Lebanese American Public Opinion | 2020

Views on social and political issues in the US and Lebanon

Introduction

Lebanese Americans are more liberal in their social and political views than the general public in the US

This is one of the major findings of the Khayrallah Survey, an annual polling of Lebanese Americans launched in 2020 by the  Khayrallah Center for Lebanese Diaspora Studies . The survey is meant to gauge the public opinions of nearly 1.3 million Americans of Lebanese descent, and how factors such as age, gender, education and income shape their views. In this inaugural survey, we have found the majority of the Lebanese American community falls well within the center to center-left range of the political spectrum on issues such as abortion, women’s rights, LGBTQA+, climate change, and voting patterns. In addition, the survey queried the 464 respondents (323 completed the survey) about matters pertaining to Lebanon, their connection to the country, and what they regard as the biggest contemporary challenges facing it. Here an even greater majority evinced secular and moderate political views; and rejected sectarian and ideological affiliations and divisions that bedevil Lebanon.


Demographic Profile

Demographically, of the 323 who completed the survey 195 identified as male, 127 as female and 1 as other (options included: male, female, other). Because only one person identified as "other," we did not have enough statistical data to include that category in our gender analysis. In terms of age distribution, the majority of respondents were 25 years or older.

Age distribution of respondents, by age bracket

An overwhelming majority identified themselves as only Lebanese (93%), while few identified as Lebanese/Palestinian, and Lebanese/Syrian. As to the question about religious affiliation, the distribution was broader than national identification, with a quarter of the respondents stating that they do not identify with any religion.

Religious affiliation of respondents, arranged by descending order.

In terms of education, Lebanese Americans outpace the American general public in the number of undergraduate and graduate degrees.

In 2019, around 38.5% of the US population (born to native-born or foreign-born parents) had a Bachelor’s degree or higher, compared to 82.6% of Lebanese Americans. This large gap holds for post-graduate education with 43% of Lebanese Americans with a Master’s, Doctorate, or professional degree; which is nearly three times higher than the 13.4% of the US general population with advanced  degrees .

Educational levels of Lebanese Americans

Perhaps not surprisingly, and in correlation with this high level of education, Lebanese Americans tend to have, on average, higher incomes than the general US population. For example, 18.6% of Lebanese Americans as opposed to 15.5% of Americans earn $150,000 or more per year. Similarly 19.5% of Lebanese Americans earn between $100,000 and $149,999, while only 14.9% of the general population in the US falls in that bracket.

Percentage of Lebanese Americans and US general public in different annual earnings bracket

58% of survey respondents reported facing racial profiling and racism, while 37% say they have not encountered racism

Finally, the majority of our respondents reside in the Southeast, followed by the Northeast and then Southwest. We had very few responses from the Northwest, perhaps reflecting the smaller percentage of Lebanese Americans who live there.


Social Views

Lebanese Americans across the political spectrum overwhelmingly hold center to progressive positions on a host of social issues, from gun control to climate change, and they do so in numbers that far outpace the general public in the US.

Universal Healthcare

On the question of access to healthcare, 75% of surveyed Lebanese Americans believe that there should be a universal healthcare program in the US, while only 19.5% oppose such a system. This overwhelming support is all the more striking when the number of Americans who support healthcare has hovered between  53% and 57% from 2017 through today .

What Lebanese Americans think of universal healthcare

This support for universal healthcare is held across gender with 77% of women and 74% of men supporting universal coverage. Similar widespread support exists across age brackets with 77% of 18-24 years old, and 85% of 25-45 years old supporting it, and those numbers dip into the 60th percentile amongst older Lebanese Americans (46-64, and 65+). Educational levels also seem to make little difference in terms of universal healthcare, with the only divergence being a movement upward among those whose current level of education is a high school diploma or GED, 92% of whom support universal healthcare.

Abortion

In similar numbers, Lebanese Americans support a woman’s right to abortion. Overall, 73% believe that, in general, abortion should be legal and available, while only 16.7% oppose abortion.

How Lebanese Americans view abortion

These numbers become more nuanced when asked about term limits and situations for when abortion is legal. In answering these questions, 33% of Lebanese Americans think that abortion should be legal in all cases, while another 22.6% believe there should be a cutoff date after which it should be illegal, and 33.6% believe that it should only be legal in cases of rape, incest or to protect the mother. Put another way, 52.6% of respondents believe that abortion should be legal in all or in most cases, while only 37.4% believe it should be illegal in all or most cases. These sentiments correlate with the general public view of abortion as reported by the  Pew Research Center  in their 2019 study where 38% oppose abortion in all or most cases.

Lebanese Americans' views on abortion

As with healthcare, there appears to be little variation between how men and women view abortion: 72% of men and 75% stating that they believe a woman has a right to obtain an abortion. These opinions show a greater diversity when we take age into account, with support for abortion dropping as we move from the younger to the older generations. But even here the majority remains in support of a woman’s right to obtain an abortion. For example, among those 65 years and older, 60% support that right, while 79% of those between the ages of 25 and 45 are in favor of abortion.

LGBTQA+

On issues related to the LGBTQA+ community, Lebanese Americans evince progressive views, with clear majorities supporting the community in general (65%), and even more supporting their right to marriage (72%). When asked about members of the LGBTQA+ members adopting children, Lebanese Americans once again showed strong support for the community (72%). The Lebanese American community showed stronger support for the LGBTQA+ community than the US general population which had 61% of the population supporting LGBTQA+  marriage 

Lebanese Americans and LGBTQA+ support

Unlike healthcare and abortion, there seems to be a variation in how different age brackets viewed the LGBTQA+ community. Though there was a majority of support for the community across all age brackets, there was a noticeable discrepancy in the amount of support in the 46-64 bracket where only 50% support the LGBTQA+ community, while 28% oppose, which is double that of the 25-45 age group, and four times those in the 65+ age bracket. The overall positive view of LGBTQA+, as well as the variation across age groups holds equally (with slightly higher margins) for gay marriage. A great majority of Lebanese American respondents in the survey were strongly in favor of marriage and adoption rights for gay couples.

Climate Change & Energy

Lebanese Americans overwhelmingly believe that climate change is happening, and that it is due to human activities, and in this they differ dramatically from the US general population.  Surveys  that employ the "Pew Style" approach (which provides a clear "don't know" option, no explanatory text, and a discrete choice among statements as to which best represents your views) have reported that 50% of Americans accept that climate change is due completely or partially to human activities. Using this same approach, we found that 76% of Lebanese Americans attribute climate change to human activities, while only 19% believe it is naturally occurring, and just 3.3% do not believe that climate change is happening. Even amongst Lebanese Americans who identify as either moderate or conservative Republican, the percentage of those who believe that climate change is occurring due to human activities is 35%, which is higher than the 29% of Republicans in the US.

Perhaps not surprisingly, an equally high percentage (88.2%) of Lebanese Americans believe that the US should move towards renewable energy. This high number of respondents who advocated such a shift in energy policy held across gender with 89% of women and 88% of men all agreeing on the need for such a future course to combat climate change and provide better energy security for the US. Such support was also consistent across various age groups only declining from 90% for the 18-24 years old, to 75% for those 65 and older.

Gun Control

Lebanese Americans in the Khayrallah Survey registered very strong opinions on gun control with 80% in favor of some type of control over access to firearms, while only 13.1% opposed any control. Here again, the Lebanese American community appears to be on the left of American general public opinion. In a  Pew Research poll  conducted in October 2019, 60% of respondents advocated greater gun control. However, our poll did not ask respondents what they consider to be gun control or the extent these laws should extend (i.e. banning semi-automatic gun sales, “red flag” laws, more extensive background checks, etc.). Comparison between the general public and Lebanese Americanb public opinion will be more accurate in future surveys.

Federal Social Spending

While Lebanese Americans overwhelmingly support universal healthcare they appear far more reluctant to either increase income taxes to cover the cost of this and other social programs, or to use federal funds to provide free college education. In other words, while they are socially liberal, they tend to be more fiscally conservative.

When asked whether the federal government should raise income taxes to expand social programs 42.4% responded negatively, and another 7.4% believed that spending on social programs and taxes should be lowered. Only 41.8% agreed that taxes ought to be raised in order to fund expanded social programs. In terms of college education, a larger percentage of our respondents (52.6%) supported the use of taxpayer dollars to provide free college education, whilst 40.9% opposed such a policy.

While very liberal on social issues, Lebanese Americans tend to be more conservative on fiscal policies

When we take gender into account, women were far more likely (58%) to support federally funded free college education than men (48%). In terms of income, 58% of respondents making $150,000 or greater were opposed to federally funded free education, while on the other side of the spectrum only 21% of those making between $25,000 and $49,999 opposed this policy.

Lebanese American support for federally funded free college education, across income brackets


Political Views

A greater number of Lebanese Americans identify themselves as moderate or liberal Democrats than Republican. In total, 55% of respondents identified as Democrats while only 20.5% identified as Republican. This is significantly different from how the general American population affiliates politically. For example, in the most  recent Gallup poll  only 31% of Americans were Democrats, and 25% Republican, with a majority of 40% declaring themselves as Independents. The major difference between the two demographics is that the number of Independents amongst Lebanese Americans is half that of the general population.

Political affiliation of Lebanese Americans in comparison to US general population

This divergence becomes even more pronounced when we compare the number of individuals who regard themselves as conservative politically. Amongst Lebanese Americans only 8.4% identify as Conservative Republicans in politics and ideology, whereas  35% of Americans  consider themselves conservative politically.

Political Identification of Lebanese American

Lebanese American women (59%) are more likely than men (53%) to identify as Democrats, whereas 17% of women and 23% of men identify as Republican. This breakdown is quite similar to that of the general population for women, and starkly different for men. For example, in a recent  Pew Research poll , 55% of women identified as, or leaned toward, Democrats, yet only 42% of men indicated the same affiliation. Even more revealing of the gender gap in terms of political affiliation is that 36% of women regard themselves as liberal Democrats while only 21% of men do so. These figures reverse for those who identify as moderate Democrats, with 23% of women and 32% of men choosing that category.

Education and Political Affiliation

Across the educational spectrum, Lebanese Americans tend to be overwhelmingly Democrats with slight variations across both ends of the spectrum. As the chart below shows, the highest percentage of respondents who identify as Republican were those with an Associate’s degree. Those respondents only made up 23% of those with an Associate's degree. The lowest number of Republicans (15.4%) was among those with High School or GED diplomas, but conversely they also had the highest percentage of Independents (38.5%). Among those who have some college education, or have obtained a Bachelor’s or a Master's degree, 57% identified themselves as Democrats (moderate and liberal). These percentages drop slightly to 50% for those with Ph.D. or professional degrees, and to 47% for those with Associate degrees.

Correlation between highest educational level and political affiliation

Voting in 2016 & Views on the Trump Administration

Given the high percentage of Lebanese Americans who consider themselves liberal or moderate Democrats, then it is not surprising that a similar majority of the community voted for Hillary Clinton in 2016, and an ever larger group has negative views of the Trump Administration.

In total, 56.7% of Lebanese Americans chose Clinton in 2016, while only 21.1% voted for Trump. This high preference for Clinton held across all age groups, as can be seen from the table below. 

Lebanese American voting pattern in 2016 per age group

What is clear, is that support for Trump increased with older age brackets, even as support for Clinton stayed more or less steady. Older Lebanese American voters were less likely to vote for third party candidates, and to give their votes to Trump. What is also important to note is that young Lebanese Americans were very motivated to vote, and had the lowest percentage of individuals who did not vote, especially when compared with those who were in the 46-64 age bracket.

The consistency in 2016 voting holds when gender is taken into account, with 60% of women choosing Clinton as opposed to 54% of men. This is half the gender gap for the general population, where women favored Clinton by a  12-point margin .

Our survey found considerable variation in the correlation between income levels and voting choices in the 2016 election. While respondents in every income bracket voted for Clinton at a rate of 50% or higher, 72% of those with income between $75,000 and $99,999 voted for Clinton.

68% of Lebanese Americans have negative views of the Trump Administration, while only 20% have positive views

Views on the Trump Administration

Respondents generally had an unfavorable view of the Trump Administration with 68.1% giving a ‘poor’ or ‘terrible’ rating. Between the latter two options, 52.9% of respondents gave the administration a ‘terrible’ rating. On the other hand, 31.9% of respondents had a favorable view of the administration where 12.4% gave a ‘good’ rating and only 8% gave an ‘excellent’ rating. Lebanese Americans held a more negative view of the Trump Administration when compared to the  US general population . Given the high percentage of Lebanese Americans who identified as moderate or liberal Democrats, it is not surprising that a majority of Lebanese Americans had an unfavorable view of the Trump Administration. 

Lebanese American opinions about the Trump Administration

In terms of gender, men tend to have a more favorable view of the administration. Ten percent of men rated the administration as ‘excellent’ whereas only five percent of women gave the same rating. Moreover, 46% percent of men rated the administration as ‘terrible’ while 63% percent of women rated it ‘terrible.’ These results are not surprising given that more men in our sample (23%) identified as Republican than women (17%). 

In terms of age, there were some results that were discordant with those of voting in 2016. Those in the 18-24 age group had the most positive view of the administration with 44% percent of respondents rating it either ‘average,’ ‘good,’ or ‘excellent.’ Aside from that, we found that as brackets increased in age the percent of positive views increased as well. For example, the 25-45 age group held the most negative view of the administration with 71% of respondents giving either a ‘poor’ or ‘terrible’ rating. Whereas 68% of both the 46-64 and 65+ age groups gave a ‘terrible’ rating. In addition, 10% of the 46-64 and 65+ age groups rated the administration as ‘excellent.’ These results are consistent when compared to age and political identity as well as age and vote in 2016. 

The majority of survey respondents hold unfavorable views of the Trump Administration

As with age, education seems to play a large role in how respondents view the Trump Administration. A majority (61%) of respondents whose current level of education is a high school education or GED gave a positive rating of the administration, with 46% of that being a ‘good’ rating. Furthermore, this breakdown was similar to respondents who have had some college coursework, with 46% having a positive view and 54% having a negative view. Respondents with a college degree were significantly more critical of the administration. For example, respondents with an Associate’s degree or a PhD or professional degree had the highest percentages of negative views, with 77% and 79% respectively. These results appear consistent with Lebanese Americans' high level of education, their voting pattern in 2016, and  exit polls from the 2016 election 

Lebanese Americans views on Trump Administration by Educational Level

It is important to note that the survey was conducted before the outbreak of COVID-19 in the US; the economic and public health fallout that followed; the murders of Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, George Floyd, and Rayshard Brooks; as well as the ensuing massive protests against police brutality and racism. Given that  American public opinion  of the Trump Administration’s handling of major crises has been largely negative, leading to a drop in Trump’s approval rating across most sectors of the US, it is likely that there has been a similar increase in the percentage of Lebanese Americans who view the current administration negatively.

2020 Elections

Our survey respondents almost universally (92.3%) plan to vote in the 2020 elections, with only 4.6% indicating that they will sit this vote out. We did not ask respondents who they intend to vote for in the coming presidential elections. However, since 68% (an 11% margin over the number of those who voted for Clinton in 2016) gave the Trump Administration a "poor" or "terrible" rating, then it is highly likely that Lebanese Americans will vote in greater percentage for Joe Biden than they did in 2016 for Clinton.

Aerial view of Beirut, Lebanon and surrounding mountains

Lebanon

In an effort to understand the strength of connection between Lebanese Americans and Lebanon, the Khayrallah Survey posed a series of questions about travel to Lebanon, financial support they provide to family and society at large, their political connections to the country, and what they regard as the most important issues facing the country. (The survey was conducted in January 2020, before the economic meltdown in Lebanon, the spread of COVID-19, and the escalating political tensions. As such, they may not reflect a shift in perception amongst the respondents about the most critical issues).

Travel to Lebanon

While virtual connections (social media, internet, satellite television, phone, and messaging apps) are very widespread amongst Lebanese immigrants, travel to Lebanon still remains a unique experience because it provides a sustained and intimate experience that cannot be duplicated. Whether going for summer vacations, business trips, or for family emergencies and needs, traveling to Lebanon allows immigrants prolonged exposure to language, culture, politics and the day-to-day life in Lebanon. Thus, it is an important measure of how intimately immigrants remain connected to the country.

Lebanese Americans and travel to Lebanon

In general, around half of the respondents indicated that they traveled to Lebanon at least once every two years. While a little over half indicated that they traveled there at most once every five years, with 38% stating that they have either never traveled there or they have done so only once in the last ten years.

When correlated with which generation in their families immigrated to the US, these figures strike a different--but predictable--note. Only 12.5% of those whose great-grandparents emigrated to the US have traveled back to Lebanon at least once in the last 2 years. This number goes up slightly to 13% for those whose grandparents emigrated, then jumps dramatically to 50% for those whose parents migrated, and again to 74% if they had immigrated themselves.

Funding for Lebanon

Another measure of the relationship between Lebanon and the Lebanese Diaspora in the US, is the financial support that the community provides for family and society in their original home. In general, a larger percentage (60.7%) of respondents indicated that they do not send any money to family or organizations in Lebanon, while only 39.3% do send money annually to Lebanon. This number is somewhat larger than that reported in a 2016  study  conducted by the Khayrallah Center to measure Lebanese American philanthropy, where little more than one quarter (27%) reported sending money back to family in Lebanon.

Sixty-one percent of respondents to the Khayrallah Survey do not send financial support to Lebanon

As with travel, which generation immigrated to the US makes a significant and perhaps anticipated difference in how much money respondents sent back to Lebanon. As is evident from the table below, the more recent the date of immigration (and hence closer to the respondent) the more likely they were to provide support. Reciprocally, more recent immigration often corresponded with larger amounts of money sent back to Lebanon. However, it is noteworthy that those whose great-grandparents were the first to immigrate to the US are more likely to send up to $1,000 to Lebanon than those whose grandparents emigrated. Yet, respondents with grandparents who immigrated continue to outpace those whose great-grandparents immigrated when sending more than $1,000.

Annual support sent by Lebanese Americans to family and organizations in Lebanon

In terms of gender, women appear to be less likely to send money to Lebanon than men. In total, 58% of women whose parents immigrated, or who themselves left Lebanon, indicated that they do not provide any financial support for family and organization back “home.” For men whose parents emigrated the figure drops to 50%, and if they themselves had migrated it goes down still further to 40%. This discrepancy may be correlated to the gendered expectation wherein men are expected to be the “breadwinners” and who are assumed to have an obligation to provide financial support for parents and family.

Political Affiliation

A remarkable 93.5% of Lebanese Americans, who responded to this survey, indicated that they do not have an affiliation with any of the 28 political parties in Lebanon. This is even more striking when 1.8 million Lebanese out of a total 3.6 million registered voters (including 82,956 Lebanese immigrants) voted in 2018 parliamentary elections, and gave the great majority of their votes to the established political parties. In other words, Lebanese Americans (unlike those remaining in Lebanon) have shunned the existing political structure in Lebanon either out of apathy and lack of interest, or because they feel that none of the parties there are capable or worthy of leading the country. This frustration or cynicism about and isolation from the country’s existing political structure was evident in that only 11.5% of the respondents indicated that they voted in the last parliamentary elections in Lebanon in 2018.

Only 11.5% of Lebanese American respondents voted in Lebanon's 2018 parliamentary elections

Issues Facing Lebanon

When asked about what they consider to be the biggest issues facing Lebanon, respondents to the Khayrallah Survey stated that corruption, political instability, and the deteriorating economic situation were the biggest issues. Nearly 38% of respondents noted that corruption is the number one problem facing Lebanon, followed by 32% who chose political instability as the second next biggest problem. This is not overly surprising in light of the civil society revolt that broke out in country-wide demonstrations in October 2019, and with which most Lebanese Americans sympathized and closely identified.

But what is striking from the responses is that only 1.5% of respondents saw Hezbollah (the Shi’a political and military organization that holds great sway in Lebanon) as a major problem in Lebanon. Our large cross-sectional representation of Christians (of all sects), Druzes, Sunni and Shi’a Muslim indicates that this view of Hezbollah is not restricted to members of the same sect as the party (Shi’a), but rather by members of other faiths and even those who self-identify as not belonging to any religious group.

Conclusions

Based on the results of the survey, Lebanese Americans are more liberal in their political and social views than the general population. Fifty-five percent of respondents identified as Democrats, with twenty-seven percent identifying as Liberal Democrats. Moreover, a majority of respondents voted for Clinton in the 2016 election and held negative views of the Trump Administration. Consequently, there was overwhelming support for universal healthcare, gun control, a woman’s right to abortion, and the LGBTQA+ community, outpacing the general population in these areas. However, they tend to be fiscally conservative and are reluctant to increase taxes or federal spending on social programs. 

The Lebanese American community far outpaced the general public in terms of education with an overwhelming majority of respondents holding at least a Bachelor's degree.

Survey Description

We ran the survey for 2 weeks in January 2020. We reached respondents through a Qualtrics database, and through snowball sampling using our social media to reach out to community members across the country. In this sense, the survey is not as scientifically accurate as we would like it to be, but it remains fairly representative of a large swath of Lebanese Americans. It is our intent to keep increasing the size and breadth of our survey sample with each annual iteration.

In total 466 Lebanese Americans responded to the survey, and of those 323 completed the survey. Our analysis is based only on completed surveys. 

The survey held 47 questions which asked for respondents’ demographic information, views on domestic and social issues, and their relationship to Lebanon. The questions were primarily multiple choice (38) with some free response questions (9). Khayrallah Center data and Qualtrics data were combined into a single sheet in Microsoft Excel for standardization and processing. In order to effectively analyze our data we had to standardize the free response questions; we did so by breaking the free responses into categories which were then analyzed.This final Excel sheet was uploaded into Statistical Product and Service Solutions (SPSS) where we used frequency testing to get our metadata as well as cross tabulations to test relationships between different independent and dependent variables. 

Khayrallah Center

The  Moise A. Khayrallah Center for Lebanese Diaspora Studies  is a research and outreach center for the production and distribution of knowledge about Lebanese immigrants in the United States and around the world. The center engages in scholarship on historical and contemporary Lebanese immigration through its cultural, social, political, and economic dimensions. This is done in a multitude of ways, some of which include building the largest  archive  on the Lebanese Diaspora, fostering scholarship through grants for visiting scholars and publishing the academic journal  Mashriq & Mahjar , producing  documentaries , exhibits and other public history projects, and funding annual creative and scholarly prizes.

Dr. Akram Khater, Ms. Kassidy Demaio

Age distribution of respondents, by age bracket

Religious affiliation of respondents, arranged by descending order.

Educational levels of Lebanese Americans

Percentage of Lebanese Americans and US general public in different annual earnings bracket

What Lebanese Americans think of universal healthcare

How Lebanese Americans view abortion

Lebanese Americans' views on abortion

Lebanese Americans and LGBTQA+ support

Lebanese American support for federally funded free college education, across income brackets

Political affiliation of Lebanese Americans in comparison to US general population

Political Identification of Lebanese American

Correlation between highest educational level and political affiliation

Lebanese American voting pattern in 2016 per age group

Lebanese American opinions about the Trump Administration

Lebanese Americans views on Trump Administration by Educational Level

Aerial view of Beirut, Lebanon and surrounding mountains

Lebanese Americans and travel to Lebanon

Annual support sent by Lebanese Americans to family and organizations in Lebanon