The third repatriation flight of Brazilians from Lebanon arrived in São Paulo on Thursday (10/10) on a Brazilian Air Force (FAB) aircraft with 218 passengers on board. The first three repatriation flights from Lebanon have already brought 674 people and 11 pets to Brazil.
Lebanon is the country that is home to the largest number of Brazilians in the Middle East, with a community estimated at 21 thousand people.
Efforts to rescue some of these citizens, who requested repatriation amid the conflict between Israel and Hezbollah, have drawn attention to the deep links between Brazil and Lebanon.
In addition to Brazilians living in the country, the relationship is also strengthened by the huge community of Lebanese and Lebanese descendants who have migrated to our country since the end of the 19th century.
According to the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE), 12,336 Lebanese lived in Brazil in 2010, the date of the last census with published results. This figure corresponded to 2.9% of the total number of foreigners in the country at that time.
But when talking about the Lebanese community in Brazil, the estimated numbers are much higher. Between citizens and descendants, the Brazil-Lebanon Cultural Association speaks of something around 8 million people.
This makes Brazil the country with the largest community of Lebanese and descendants in the world, ahead of even the population of Lebanon itself, which is currently around 5.5 million.
But how did the two countries build such strong ties, despite the distance and cultural differences that separate them?
For the Lebanese diaspora
The great flow of Lebanese migration to Brazil dates back to the end of the 19th century. The first ship bound for the port of Santos left Beirut in 1880.
At the time, what is now known as Lebanon was under the rule of the Turkish-Ottoman Empire and a feeling of discontent with the political, economic and religious situation motivated a process of emigration.
“Many Christians suffered religious persecution, at the same time that work and land became increasingly scarce”, says Nouha B. Nader, Cultural Director of the Brazil-Lebanon Cultural Association.
Oswaldo Truzzi, professor at the Federal University of São Carlos (UFSCar) and specialist in the sociology of migration, explains that the entry of cheap industrialized goods arriving mainly from England and France at the same time also boosted the migratory wave.
“A wide range of manufactured goods began to flood local markets, undermining home and small-scale production by several families in the interior of the country,” he says. “This led to many families sending some of their members abroad to help support their livelihoods.”
Truzzi also states that the change in the Ottoman Empire's military conscription regime, which became mandatory around 1909, before the outbreak of the First World War, also motivated many young men to leave the country.
Finally, part of the responsibility is also attributed to Emperor Dom Pedro II. The last monarch of the Empire of Brazil would have, during a visit to Lebanon in 1876, promoted the country to the local population.
“He told the local population that Brazil was the land of wealth and prosperity, where there were good job prospects,” says Nader.
According to the director of the Brazil-Lebanon Cultural Association, newspapers at the time reported the information widely, which also helped to build a positive image of the country among the population.
Destination: America
The vast majority of Lebanese who left their homeland in the late 19th and early 20th centuries headed to the Americas.
The group was mainly made up of Christians, who were also attracted to the region due to its religious proximity.
Between 1870 and 1930, records are of around 330,000 migrants who left what at the time was called Bilad al Sham or “Greater Syria” (territories that today encompass Syria, Lebanon, the Palestinian territories and Israel), according to the Khayrallah Center for Lebanese Diaspora Studies at North Carolina State University.
Around 120,000 of these migrants went to the USA and another 210,000 went to South America, mainly Argentina and Brazil.
At that time, the documents did not distinguish the exact origin of the immigrants, which made it difficult to accurately count the Lebanese diaspora.
But according to Oswaldo Truzzi, initially the largest group headed to the USA, where they believed there were better economic opportunities.
Little by little, however, the success of the families who chose Brazil as their new home began to attract more and more interested parties, causing the community to grow.
Between 1884 and 1933, 130,000 Syrians and Lebanese entered Brazil through the Port of Santos, according to researcher Jeffrey Lesser, professor of history and director of the Latin American and Caribbean Studies Program at Emory University.
The first Brazilian consulate opened in Beirut at this time, in 1911.
“Brazil at the time did not have a developed middle class. We had land owners and a poorer population, descendants of former slaves”, says sociologist Oswaldo Truzzi. “This gave space for the Lebanese to consolidate themselves in the commercial area and experience economic ascension and social mobility.”
The community settled mainly in the state of São Paulo, where a commercial center was already beginning to develop around the coffee economy. But some Lebanese also took up residence in Minas Gerais, Rio de Janeiro and, to a lesser extent, in other states, such as Amazonas, where some Lebanese moved during the rubber boom.
After the first wave of migration, Brazil received at least two other large waves of Lebanese: one between 1921 and 1940, also with a Christian majority, and a second between 1941 and 1970, with a majority of Muslim immigrants fleeing sectarian conflicts in their country. Christmas.
The flow has decreased since then, but Brazil continues to receive Lebanese, especially from the south of the country.
Return to Lebanon
At the same time, some of the Lebanese and their descendants who had families in Lebanon ended up returning, forming a Brazilian community in the Middle Eastern country.
“Some have moved permanently, others come and go as opportunities arise,” explains Truzzi. The researcher also says that many of these Brazilian immigrants end up fostering ties between Brazil and Lebanon by working in the area of export and import between the two countries.
Between January and September 2024, Brazil exported the equivalent of US$345.9 million to Lebanon and imported US$1.4 million.
Nouha Nader, from the Brazil-Lebanon Cultural Association, states that many Lebanese descendants left the country and returned to Lebanon during the 1980s and 1990s, when Brazil entered an economic crisis that would only be dispersed with the consolidation of the Real Plan.
“The Lebanese and their descendants who lived here, very dependent on trade, then decided to return to Lebanon carrying their Brazilian roots with them,” he says. “The majority are in the Bekaa Valley, where they speak Portuguese and eat the food here.”
Nader also cites the existence of Avenida República do Libano in the city of São Paulo and a Rua Brasil near the port of Beirut, as well as several other cultural and artistic exchanges as part of the strong ties between the two nations.
