There are two contrasting perspectives on the Syrian refugees crisis in Lebanon.
One group considers this crisis as the root cause of all the problems in Lebanon and faces them with racism and hate speech.
On the other hand, another group seeks to alleviate the impact of this crisis and approach it purely as a humanitarian issue.
However, the reality, numbers, and demographics reveal that the crisis is the true governing factor.
In terms of numbers, Lebanon has the highest number of refugees in the world compared to its population.
It is also the country with the highest number of refugees in the world compared to its land area.
According to the Lebanese General Security estimates, the number of Syrian refugees in Lebanon has surpassed 2 million people.
This means that Syrian refugees now constitute approximately 30% of the total population in Lebanon, making it almost half the size of the Lebanese population, which is estimated to be 4.7 million.
This number is shocking; let's move on to the registered birth rates issued by the Lebanese Ministry of Health for the past few years.
The average number of births annually is 120,000 births.
Lebanese births are approximately 68,000 compared to 50,000 Syrian births, meaning 40% of registered births are Syrian.
However, a significant number of Syrian births, especially in camps and rural areas, occur outside hospitals and are not registered, so the number of Syrian births is undoubtedly higher than that of Lebanese births.
Let's not forget that the number of Lebanese births has been steadily decreasing since the beginning of the crisis in 2019 and has become very close to the number of deaths.
In addition, hundreds of thousands of young people have emigrated, resulting in a continuous decrease in Lebanese people inside Lebanon. In contrast, the number of Syrians in Lebanon continues to rise.
Based on these facts, let's compare the age pyramid of Syrians and Lebanese.
More than 52% of Syrians in Lebanon are under 20, while less than 29% of Lebanese are estimated to be under 20.
This means that the Syrian community in Lebanon has a younger population, with the youth making up the largest portion of it, while the Lebanese society is rapidly aging, like European societies.
This is our reality, where births and youth are declining.
It is not far-fetched to imagine that after 10-15 years, the number of Syrians in Lebanon could surpass the number of Lebanese, especially considering that any economic or political setback could trigger more migration.
At that point, Lebanon may no longer be recognizable as the Lebanon we know.