Understanding Socio-Economic and Political Mobility of Naturalized Kurds in Lebanon

Doctoral Thesis / Dissertation from the year 2012 in the subject Politics - International Politics - Region: Near East, Near Orient, Tokyo University of Foreign Studies, language: English, abstract: In this thesis, I examine and compare the Socioeconomic Status and the Subjective Social Status of the naturalized at the time of naturalization and 15 years after in order to explore how, notwithstanding other factors, the naturalized perceive their situation pre and post-naturalization. I analyze the strength of the association between citizenship acquisition/naturalization and socioeconomic mobility and political participation through Socioeconomic Status (SES) and Subjective Social Status (SSS) among 164 Kurds who were naturalized Lebanese by the Presidential Decree 5247/1994 of June 20, 1994. I also examine their political participation through voting and political partisanship in order to test the theory whether their political engagement at the beginning of the process shifted downward to a state of political apathy in the years since their naturalization, and whether there is a significant gap between them and the native-born in voting turnout.

Dr. Guita G. Hourani is the Director of the Lebanese Emigration Research Center, Assistant Professor at the Faculty of Law and Political Science and Co-Founder, Secretary General, Forum Director, and Director of the International Campaign of 'Lebanon Land of Dialogue among Civilizations and Cultures' (LDI) at Notre Dame University-Louaize (NDU), Advisory Board Member of Beirut Economic Congress at the Lebanese International University (LIU), Lebanon. She has a Ph.D. from the Graduate School of Global Studies, Tokyo University of Foreign Studies (TUFS), Tokyo, Japan. She is presently expert member of the Lebanese National Diaspora Direct Investment Strategy Committee of Lebanon, Country of Origin Information Expert on Lebanon for the Fahamu Refugee Programme Oxford, England; Board Member of the Beirut Economics Congress (BEC)- Research Center, Lebanon; Senior Research Affiliate at the Department of Christian Oriental and Byzantine Studies of the Orient Institute, Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg, Germany; Joint Researcher with the Research Institute for Languages and Cultures of Asia and Africa at TUFS; Expert on Citizenship with the European Union Democracy Observatory on Citizenship, Italy; Network Member and Country Expert with the Consortium for Applied Research on International Migration, Italy; Editorial Board Member Maronite Patriarchal Journal, Lebanon; Member of the Editorial Board of the Eastern Mediterranean Texts and Contexts Series at Abelian Academics, a Division of the Abelian Publishing Group, USA; Director of Research at Carthage Center for Research and Information, Lebanon; and Senior Consultant with the Lebanese Development Network in Lebanon. She is currently teaching a course on the role of diasporas in conflict, and peace-building, a course on the history of Lebanon and the Middle East, a project management course, and a course on governments and institutions of Lebanon.