Lebanese Surinamese

Lebanese Surinamese are Surinamese citizens of Lebanese origin or descent. They are mostly Maronites from the town of Bsharri, Lebanon. There are also Syrians and Palestinians. In Suriname, they don't consider themselves as Arabs, as in other parts of South America, but they rather call themselves Phoenicians. They are predominantly Roman Catholic.

History

The Lebanese in Suriname are a small group. They had a significant proportion of the textile market, in particular of women's clothing fabrics, in the hands. Their number is limited in Suriname, probably AbOUT 500 people, but they have in the recent past so emphatically as an importer and retailer specializing in the textile industry that they have a typical - and economically successful - have become trade group in Paramaribo.

The first Lebanese are probably in the nineties of the last century to Suriname drawn. They are not recruited as indentured laborers for the plantations, but voluntarily come. Their migration to Suriname is nothing more than a small part of the great sprawl that especially the last 75 years from Lebanon took place abroad.

More than half of the Lebanese living outside Lebanon. The migration from Lebanon to Suriname is relatively late momentum. The first immigrants came from Lebanon, not directly but via Cayenne or the British islands in the area Karaibisch.

Only when a number of Lebanese in Suriname had been more firmly established, there was a direct migration. It is striking that most Lebanese in Suriname come from a village, namely Bazhoun, a Maronite village near Tripoli (Maronites are a Christian ethnic group of Syrian origin). Therefore, the most closely related. From this village are also residents to other parts of the area Karáibisch drawn, with the result that the Lebanese in Suriname on a 'multinational' network of contacts available.

Unless the material of the first general census deduced - other sources are not available - in 1921 there were about 60 Lebanese in Paramaribo and a much smaller number in Albina and New Nickerie. In the beginning of the century, mainly as peddlers and market vendors, much more later as merchants and shopkeepers. From the register of the Chamber of Commerce show that in 1939 she nearly half of the better textile business in Paramaribo in their hands.

Their emergence in the market by the Lebanese themselves attributed to a common `succeed ', through a system in which they stood by each other. If foreigners in the colony trade them for the easiest entrance.

After the Second World War, their economic positions in trading successfully developed and they went among the richer groups. For example, while in 1950 only an average of 4% of all households in Paramaribo, capital tax paid, the percentage among the Lebanese that property taxes paid about 60%. Both their role in the import and retail - that are often within the same company exercised - is important. In their shops they focus not, as in the beginning of this century, the poorer, but especially on the more well-off. The number of cases has also steadily expanded since the war and is now probably over forty.

The Lebanese who came to Suriname have established themselves there permanently. There is still a very small immigration of relatives from Lebanon and from countries in the region Karáibisch. Repatriation to Lebanon does not occur.

They possess in Suriname only a weak sense of cultural identity. There are, for example, under the low Suriname born who, - in contrast to most older people -, Arabic can read and write. The `Libanistenclub ', where they formerly much came together around 1960 is lifted.

In general, they have the last decades a strong focus on inclusion in the Surinamese society. Thus, they have almost all naturalized. This insertion in Suriname is facilitated by their religion. As Maronites, they joined the Roman Catholic Church, whose clergy besides the Netherlands and Suriname Dutch education within their field of vision brought. Typical for the Lebanese is the emphasis on the education of their children have made.

The majority of youth is not employed in the textile trade and academic functions.

Their cultural incorporation in the Surinamese society in recent decades is increasingly associated with the closing of marriages outside their own group. While migration is a family character wore in Suriname was initially mainly with peers married, sometimes the Karáibische islands were removed. The majority of marriages is now `mixed ', so that the Lebanese group in this respect more immersed in the Surinamese society.