Books
Religious diversity in Lebanon: Lessons from a small country to the global world
Al Ariss, A. (forthcoming 2010) Religious diversity in Lebanon: Lessons from a small country to the global world, in M. Özbilgin and J. Syed (ed.) Diversity Management in Asia: A Research Companion, New York: Edward Elgar Publishing
The diversity management challenges faced by the multi-religious Lebanese society reflect the ones that the world is increasingly experiencing with globalisation and the increased migration. Still, the management literature on religious diversity remains under-developed.
The objective of this chapter is to examine the patterns of religious diversity management in Lebanon. This diversity scheme refers to the power distribution among the different religious communities rather than on the moral issues or the freedom of practising religions in organisations or in the social life. The study is based on twenty qualitative interviews
conducted with Lebanese men and women who spent part of their lives and careers in Lebanon and the other part in France.
Findings showed that the religious diversity scheme in
Lebanon obstructed participants’ access to job opportunities and their career advancement. The chapter challenges existing diversity theories that ignore equality matters and focus mainly on equitable representation of people at workplace according to their group membership. My findings suggest that equitable religious diversity schemes should be coupled with merit-based treatments in order to offer equal opportunities in the increasingly religiously diverse societies.
LikeLebanese Skilled Immigrants in France: Social and Cultural Capital
Al Ariss, A. and Özbilgin, M. (forthcoming 2010) Lebanese Skilled Immigrants in France: Social and Cultural Capital, in Paul Tabar (ed.) Politics, Culture and Lebanese Diaspora, Cambridge: Cambridge Scholars Press
The objective of this paper is to examine the patterns and strategies of social and cultural capital deployment among Lebanese skilled immigrants who live and work in Paris. The study focuses on France, as it is the European country which has the largest number of Lebanese immigrants, most of whom are skilled. Although these immigrants constitute a
reservoir of work skills for French industries, little information s available on their careers and patterns of resource mobilisation.
The study is based on ten qualitative interviews conducted with eight Lebanese men and two Lebanese women professionals (doctors and engineers) from Paris, between December 2006 and February 2007. Findings showed that the education the participants received in Lebanon was of prime importance in shaping their postmigration experiences of work and socialisation. Participants reported a waste of talents and a lack of job opportunities in Lebanon. However, those who received their medical education in Lebanon reported difficulties in obtaining a work permit until they were able to acquire French citizenship. Still, almost all of these immigrants had successful career experiences. It is important to note that the group of immigrants that we studied in this project are professionals and are highly skilled, which explains their relatively positive experiences of labour market integration. It was also found that Lebanese individuals already established in
Europe influenced the career paths of most of these participants, especially in the early stages of their immigration. This indicates that the Lebanese in Europe have developed effective strategies for mobilising their social capital in supporting new Lebanese immigrants.
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