Immigration and Immigrants: an interdisciplinary collection. "Periodizing Lebanese immigration to Brazil, 1880-2000"

In the first text, Periodizing Lebanese Immigration to Brazil, 1880-2000, historian André Gattaz presents the periodization proposed in his doctoral thesis, dividing the Lebanese immigration flow, between 1880 and 2000, into four phases related to the geopolitical conditions of Lebanon, namely: "the Ottoman period (1880-1920)," the "years of the French man- dato (1920-1943)," the "years of the National Pact (1943-1975)," and the "Civil War and reconstruction (from 1975 to the present)." Stressing that these geopolitical conditions had direct consequences on Lebanon and on the factors that motivated the departure of thousands of Lebanese from the country during these years, the author presents the peculiarities of each of these phases - not only focusing on the geopolitical conditions that motivated the movement under analysis, but also presenting some issues that go beyond the political aspect and are common to the four delimited phases, such as the search for better living conditions (even for people with a relatively good standard of living) or the predominant procedure for women and children of accompanying their parents, husbands, or older brothers. Gattaz's reflections, being the result of a research on the oral history of life with Lebanese immigrants in Brazil, establishes a dialog between the indications provided by the immigrants' reports and those from the vast literature on the subject.