Iranian citizens abroad

Net migration (1979-2008).

The term Iranian citizens abroad or Iranian/Persian diaspora refers to the Iranian people born in Iran but living outside of Iran with their children.

By most estimates, between two and three million Iranians live in North America, Europe, Persian Gulf States, Turkey and Australia (2008).^[1][2] For the most part they emigrated after the Islamic revolution in 1979.

Their combined net worth is $1.3 trillion (2006 est.)^[3] In 2000, the Iran Press Service reported that Iranian expatriates had invested between $200 and $400 billion in the United States, Europe, and China, but almost nothing in Iran.^[4] In Dubai, Iranian expatriates have invested an estimated $200 billion (2006).^[5] Migrant Iranian workers abroad remitted less than two billion dollars home in 2006.^[6]

Statistics by country

Countrya Iranian-bornb Residents of Iranian ancestryc  United States 283,225 (2000)e[7] 338,266 (2000 US Census)de[8] to 1-1.5 million (2009)[9][10]  UAE  ? 400,000 (2008)d[11]  Canada 95,420 (2006) 121,505d(99,225 as single response and 22,280 among multiple responses)[12]  Qatar 73,000 (1993)[13]  Germany 65,750 (2000)[14]  Kuwait 60,000[citation needed]  Sweden 53,892 (2000)[15] 12,464 (2003)b[16]  Russia 50,000[citation needed]  Bahrain 48,000 (1998)[17]  Israel 47,800 (2007)[18] 135,000 (2007)d[19]  United Kingdom 42,494 (2000)[20][21]  Netherlands 21,469 (2000)[22]  Oman 25,000 (1993)[13]  Australia 18,798 (2001)d[23]  France 18,376 (2000)[24]  Turkey 7,831 (1990)[25]  Denmark 8,977 (1991)[26]  Philippines 7,144 (2000)[27]  Japan 7,000 (2000)[28]  Austria 5,926{ (2001)[29]  Italy 5,658 (2001)[30]  Switzerland 4,044 (2000)[31]  Norway 4,095 (2001)[32]  Spain 2,334 (2007)[33] Total:

Notes: Note a: The Iranian citizens abroad differ from the other Iranian peoples living in other areas of Greater Iran, who are of related ethnolinguistical family, speaking languages belonging to the Iranian languages, which is a branch of Indo-European languages. There are an estimated 150 to 200 million native speakers of Iranian languages (including 70 million in Iran as of 2006), the five major groups of Persians, Lurs, Pashtuns, Kurds and Baloch accounting for about 90% of this number.[34] Currently, most of these Iranian people live in Iran, Afghanistan, Tajikistan, Pakistan, parts of Uzbekistan (especially Samarkand and Bukhara), the Caucasus (Ossetia and Azerbaijan) and the Kurdish areas (referred to as Kurdistan) of Turkey, Iraq, Iran and Syria. Smaller groups of Iranian people can also be found in western China, southern Pakistan and a few in western India. Due to recent migrations, there are also large communities of speakers of Iranian languages in Europe, the Americas, and Israel. Note b: In some countries naturalized citizens, dual citizens, or children with only one Iranian/foreign-born parent are counted (for statistical purposes) as citizens/nationals of the host country only (i.e. citizen of the country of residence). For example all naturalized Swiss citizens have a legal "Swiss origin" even though it is often not the same as their place of birth. Note c: Same as "Iranian-born" but includes their children born abroad. Note d: Iranian ancestry (i.e. second or third generation), not necessarily Iranian citizenship. Note e: In the period from 1961 to 2005, the United States has been the main destination of Iranian emigrants. A total of 378,995 Iranians have immigrated to the United States in that period, where the major concentrations of Iranian immigrants are California (158,613 Iran-born in 2000)[35], New York state (17,323)[36], Texas (15,581)[37], Virginia (10,889),[38] and Maryland (9,733)[39] Los Angeles Metropolitan Area was estimated to be host to approximately 114,712 Iranian immigrants[40], earning the Westwood area of LA the nickname Tehrangeles. In the case of the United States, the US Census Bureau's decennial census form does not offer a designation for individuals of Iranian descent. Consequently, it is estimated that only a fraction of the total number of Iranians are writing in their ancestry. The Census Bureau estimates that the Iranian-American community (including the US-born children of the Iranian foreign born) numbers around 330,000. However, studies using alternative statistical methods have estimated the actual number of Iranian Americans in the range of 691,000 to 1.2 million. [41][42]

See also

• Iranian American - one of the two largest Iranian communities outside of Iran
• Privatization in Iran
• Anti-Iranian sentiments
• Demography of Iran
• Iran's brain drain
• Foreign relations of Iran

References

External links

• History of Iranian diaspora, Encyclopedia Iranica
• Country Profile - Iran Migration Policy Institute (including modern history of Iranian migration)
• Iranian Diaspora in pre-Islamic times
• Iranian Alliances Across Borders (IAAB) (non-profit, non-patisan, and non-religious)
• Iranian diaspora - press article (2009)