Experiences and Attitudes Toward Cross-Border Migration Among Lebanese People: Reconsidering the Image of the “New Phoenicians”

The chapter considers the experiences and the attitudes of the Lebanese toward cross-border migration and explains its effects on contemporary Lebanese politics and societies. To this end, we analyzed the results of “Middle East Opinion Poll (Lebanon 2010),” which was conducted by the Beirut Center for Research and Information (BCRI) in May and June 2010. There are some widespread stereotyped images about the Lebanese; for example, they are cosmopolitan, multilingual, and business oriented, and tend to be entrepreneurial. These images have led the Lebanese to be commonly known as the “New Phoenicians” or a typical case of “Trade Diasporas.” However, the credibility of these images has not necessarily been verified. In this paper, therefore, we attempted to verify the stereotyped image that all the Lebanese are cosmopolitan, by scientific methods and rethought conventional wisdom. The result suggests that all the Lebanese and Lebanese emigrants not necessarily embody the stereotyped images of “New Phoenicians” and “Trade Diasporas,” and there is room for further research on the patterns of cross-border movement of the Lebanese.