A report by the World Bank published in May 2021 said: “The Lebanon financial and economic crisis is likely to rank in the top 10, possibly top three, most severe crises episodes globally since the mid-19th century.” The situation hasn’t gotten any better since then.
Locals see themselves living in an economic hell, and emigration seems to be the perfect solution. Out of despair, thousands of passport applications are being submitted daily to the Lebanese General Security departments. Canada, Australia, France, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Ivory Coast — any country is now seen as a better option.
Andros Ghannam, a 31-year-old Lebanese Christian who left the Middle Eastern republic to work in Luxembourg, explained to ACI MENA, CNA’s Arabic-language partner agency for the Middle East and North Africa, why he joined the exodus.
“The fall of our purchasing power, the constant political and security threat, the social instability, the failure of the October 2019 protests to bring sufficient change, and the whole outlook of the country after the Beirut port explosion were decisive for me to emigrate,” he said.
As for the migrants’ religion, there is not enough evidence to assume that Christians are leaving at higher rates than Muslims, though the Beirut blast did primarily affect the Christian area of the capital, dislocating more Christians than Muslims.
Two years after the blast, the investigation into its cause continues. “Today, the investigation into the Beirut port explosion is in a ‘coma.’ High-level politicians are blocking it,” Mireille Khoury, who lost her 15-year-old son Elias and was injured along with her daughter by the blast, told ACI MENA.
“We have lost any hope in this national investigation,” she added. The investigation has been blocked for eight months. Families of the victims are now demanding an international investigation.
“During the 1975 Lebanese civil war, Christians were not forced to migrate in the same huge numbers as it is happening today,” Mireille noted.
“I lost my childhood and youth years during the war. But I decided to stay, back then. Now, I don’t want my daughter or my future grandchildren to stay in this country,” she said.
The future of Lebanese Christians
Since Christian families tend to have fewer children than Muslim families, every Catholic, Orthodox, or Protestant family abandoning the country is seen as impacting the future of the country’s Christian community.
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With fewer financial means, birth rates are already declining. Young Lebanese adults think twice before marriage, and families are more hesitant to have babies.
Asma Fahl Yared, a Christian Lebanese resident who got married in 2021 and had her first daughter in August 2022 after childbirth complications, told ACI MENA: “At the hospital our newborn baby was denied treatment unless we pay a $1,000 in cash first,” a sum not many can afford in Lebanon right now.
She added: “Like most of the families, we are having difficulties purchasing baby formula and medicines for our daughter. I believe in divine providence. God will take care of us. But, I am convinced now that raising one child is enough. It is already very difficult to raise just one!”
If Christians adopt a one-child family mindset, the remaining community will start to crumble demographically in the following decades.
Another challenge facing the baptized community is the lonely elderly. When one is older, migrating or finding a job abroad is more difficult, and with almost every Christian family now having at least an emigrant among its members, more elderly family members are left alone in a country where they cannot retire decently.
