So my background is majority Polish and Italian (my surname is Italian) but my mother who is 3/4 Polish and 1/4 Syrian/Lebanese always says we are Syrian even though my great great grandfather grew up in Beirut.

The owner of a hookah bar where I live by told me that Syrians and Lebanese are basically the same people. Same foods, same culture and the same language.

Having an ambiguous look makes people ask my ethnicity all the time so I either say Syrian or Lebanese depending on the person. Usually Europeans and Lebanese themselves I will say Lebanese and people from where I live in the US I say Syrian.

At the end of the day I’m American with ethnic roots from three interesting places but my question is do Labanese and Syrians basically share the same racial makeup?

I never met my great great grandfather and never asked this question. All I know is that the country of Syria in the country of Lebanon are two different countries and Lebanon is much more wealthy and westernized than Syria for obvious reasons. He came in the early 1900s migration so I’m pretty and white washed I would like to understand this better.