The article was authored by Dr. Guita Hourani and was published in The Commentaries, Vol. 1, No. 2, pp. 63-76. DOI: https://doi.org/10.33182/tc.v2i1.2354. 

 

The article is based on a chapter entitled “The Kurds of Lebanon: Survival and Resilience of an Ethnic Minority,” published in Survival Strategies of Minorities in the Middle East: Studies on Religious and Politico-Social Minority Groups in Middle Eastern Societies-- a book edited by Dr. Yohei KONDO, Tokyo University of Foreign Studies, Tokyo, Japan, December 2021.

 

This article investigates how the Lebanese Kurds negotiate their political survival as a community in the post-naturalization era. Using two focus group sessions to generate qualitative data, it examines the ways in which these formerly “stateless” people, outside the official forms of state recognition, have utilized their newly acquired status (naturalization) for political survival.

 

The article is available for download at https://journals.tplondon.com/com/article/view/2354.

2022- Commissioned Work- “Queering the Syrian Refugee Crisis in Lebanon”

 

Oghma Group International implemented a research project entitled “Queering the Syrian Refugee Crisis in Lebanon,” for Dr. Jessy Abouarab, a Visiting Assistant Professor at the Center for Women’s and Gender Studies at Florida International University (FIU) in Miami, US. 

 

The project involved issuing a call for photovoice participation, developing and administering a questionnaire, and facilitating a focus group session with the participants. 

 

The results were presented by Dr. Abouarab at the Migration and Integration in the Middle East conference organized by Società per Gli Studi sul Medio Oriente (SEsaMo) of the Università degli Studi di Napoli L’Orientale in Milano, Italy. 
 

2021- Translation- Chapters for COVID and Gender in the Middle East

 

Members of Oghma’s translation team translated two chapters (Arabic and French into English) for a book entitled COVID and Gender in the Middle East, edited by Dr. Rita Stephan. 

 

According to the publisher, the University of Texas Press, the book “examines a range of national and localized responses to gender-specific issues around COVID’s health impact and the economic fallout and resulting social vulnerabilities, including the magnified marginalization of Syrian refugees; the inequitable treatment of migrant workers in Bahrain; and the inadequate implementation of gender-based violence legislation in Morocco.” 

 

The book which is scheduled to hit the bookstore in 2023 is believed to be “an essential global resource, this book is the first to provide empirical evidence of COVID’s gendered effects.”
 

2021- Chapter- “The Kurds of Lebanon: Survival and Resilience of an Ethnic Minority”

 

Authored by Dr. Guita Hourani, the chapter was published in a book titled Survival Strategies of Minorities in the Middle East: Studies on Religious and Politico-Social Minority Groups in Middle Eastern Societies. The book was edited by Dr. Yohei KONDO and published by Tokyo University of Foreign Studies, Tokyo, Japan, in 2021.

 

The chapter was the result of a four-year joint project between scholars from Japan and Lebanon and was funded by The Research Institute for Languages and Cultures of Asia and Africa (“ILCAA”, “AA-ken”) an affiliate of Tokyo University of Foreign Studies (TUFS) in cooperation with Japan Center for Middle Eastern Studies (JaCMES) in Lebanon. 

 

Members of Oghma’s team participated in the focus group sessions conducted in Beirut.

 

The book is available from the publisher.
 

2021- Project- “Towards A Cultural Understanding of the Other (TOGETHER)”

 

Dr. Guita Hourani was a consultant for the Lebanese Development Network, the project's partner in Lebanon. She conducted the literature review, identified key stakeholders, designed the questionnaires and interviews, analyzed the results, and wrote the Lebanon report. 

 

She also designed Intercultural Competence Modules which included four lessons: Fundamentals of Intercultural Competencies; Systemic Biases and Discrimination; Power Dynamics: Biases and Vulnerable Groups; and Intercultural Communication and Best Practices. The Oghma Group did the fieldwork and the translation. 

 

The project aimed at promoting intercultural dialogue (ICD) among countries of the European Union and their neighbors in the Middle East and the Black Sea region.
 

2021- Project- “European Union-South Mediterranean Social Dialogue (SOLiD) in Lebanon”

 

Dr. Guita Hourani was the expert consultant for SOLiD Lebanon. She conceptualized the research project, conducted the literature review, designed the interviews and questionnaires, analyzed the results, and wrote the Lebanon report. The Oghma Group did the fieldwork and the translation.

 

SOLiD “is a pioneer programme whose ultimate goal is to promote a dynamic, inclusive and reinforced social dialogue via the development of the capacity of Trade Unions and their homologues of Employers’ Associations and civil society organizations and the promotion of a civic and multipartite dialogue between the social partners” in various countries in the MENA region.
 

2021- Project- “Mediterranean Youth, NEETs, and Women Advancing Skills, Employment, and Awareness in the Blue and Green Economies (MYSEA)”

 

Dr. Guita Hourani was a consultant for the Lebanese Development Network, the EU-ENI-CBCMED's partner in Lebanon for this project. MYSEA aims at identifying existing and emerging skills and professional needs through oriented training, coaching, and mentoring. MYSEA plans to involve Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) institutions and enterprises, encouraging sector-skills specific alliances through apprenticeship, traineeship, and on-the-job training.

 

Hourani's responsibility was to assess and analyze the labor market and skills of the youth, NEETs, women, economic actors, and TVET institutions in Lebanon. Accordingly, she reviewed existing literature on the topic, identified key stakeholders, participated in the design of the questionnaires and interviews, supervised the administering of the research instruments, analyzed the results, and wrote the Lebanon report. The Oghma Group did the fieldwork and the translation.
 

2019- Book- “Homecomings: Re-Integration of Return Migrants in Lebanon”

 

The authors of the book, Dr. Guita Hourani and Dr. Suzanne Menhem, have taken the initial steps at empirically investigating and contributing fresh analysis to the complexity and intricacy of Lebanese migration story. The authors have shed light on the reasons for return and whether those reasons are tied into the role of human and financial capitals and transnational ties in their decisions to return.

 

The book has laid the groundwork for future research into return migration, and the hope is that this will be a catalyst for in-depth inquiries into return migration and its social, cultural, political, and economic impacts on Lebanon. This could help formulate policies and programs to help those who have come back and encourage others to return.

 

Members of Oghma’s team did the fieldwork and the translation. The book is published by Scholars' Press and can be purchased from Amazon.
 

2019- Chapter- “The Syrian Youth Refugees’ Social and Economic Engagement in Lebanon”

 

Dr. Suzanne Menhem’s chapter was published in a book entitled Recent Migrations and Refugees in the MENA Region, which was edited by Rania M. Rafik Khalil and Froilan T. Malit, Jr., and published by Transnational Press, London, 2019. 

 

Menhem explores how Syrian youth refugee’s social and economic engagement impacts their integration and welfare in Lebanon and future migration plans.

 

The book aimed at “contributing to the current empirical, theoretical, and policy discourses on migration and refugee studies using evidenced-based political, economic, and social insights that have policy consequences on the Syrian refugee crisis across geographic refugee-hosting communities in the Middle East.”

 

The book can be purchased from Amazon. 

 

2019- Article- “Migration au Liban : Le Cas des Femmes Domestiques”

 

This article by Dr. Suzanne Menhem was published in a special issue of Afkar/Ideas entitled Migrants in Arab Countries No. 60 in September 2019.

 

The article offers a panoramic view of the various migratory waves that have profoundly transformed its socio-economic and demographic situation in Lebanon, with special attention given to the role of women immigrant domestic workers.

 

Afkar/Ideas is a quarterly journal for dialogue between the Maghreb, Spain, and Europe.

 

The article can be accessed at https://dialnet.unirioja.es/ejemplar/526426.
 

2018- Article- “State Security and Refugees: Operationalizing the ‘Ladder of Options’ by the Government of Lebanon”

 

Dr. Guita Hourani’s article, which was published in the Middle East Journal of Refugee Studies in June 2018 (DOI: 10.12738/mejrs.2018.3.2.0004), attempts to contribute to the debate around the study of refugees and the security implications involving “refugee militants/terrorists.” It situates the debate within the context of Syrian refugees who have been radicalized or have voluntarily or involuntarily joined militant groups and Lebanon’s subsequent response policy as a host country. 

 

The article tried to identify the various measures employed by the Government of Lebanon through the operationalization of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees “Ladder of Options” in managing security- related issues involving Syrian refugees-turned-terrorists.

 

The article is available for download at https://dergipark.org.tr/en/download/article-file/1045503. 
 

2017- Consultancy- “Migrant Support Measures from an Employment and Skills Perspective (MISMES): Lebanon”

 

Dr. Guita Hourani was the Country Expert for this EU-European Training Foundation (ETF) project in Lebanon. 

 

She produced a report which provided migration facts and figures for the three specific migrant groups in Lebanon (i.e., Lebanese emigrants and returnees; foreign labor immigrants; and refugees and asylum seekers) and reviews key aspects of migration policies, legal frameworks and stakeholders in the country. It gave an overview of the MISMES inventory, including a list of all migrant support measures and initiatives mapped in Lebanon and examples of good practice. It also provided conclusions and developed some recommendations on the success of such initiatives for policy makers.

 

Members of Oghma Group did the background research and identified relevant stakeholders.
 

2016- Article- “L’Industrie et le Commerce des Alcools à la Veille du Mandat”

 

Dr. Rudyard Kazan’s article was published in Proche-Orient Études en Management No. 27-- a journal of the Faculté de Gestion et de Management at Université Saint Joseph in Lebanon. 

 

Dr. Kazan discusses the alcohol industry and trade on the eve of the French mandate, covering mainly the period 1900-1920, in Beirut and Mount Lebanon. He deals successively with the state of the arack and wine companies and their production; the trade in and consumption of alcohol, advertising, weights and measures used at the time; and finally the importance of the trade in alcohol in relation to the Ottoman tax.

 

The article is available for reading at https://docplayer.fr/49598613-L-industrie-et-le-commerce-des-alcools-a-la-veille-du-mandat-francais-beyrouth-et-le-mont-liban.html. 
 

2016- Project- “EUROMED consortium- The Euro-Mediterranean Career & Employment Advisor Portal for the Mobility of Young Residents (DAEDALUS): Lebanon” 

 

Dr. Guita Hourani is a consultant for the Lebanese Development Network, the EUROMED-DAEDALUS partner in Lebanon. The project aimed to: a) assess the needs of young jobseekers and employers in Lebanon, Greece, Cyprus, Italy, Jordan, Tunisia and Palestine who are seeking employment in the labor markets of the Mediterranean Sea Basin; b) enhance their career and business opportunities; and c) match their qualifications and skills with existing needs in neighboring countries by creating electronic career and employment advising services. 

 

Dr. Hourani identified the methodologies suitable for data collection; designed the questionnaires and the interview questions; conducted the market analysis; and proposed compatible exploitation and sustainability recommendations. 

 

Members of the Oghma Group did the fieldwork and the translation.