Abstract

RHENALS DORIA, Ana Milena  and  FLOREZ BOLIVAR, Francisco Javier. Choosing Among "Undesirable" Aliens: Afro-Antillean and Syrian-Lebanese Immigrants, Race, and Immigration in Colombia, 1880-1937. Anu. colomb. hist. soc. cult. [online]. 2013, vol.40, n.1, pp.243-271. ISSN 0120-2456.

The paper analyzes the multiple racial and ethnic representations of Syrian-Lebanese and Afro-Antillean immigrants constructed by Colombian intellectuals, politicians and businessmen between 1880 and 1937. On the basis of the impact that the massive presence of Afro-Antillean workers in Panamá and ideas regarding scientific racism had in Colombia, the article suggests that both Syrian-Lebanese and Afro-Antillean immigrants were considered undesirable and racially inferior until the mid-1920s. However, at the end of that decade, when new flows of black immigrant workers began arriving in Colombia's Caribbean ports, the Syrian-Lebanese immigrants began to be considered as a population group with better racial, cultural and economic attributes for assimilation to the region and the country as a whole.

Keywords : Syrian-Lebanese; Afro-Antilleans; Colombian Caribbean; immigration.

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