Christian emigration
[10] Historical events that caused large Christian emigration from the Middle East include: 1860 civil conflict in Mount Lebanon and Damascus, Armenian genocide, Greek genocide, Assyrian genocide, 1915–1918 Great Famine of Mount Lebanon, 1923 population exchange between Greece and Turkey, 1948 Palestinian expulsion and flight, 1956–57 exodus and expulsions from Egypt, Lebanese civil war, and the Iraq war.
The Copts have been emigrating from Egypt both to improve their economic situation and to escape systematic harassment and persecution in their homeland.
[14][15] The Coptic diaspora began primarily in the 1950s as result of discrimination, persecution of Copts and low income in Egypt.
[16][15][17][14] After Gamal Abdel Nasser rose to power, economic and social conditions deteriorated and many wealthier Egyptians, especially Copts, emigrated to United States, Canada and Australia.
[14] Emigration of Egyptian Copts increased under Anwar al-Sadat (with many taking advantage of Sadat's "open door" policy to leave the country) and under Hosni Mubarak.
The largest Coptic diaspora populations are in the United States, in Canada and in Australia, but Copts have a presence in many other countries.
Many lived in luxury in their former country, and more easily handled multilingualism, while retaining aspects of traditional Armenian culture.
Of the nearly 1 million Assyro-Chaldean Christians,[28][29] most have emigrated to the United States, Canada, Australia and within some of the countries in Europe, and most of the rest concentrated within the northern Kurdish enclave of Iraqi Kurdistan.
They trace their origins to several waves of Christian emigration, starting with the exodus that followed the 1860 Lebanon conflict in Ottoman Syria.
Since the end of the Lebanese Civil War, Muslim emigrants have outnumbered Christians, but the latter remain somewhat over-represented compared to their proportion of the population.
[44] Most Gazan Christians have fled the Gaza Strip following the Hamas takeover in 2007, largely relocating to the West Bank.
[46] Also, El Salvador, Honduras, Brazil, Colombia, Argentina, Venezuela, and other Latin American countries have significant Palestinian Christian communities, some of whom immigrated almost a century ago during the time of Ottoman Palestine.
[citation needed] They trace their origin to several waves of Christian emigration, starting with the exodus during Ottoman Syria.
Originally, most emigrants from what is now Turkey were Christian subjects of the Ottoman Empire, including Greek refugees.
[59][13] Emigration continued to occur in the 1980s, as Assyrian communities fled from the violence which was engulfing Tur Abdin during the Kurdish–Turkish conflict.
[63] There are also Christian communities of Berber or Arab descent in Greater Maghreb, made up of persons who converted mostly during the modern era, or under and after French colonialism.
[72][73] According to the Pew Research Center's 2012 Asian-American Survey, 30% of Chinese Americans aged 15 and over identified as Christians (8% were Catholic and 22% belonged to a Protestant denomination).
