The migration of people is now increasingly about the inter-nationalization of citizenship rather than the cultural or class homogenization of people in nation states. The oldest and one of the largest of the contemporary diasporas whose movement across the globe is based on labour migration, the Lebanese provide a particularly rich context in which the subject can be explored. Humphrey reveals how Lebanese immigrants have created their households, organized reciprocity in family life, formed urban communities, become workers, defined sectarian identities, transmitted religious culture and established Islamic institutions.

Michael Humphrey is Senior Lecturer in Sociology at the University of New South Wales

1. Local and Global Cultures

Migrants or Citizens?
Cities, Immigrants and Integration
Multiculturalism
Past, Present and Future

2. The Refugees

The Setting
Lebanese Immigration
Migration and the Urban Process
Family
Community
Proletarianisation
Conclusion

3. The Lebanese Heritage

Making the Lebanese Nation State
Making the Lebanese: Proletarianisation and Pluralism
Religion and the Lebanese State
Unmaking Lebanon: Civil War and Localism
Conclusion

4.Lebanese Families

Kinship Practices
Unmarried Women
Wives
Keeping the Courts out of the Home

5. Community and Identity in the City

6. Multiculturalism and the Global City

Multiculturalism and Urban Consciousness
Islam and Multiculturalism

Notes
Bibliography
Index