Syria, Jordan and further afield. Their percentage of the population has declined from 12% in 1948 (4.8 million population), to 7% in 1987 (20 million) and 6% in 2003 (27 million). Despite Assyrians making up only 3% of Iraq's population, in October 2005, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees reported of the 700,000 Iraqis who took refuge in Syria between October 2003 and March 2005, 36% were "Iraqi Christians." Lebanon Lebanon has experienced a large migration of Lebanese Christians for many generations. Currently, the number of Lebanese people who live outside Lebanon (8.6-14 million), is higher than the number of Lebanese people who live within Lebanon (4.3 million). Most of the members of the diaspora population are Lebanese Christians, but some of them are Muslims, Druze and Jews. They trace their origins to several waves of Christian emigration, starting with the exodus that followed the 1860 Lebanon conflict in Ottoman Syria. Under the current Lebanese nationality law, diaspora Lebanese do not have an automatic right of return to Lebanon. Due to varying degrees of assimilation and a high number of interethnic marriages, most diaspora Lebanese have not taught their children to speak the Arabic language, but they still retain their Lebanese ethnic identity. The Lebanese Civil War has further fed the higher Christian emigration rate. Higher Muslim birthrates, the presence of Palestinians in Lebanon and the presence of Syrian migrant workers have all contributed to the reduction of the Christian proportion of the Lebanese population. Lebanese Christians are still culturally and politically prominent, forming 35-40% of the population. 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. Ottoman Palestine The immigration of Palestinian Christians started in the 19th century as a result of the Ottoman discrimination against Christians. 1948 and 1967 occupations and wars made many Christians flee or lose their homes. In the Palestinian National Authority, there has been considerable emigration and Palestinian Christians are disproportionately represented within the Palestinian diaspora. Most of Gazan Christians have fled the Gaza Strip following the Hamas takeover in 2007, largely relocating to the West Bank. There are also many Palestinian Christians who are descendants of Palestinian refugees from the post-1948 era who fled to Christian-majority countries and formed large diaspora Christian communities. Worldwide, there are nearly one million Palestinian Christians in these territories as