Loving it or Hating it, America will always be the dream of many.
It was known as the most powerful country in the world for decades. Lebanese always sought refuge in USA, where most of them succeeded in realizing the American dream. Like any other country in the world, the Lebanese diaspora is one of the most important in America.
Lebanese Americans are Americans of Lebanese descent. This includes both those who are native to the United States as well as Lebanese immigrants to America.
The first known Lebanese immigrant to the United States was Antonios Bishallany, a Maronite Christian, who arrived in Boston Harbor in 1854. Large scale Lebanese immigration began in the late 19th century. They settled mainly in Brooklyn and Boston, Massachusetts. While they were marked as Syrians, the vast majority of them were Christians from Mount Lebanon. This wave continued through the 1920s. During the first wave, an estimated 100,000 Lebanese had immigrated to America.
The second wave of Lebanese immigration began in the late 1940s and continued through the early 1990s, when Lebanese immigrants had been fleeing the Lebanese Civil War. Between 1948 and 1985, over 60,000 Lebanese entered the United States. Since then, immigration has slowed down to an estimated 5,000 immigrants a year, and those who do settle these days are predominately Muslim, different from the predominately Christian population of immigrants during previous waves.
According to Wikipedia, Lebanese Americans are the largest group of people with origins from Arab countries in America, comprising 0.79% of the American population as of the American Community Survey estimations for year 2007, and 32.4% of all Americans who originate from Arab countries. Lebanese-Americans have historically excelled in business, academia, arts and entertainment and have had a significant participation in American politics and social and political activism. Lebanese Americans are one of the most successful groups in the United States. There are more Lebanese outside of Lebanon today than within. Lebanese-Americans have also tended to be more Republican than other immigrant groups.
Dearborn, Michigan has the highest concentration of Arab Americans in the United States, at over 40%. The rest of Metro Detroit has an even larger population of Lebanese residents. Brooklyn, New York has one of the oldest Lebanese populations in America, dating over 125 years.
Brooklyn holds a significant Lebanese community, with a Maronite Cathedral the center of one of two eparchies for Maronite Lebanese in the United States, the other being in Los Angeles.