Bøger af Guita Hourani

Doctoral Thesis / Dissertation from the year 2012 in the subject Politics - International Politics - Region: Near East, Near Orient, Tokyo University of Foreign Studies, language: English, abstract: In this thesis, I examine and compare the Socioeconomic Status and the Subjective Social Status of the naturalized at the time of naturalization and 15 years after in order to explore how, notwithstanding other factors, the naturalized perceive their situation pre and post-naturalization. I analyze the strength of the association between citizenship acquisition/naturalization and socioeconomic mobility and political participation through Socioeconomic Status (SES) and Subjective Social Status (SSS) among 164 Kurds who were naturalized Lebanese by the Presidential Decree 5247/1994 of June 20, 1994. I also examine their political participation through voting and political partisanship in order to test the theory whether their political engagement at the beginning of the process shifted downward to a state of political apathy in the years since their naturalization, and whether there is a significant gap between them and the native-born in voting turnout.

Emigration has been a Lebanese phenomenon since the last quarter of the 1800s. Migrations from Lebanon ebbed and flowed according to push and pull factors acting on both Lebanon itself and the destination countries. This research is concerned specifically with the return of Lebanese who left during the civil war of 1975-1990 and who have since returned in the post-war era. The study was undertaken in order to understand a) The factors motivating social mobility; b) The impact of the experience of living abroad on the interviewee¿s pre- and post-return conditions; and c) The diverse post-return conditions of the interviewees and their perspectives on re-migration. The study seeks to answer some fundamental, though rarely studied questions: a) Personal reasons for returning; b) Whether those personal reasons tie into the role of human and financial capitals and transnational ties in the decision to return; and c) What significant reintegration challenges face the returnees after they transition to the post-return stage. Our purpose is to initiate a dialogue on formulating policies and programs that will help returnees and encourage return migration to the country.