French Lebanese

French Lebanese
Français du Liban, Franco-Libanais

Total population
22,000 (2007)[1]
Regions with significant populations
Beirut, Tripoli
Languages
Arabic, French, English
Religion
Christian: Mostly Roman Catholic; a few converts to the Maronite Church and Islam
Related ethnic groups
French, Lebanese

French people in Lebanon (or French Lebanese) are a community in Lebanon with a history that goes back to Crusader's times.

History

The County of Tripoli (1109–1289) was the last Crusader state founded in the Levant, located in what today is part of northern Lebanon, where exists the modern city of Tripoli. The Crusader state was captured and created by Christian forces in 1109, originally held by Bertrand of Toulouse as a vassal of Baldwin I of Jerusalem.

In more recent times, after World War I, the five provinces that comprise modern Lebanon were mandated to France. The French expanded the borders of Mount Lebanon, which was mostly populated by Maronite Catholics and Druze, to include more Muslims, in order to create Greater Lebanon. Lebanon gained independence from France in 1943.

Lebanese-French relations

France, the former colonial power, enjoys friendly relations with Lebanon and has often provided support to the Lebanese. French,in addition to being an official administrative language, is widely spoken fluently throughout Lebanon and is taught as well as used as a medium of education in many Lebanese schools.

French community in Lebanon

The French community in Lebanon is small (about 22,000 people) and it is mostly assimilated into the Lebanese Catholic community.

The intermarriage in the French community is very high and most of the members are mainly half French via paternal or maternal side. There are some French families who returned to France after World War II together with their Lebanese born children.

Language and religion

Almost all French Lebanese speak Arabic as a first language and French as a second language, and are mainly Catholics. The French Lebanese of the new generations are assimilated to the Lebanese society. In religion, most of the young generations are Roman Catholics, while only a few young girls or boys are converted to Islam mainly because of marriage and also others are descendants of French converts.

Political representation

For the elections at the Assembly of French Citizens Abroad, Lebanon is part of the Beirut electoral district, including also Syria, Iraq and Jordan, where there are small French communities. The three representatives elected on 18 June 2006 (4,156 votes in total, 3,787 in Lebanon) are all members of right-wing groups in the Assembly: Jean-Louis Mainguy (born in 1953 in Beirut, Union of Democrats, Independents and Liberals), Denise Revers-Haddad (born in 1940 in Varennes-Jarcy, Rally of French Citizens Abroad) and Marcel Laugel (born in 1931 in Algiers, then French Algeria, Union of Democrats, Independents and Liberals).

For the June 2012 French legislative election, Lebanon is part of a large constituency for French residents overseas, the tenth, including Central, Eastern and Southern Africa and much of the Middle East. On December 31, 2011 there were 21,428 registered French electors in Lebanon out of 147,997 for the whole constituency. Out of 11 candidates presently known, only two are - at least partially - living in Lebanon, none from the two main parties.

At the French National Assembly, there were two French Lebanese deputies for the 2007-2012 mandate, Henri Jibrayel (member of the Socialist Party) and Élie Aboud (born in Beirut in 1959, member of the Union for a Popular Movement). In the 2007-2012 Union for a Popular Movement governments, there was a French Lebanese member, Éric Besson, whose mother is Lebanese.

Famous French Lebanese

French Lebanese flag from 1918-1943

See also

• Count of Tripoli
• French Mandate of Syria and the Lebanon
• Lebanon
• France
• French Empire
• France–Lebanon relations
• French diaspora
• Lebanese people in France
• Levantines (Latin Christians)