Hachem — 2005 World Series of Poker champion
- Sabrina Houssami — 2006 Australian representative at Miss World
- Joe Hasham — actor
- Mil Hanna — former Australian rules footballer with Carlton
- Tamara Jaber — member of reality television pop band
- Bilal Khazal — Al-Qaeda associate, jihadist, Qantas baggage handler.
- David Malouf — writer
- Daryl Melham — poltician for ALP, member for Division of Banks
- Feiz Mohammed —fundamentalist cleric
- Barbara Perry — parliamentarian, NSW
- Roger Rasheed — tennis coach
- Sleek the Elite — actor and hip hop artist
- Jim Saleam — leader of far right National Action and member of National Socialist party of Australia, jailed for attempted murder
- Bilal Skaf — convicted rapist
- Nicholas Shehadie — Lord Mayor of Sydney for two years
- John Symond — founder and Managing Director of the Aussie Group
- Keysar Trad — community spokesman
