Lebanese Diaspora: An Essential Voice in Lebanon’s Future
Summary
In r/Lebanon, this announcement challenges the idea that Lebanese people abroad are less Lebanese or less entitled to shape national conversations. It highlights their family ties, potential return, and international expertise as valuable contributions to Lebanon’s future and rebuilding.
Lebanese diaspora are Lebanese
There's kind of a trend among some Lebanese to kind of deride the diaspora, to treat them as if they're somehow less Lebanese than those living in Lebanon. You can hear it in comments like "How dare they think X, let them come live here and then talk."
You can even see it in political commentators like Ronnie Chatah and Saleh Machnouk, who have expressed disdain for diaspora Lebanese expressing their opinions, painting the voices of the diaspora as less important somehow because they don't have to experience life in Lebanon and the difficulties here.
I find this ironic because these people don't actually platform people who were the most affected by the war unless they say the things those commentators want to hear, but I'm going to put that aside for now.
First of all a lot of the diaspora are going to come back to Lebanon at some point. Many of them live in countries which do not provide a pathway to citizenship, meaning that if they lose their jobs or want to retire, they will have to come back so they have a very real interest in the future of the country even though they don't live in it. Even a lot of those with dual citizenship would love to come back, have family here, etc., so they have a stake in the country's future as well.
Beyond that, I personally believe that if we want to rebuild the country, the diaspora have a massive role to play, and I don't mean by sending money here or by coming back for a couple of weeks during the summer to see their families. I mean that diaspora Lebanese have lived in the countries that they lived in for a long time, have relationships with the people of those countries, in a lot of cases have reached high positions. They know what the difficulties are there, how the systems in those countries function and more generally the realities of those countries. They have built expertise that is not possible to get in Lebanon, and exposed to different environments that give them a unique perspective on things.
That knowledge is invaluable. When deciding what kind of econ...
Post Author: /u/gnus-migrate
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