Arab diaspora in Colombia

Shakira is well-known Colombian of Arab descent. Her father is of Lebanese descent. Shakira means "thankful" (شاكِرة) in Arabic.

The Arab diaspora in Colombia refers to the Arab immigrants and their offspring in the Republic of Colombia. Most of the Arab Middle Easterners came from Lebanon, Syria and Palestine escaping from the repression of the Turkish Ottoman Empire and financial hardships. When they were first processed in the ports of Colombia, they were classified as Turks because what is modern day Lebanon, Syria and Palestine was a territory of the Turkish Ottoman Empire. It is estimated that Colombia has an Arab population of 700,000.

Most of the Syrian-Lebanese established in the Caribbean Region of Colombia in the towns of Santa Marta, Lorica, Fundación, Aracataca, Ayapel, Calamar, Ciénaga, Cereté, Montería and Barranquilla near the basin of the Magdalena River. It later expanded to other cities and by 1945 there were Arab Middle Easterners moving inland like Ocaña, Cúcuta, Barrancabermeja, Ibagué, Girardot, Honda, Tunja, Villavicencio, Pereira, Soatá, Neiva, Buga, Chaparral and Chinácota. The four major hubs of Arab Middle Eastern population were present in Barranquilla, Cartagena, Bogotá and Cali. Most arrived as members of the Eastern Orthodox and Eastern Catholic churches, but the majority became Roman Catholic. The number of immigrants entering the country vary from 5,000 to 10,000 in 1945. Some of these immigrants were Christian-Lebanese and others were members of Islam.

Another large wave of immigrants came later from the Arab Middle East in the 1940s this time establishing in the town of Maicao, La Guajira in northern Colombia. These immigrants were mostly Muslim and were attracted by the thriving commerce of the town which was benefiting from the neighboring Venezuelan oil bonanza and the usual contraband of goods that flowed through the Guajira Peninsula.

See also

• Race and ethnicity in Colombia
• Islam in Colombia
• Lebanese Colombian
• Palestinian Colombian