Lebanese New Zealanders

Last updated
Lebanese New Zealanders
Total population
1,278 (2018 Census) [1]
Regions with significant populations
Auckland and Wellington
Languages
Arabic (Lebanese Arabic), English (New Zealand English)
Religion
Majority: Christian: Maronite Catholic, Greek Orthodox, Greek Catholic, Protestant Minority: Islam: Shia Islam, Sunni Islam, Alawite, Jewish and Druze
Related ethnic groups
Lebanese British, Lebanese Americans, Lebanese Canadians, Lebanese Australians

Lebanese New Zealanders refers to citizens or permanent residents of New Zealand of Lebanese ancestry. The community is diverse, having a large Christian religious base, being mostly Maronite Catholics and Greek Orthodox, while also having a small Muslim group of both the Shia and Sunni branches of Islam.

Contents

Lebanon, in both its modern-day form as the Lebanese state (declared in 1920, granted independence in 1943) and its historical form as the region of the Lebanon, has been a source of migrants to New Zealand for over two centuries. According to 2018 census, 1,278 Lebanese-descent people in New Zealand, with most of all people with Lebanese ancestry living in Auckland Region (46.0 percent), followed by the Wellington Region (21.8 percent), and the Otago Region (8.5 percent). [1] Furthermore, 71.4 percent were born in New Zealand, up from 68.4 percent in 2013. [1]

History

The Corban family mausoleum in Waikumete Cemetery, Glen Eden Corban mausoleum 20220604 125813.jpg
The Corban family mausoleum in Waikumete Cemetery, Glen Eden

As part of a large scale emigration in the 1840s, numerous Lebanese (mostly Christians) migrated in great numbers out of Lebanon to various destinations. Most emigrated to Brazil and other Latin American nations, particularly Argentina, Venezuela, Colombia and Ecuador. Many also went to the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, or the United Arab Emirates and others to Australia and New Zealand. [2]

Thus, New Zealand's Lebanese population is one of the older established non-English speaking minorities in the country (though many Lebanese people now speak English, to a greater or lesser extent).

In the 1890s, there were increasing numbers of Lebanese immigrants to New Zealand, part of the mass emigration from the area of the Lebanon that would become the modern Lebanese state, and also from the Anti-Lebanon Mountains region of the border area with Syria.

Some Lebanese people had settled in Auckland as early as 1890. The Lebanese blended into the community and attended local churches. Their language ability and entrepreneurial skills, along with a sense of belonging, gave them the confidence to integrate without losing their tradition and culture connection. [3]

Early Lebanese settler Assid Abraham Corban and his family were instrumental in introducing commercial winemaking to New Zealand. The Corban family migrated to West Auckland from Dhour El Choueir in 1892, establishing Corbans Wines at Henderson in 1902. [4]

Religious diversity

Religious affiliation of Lebanese New Zealanders (2018 census) [1]

  Christianity (53.8%)
  Islam (6.6%)
  Judaism (0.2%)
  No religion (31%)
  Declined to answer (5.9%)
  Other (2.5%)

In New Zealand, 53.8% of Lebanese are Christian, while a minority (6.6%) are Muslim. [1] 31.0 percent said they had no religion. [1]

All main Lebanese religious groups Christians, including Maronites, Greek Orthodox, Melkites, Protestants, Muslims, including Shi'a and Sunnis denominations; Druze, amongst others are now represented.

Notable Lebanese New Zealanders

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Demographics of Lebanon</span> Aspect of human geography in Lebanon

This is a demography of the population of Lebanon including population density, education level, health of the populace, economic status, religious affiliations and other aspects of the population.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Demographics of New Zealand</span>

The demographics of New Zealand encompass the gender, ethnic, religious, geographic, and economic backgrounds of the 5.1 million people living in New Zealand. New Zealanders predominantly live in urban areas on the North Island. The five largest cities are Auckland, Wellington, Christchurch, Hamilton, and Tauranga. Few New Zealanders live on New Zealand's smaller islands. Waiheke Island is easily the most populated smaller island with 9,420 residents, while Great Barrier Island, the Chatham and Pitt Islands, and Stewart Island each have populations below 1,000. New Zealand is part of a realm and most people born in the realm's external territories of Tokelau, the Ross Dependency, the Cook Islands and Niue are entitled to New Zealand passports.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Corbans</span> Former New Zealand winery

Corbans Wines was one of New Zealand's oldest wineries, established in 1902 by Assid Abraham Corban, a Lebanese immigrant who had arrived in New Zealand ten years earlier. Corbans Wines grew to become the second largest producer of wine in New Zealand, until they were purchased by their largest competitor Montana Wines in 2000. Following several takeovers of Montana by Allied Domecq and then Pernod Ricard, the Corbans brand was spun off in 2011 and is now owned by Lion.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Beqaa Valley</span> Valley in eastern Lebanon

The Beqaa Valley, also transliterated as Bekaa, Biqâ, and Becaa and known in classical antiquity as Coele-Syria, is a fertile valley in eastern Lebanon. It is Lebanon's most important farming region. Industry also flourishes in Beqaa, especially that related to agriculture.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lebanese Australians</span> People of Lebanese descent resident in Australia

Lebanese Australians refers to citizens or permanent residents of Australia of Lebanese ancestry. The population is diverse, having a large Christian religious base, being mostly Maronite Catholics, while also having a large Muslim group of Sunni branch of Islam.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lebanese people</span> People inhabiting or originating from Lebanon; citizens or natives of Lebanon

The Lebanese people are the people inhabiting or originating from Lebanon. The term may also include those who had inhabited Mount Lebanon and the Anti-Lebanon Mountains prior to the creation of the modern Lebanese state. The major religious groups among the Lebanese people within Lebanon are Shia Muslims (27%), Sunni Muslims (27%), Maronite Christians (21%), Greek Orthodox Christians (8%), Melkite Christians (5%), Druze (5.2%), Protestant Christians (1%). The largest contingent of Lebanese, however, comprise a diaspora in North America, South America, Europe, Australia and Africa, which is predominantly Maronite Christian.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Christianity in Lebanon</span> Overview of the history, presence and impact of Christianity in Lebanon

Christianity in Lebanon has a long and continuous history. Biblical Scriptures show that Peter and Paul evangelized the Phoenicians, whom they affiliated to the ancient Patriarchate of Antioch. Christianity spread slowly in Lebanon due to pagans who resisted conversion, but it ultimately spread throughout the country. Even after centuries of Muslim rule, it remains the dominant faith of the Mount Lebanon region and has substantial communities elsewhere.

New Zealand Jews, whether by culture, ethnicity, or religion, form with Hawaii (8,000-10,000), the joint-second largest (7,500-10,000) Jewish community in Oceania, behind Australia (118,000).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Religion in Lebanon</span> Cultural, historical and legal aspects of religions in Lebanon

Lebanon is an eastern Mediterranean country that has the most religiously diverse society within the Middle East, comprising 18 recognized religious sects. The religions are Islam and Christianity. The Druze concern around an estimate of 5% of the citizens in Lebanon.

Iraqi New Zealanders constitute a small population immigrants from Iraq and New Zealand-born people of Iraqi heritage or descent.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Christianity in the Middle East</span> Overview of Christianity and churches in the Middle East

Christianity, which originated in the Middle East during the 1st century AD, is a significant minority religion within the region, characterized by the diversity of its beliefs and traditions, compared to Christianity in other parts of the Old World. Christians now make up approximately 5% of the Middle Eastern population, down from 13% in the early 20th century. Cyprus is the only Christian majority country in the Middle East, with Christians forming between 76% and 78% of the country's total population, most of them adhering to Eastern Orthodox Christianity. Lebanon has the second highest proportion of Christians in the Middle East, around 40%, predominantly Maronites. Egypt has the next largest proportion of Christians, at around 10% of its total population. Copts, numbering around 10 million, constitute the single largest Christian community in the Middle East.

Religion in Syria refers to the range of religions practiced by the citizens of Syria. Historically, the region has been a mosaic of diverse faiths with a range of different sects within each of these religious communities.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Maronites</span> Christian ethnoreligious group in the Levant

The Maronites are a Syriac Christian ethnoreligious group native to the Eastern Mediterranean and Levant region of West Asia, whose members traditionally belong to the Maronite Church, with the largest concentration long residing near Mount Lebanon in modern Lebanon. The Maronite Church is an Eastern Catholic sui iuris particular church in full communion with the pope and the rest of the Catholic Church.

Sectarianism can be defined as a practice that is created over a period of time through consistent social, cultural and political habits leading to the formation of group solidarity that is dependent upon practices of inclusion and exclusion. Sectarian discrimination focuses on the exclusion aspect of sectarianism and can be defined as 'hatred arising from attaching importance to perceived differences between subdivisions within a group', for example the different denominations of a religion or the factions of a political belief.

Assid Khaleel Corban was a New Zealand local-body politician and company director. He was the first Mayor of Waitakere City and previously Mayor of the Henderson Borough Council.

Assid Abraham Corban was a New Zealand pedlar, importer, viticulturist and wine-maker. He was born in Shweir, in the Mount Lebanon Mutasarrifate on 25 August 1864. He founded Corbans, now one of New Zealand's oldest and largest wineries.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lebanese Sunni Muslims</span> Sunni Muslims in Lebanon

Lebanese Sunni Muslims are Lebanese people who are adherents of the Sunni branch of Islam in Lebanon, which is one of the largest denomination in Lebanon tied with Shias. Sunni Islam in Lebanon has a history of more than a millennium. According to a CIA 2018 study, Lebanese Sunni Muslims constitute an estimated 30.6% of Lebanon's population.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Syro-Lebanese in Egypt</span> Ethnic minority group in Egypt

The Syro-Lebanese of Egypt, also known as Levantine-Egyptians or Syro-Egyptians, are an ethnic minority group in Egypt. They are Egyptians who have ancestry originating from the Levant, mostly what is now Syria and Lebanon, but also including those from Palestine. The majority of Egypt's historic Syro-Lebanese community is Christian, mainly Eastern Catholic and Eastern Orthodox.

Arab New Zealanders refers to people from Arab countries, particularly Lebanon, Syria, Palestine, Iraq, and Jordan and also small groups from Egypt, Algeria, Tunisia, Morocco, Libya, Yemen and Sudan, who emigrated from their native nations and currently reside in New Zealand. The term also refers to descendants of diasporic Arabians such as descendants of Arab merchants to Asian nations, whose ancestral origins may be traced to merchants hailing from the Southern Arabian nations such as Yemen and Oman and the Arab nations of the Persian gulf region. Most Arab New Zealanders are of Lebanese and Iraqi descent because they were the first Arabs to arrive in New Zealand. Therefore, an Arab New Zealander is a New Zealander of Arab cultural and linguistic heritage or identity whose ancestry traces back to any of various waves of immigrants originating from one or more of the twenty countries comprised by the Arab world.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Corban Estate Arts Centre</span> Arts precinct in West Auckland, New Zealand

Corban Estate Arts Centre is an arts precinct in West Auckland, New Zealand. Established in 2002 at the site of the Mt Lebanon Vineyard and Winery, the arts centre provides creative production, theatre and gallery space to New Zealand artists.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 "Lebanese ethnic group". stats.govt.nz. New Zealand government. 2018.
  2. "El Australie - a history of Lebanese migration to Australia". Hindsight - ABC Radio National . Australian Broadcasting Corporation. 2008-02-03. Retrieved 2008-07-15.
  3. Te Ara - The Lebanese
  4. Stewart, Keith (2009). "Into the West". In Macdonald, Finlay; Kerr, Ruth (eds.). West: The History of Waitakere. Random House. p. 116. ISBN   9781869790080.
  5. Cooper, Michael (1996). "Corban, Assid Abraham". Te Ara - the Encyclopedia of New Zealand. Retrieved 21 September 2023.
  6. "League: Kiwi Dragons chase their dream". NZ Herald. 2023-09-21. Retrieved 2023-09-20.
  7. Wanhalla, Angela (5 May 2011). "Intermarriage - 20th-century intermarriage". Te Ara - the Encyclopedia of New Zealand. Retrieved 21 September 2023.