[11] The journey took several weeks; migrants traveled by donkey from their home villages in southern Lebanon to Beirut, and from there took a ship to Marseille, where they would have to wait for one of the infrequent departures to West Africa.

[12] Some may have originally intended to head for the United States, but either found upon arrival in Marseille that they could not afford the fare and thus opted for a cheaper journey to West Africa, or were tricked into boarding ships for the wrong destination (mostly the Shia muslims).

[14] With recent advances in transport and communications, a form of transnationalism has emerged among the community; people are constantly going back and forth between Lebanon and the Ivory Coast, and greeting and farewell parties for new arrivals and departures have become "significant ritualised events".

In the early 20th century, it was common for young Lebanese male migrants to be so poor that they could not afford such a trip back, or even to pay the fare to the Ivory Coast for a bride their relatives had arranged; as such, they married African women instead.

[20] Women's fashion has diverged sharply from the former agricultural norm in southern Lebanon, with competing "modern Muslim" and "westernised" styles, both consisting of clothes which seek to distinguish themselves from the so-called "peasant look" indicating that the wearer engages in manual labour.

[10] The Lebanese were particularly targeted by looters during the 2010–11 Ivorian crisis,[22] after Lebanon’s ambassador to Ivory Coast, Ali Ajami, attended Laurent Gbagbo's presidential swearing-in ceremony (one of only two diplomats to do so), despite widespread support for his rival, Alassane Ouattara.