1. Return Migration
According to the lowest estimates, by 1914, somewhere around 77,594 Lebanese emigrants had returned to the Mountain.
Many did return simply because they had attained their main goal for coming: to make money. But money was not the only factor. Some emigrants returned because they were homesick.
They saw the misery of industrial capitalism that was fueling America’s economic revival.

2. Labor Migaration and Istanbul
1844: 76,000 immigrant laborers
1857: 90,000 immigrant laborers
1882: 61,000 seasonal migrants
Typical employment of seasonal migrants was that of a porter (hamal).
In the early 19th century, most of the porters in the capital were Turks and Kurds, and they had close relationship with the janissary corps.

3. Janissary Corps

4. Janissaries and the Urban Economy
From the late sixteenth century onward the ability of the janissaries to live on their military salaries faded. As an outcome of this development, the janissaries began to put down roots in urban economy and society in major centers such as Istanbul, Edirne, Belgrade, Sofia and Damascus. They began to heavily involve in crafts and trades.
As they intermingled with the craftsmen, tradesmen and wage earners, janissaries often served as a popular militia defending the interests of laboring people on numerous occasions. Many porters joined with them in every riot.

5. Auspicious Event?
Using careful planning, good strategy and good timing, Sultan Mahmud II destroyed the corps on 15 June 1826 and abolished them officially two days later.
While some of these porters were executed publicly, the others were exiled.
Which group of Ottoman subjects would the state use to fill the ranks of porters, now reduced by the removal of the Turkish and Kurdish allies of the Janissaries?

6. Eastern Anatolia

7. Armenian Porters
The broad sweep of events in the nineteenth century (1890s), however, worked to undermine the position of the Armenian porters in Istanbul.
Mass demonstration on 30 September 1895
Occupation of Ottoman Bank in August 1896
Violent reaction: murders and deportation