Palestinian Migration to Latin America

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Palestinian Migration to Latin America
Latin America has the largest population of Arabs, a population staggering between 17 to 30 million in all nations outside the Middle East. The migration started in the 19th century to what is believed that many Arabs thought their tickets were leading to America only to land in Portuguese and Spanish speaking nations. This did not deter them, Arabs in the Latin American nations have managed to rise above ranks politically, economically, socially and professionally and garner the reputation of their hosting nations CITATION Sal16 \l 1033 (Saliba). This paper studies the Palestinian migration to Latin America identifying the factors that led to the migration, the acculturation process and the relationship between the Palestinian emigrants with their home nation.
Introduction
Emigration of the Ottoman Empire in Latin America comprised of countries now called, Lebanon, Syria and Palestine, a process that began towards the end of the 19th century to the mid-20th century. Lebanese and Syrians migrated to Brazil, Mexico and Argentina, Palestinians migrated to Central and southern American countries CITATION Tob17 \l 1033 (Boos). 1870 marked the end of the Ottoman Empire and a beginning of the emigration of Palestine to Latin America. Secondly, the shift was also due to economic reasons, there was a need for their religious handcrafts in Europe, in America, and they sought to attend the Trade affairs starting in 1896. In Latin America, they were known as middleman minorities and they bridged the gap in retail trade CITATION Cec13 \l 1033 (Baeza).
Palestinians moved to Sao Paulo and Buenos Aires and further crossing the Andres cordillera to avoid competition with other Arabs particularly the Lebanese and Syrians. They settled in Peru, Honduras, El Salvador and Chile CITATION Cec13 \l 1033 (Baeza). Unlike commonly believed, the Arabs emigration can be dated further in the history, these emigrants moved from and back to their countries CITATION Joh14 \l 1033 (Handal), the Young Turk Revolution of 1908 led to the first boom of Palestine emigration. This is because the Ottoman Empire demanded all military service of the subjects, Christina parents wanted to protect their sons from this compulsory induction as well as from serving as cannon fodder. Therefore, they sent their sons to relatives leaving in Latin America, the Muslims lacked the social connection to do so explaining why the emigration comprised of Christians only CITATION Cec13 \l 1033 (Baeza).
Factors leading to Emigration
Palestinian emigration in Latin America was caused by two reasons, economic and political. Economic factors were beneficial to both Palestine and host nations but political reasons devastated both nations. Emigration dates in last decades of the 19th century for economic reasons CITATION Cec13 \l 1033 (Baeza). Political conflicts in Arab Israel conflict pushed the Palestine out of the Palestine and Israel took over the nation.
Emigration into Arab gulf and other continents such as Europe, Africa and America was economic CITATION Joh14 \l 1033 (Handal). The World War 1 suffered Palestine economically, men moved to Latin America for busines...