Iranian immigrants
Iranian immigrants to the United States represent a significant cultural and demographic group, particularly since the political upheaval of the late 1970s that led to the Iranian Revolution and the establishment of the Islamic Republic. The largest wave of Iranian immigration occurred from 1970 to 1990, with numbers increasing from approximately 33,000 in the 1970s to nearly 100,000 in the 1980s, contributing to a growing population. By 2019, around 385,000 Iranian immigrants resided in the U.S., with a notable concentration in Southern California, particularly in the Los Angeles area, often referred to as "Tehrangeles."
Many Iranian immigrants have fled due to political repression and religious intolerance, particularly affecting minority groups such as Jews, Baha'is, and Zoroastrians. The community is characterized by high educational attainment and professional employment, with many working in white-collar occupations. Despite their achievements, Iranian immigrant women have lower labor force participation rates compared to their male counterparts. The Iranian American community maintains a strong connection to their heritage, often advocating for social issues relevant to their homeland and expressing solidarity with movements for change in Iran, as exemplified by the response to Mahsa Amini's tragic death in 2022. Overall, Iranian immigrants continue to navigate a complex identity shaped by their experiences in both the U.S. and Iran.
Subject Terms
Iranian immigrants
SIGNIFICANCE:Iranian immigration to the United States is a recent phenomenon and has taken place primarily since 1975. The Islamic fundamentalist revolution of the late 1970s that transformed Iran into a theocratic state was a major world event that increased Iranian migration to the United States and created some negative stereotypes of Iranians among Americans. Some large Iranian American communities have developed, most notably in the region of Los Angeles.
The first recorded immigrants from Iran to the United States arrived during the 1920s when 208 people from Iran (or Persia, as the country was then generally known) came to the United States. Their numbers increased over the next four decades but still remained comparatively small. Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) data show only 9,059 people coming from Iran during the 1960s. In the 1970s through the 1990s, Iranian immigration shot up dramatically. Between 1970 and 1979, 33,763 Iranians immigrated legally to the United States. During the 1980s, this figure went up to 98,141 and decreased only slightly, to 76,899, during 1990s. Between 2000 and 2008, 67,915 new residents came from Iran. In 2010 the total number of Iranian immigrants living in the United States was 357,000. In 2019, the Iranian immigrant population totaled 385,000.
By 1980, the Iranian-born population of the U.S. amounted to 130,000 people, compared to only about 24,000 a mere ten years earlier. More than 70 percent of this 1980 population had arrived during the second half of the 1970s, so they were an extremely new group. They were concentrated on the West Coast, with four out of ten Iranian residents of the United States living in California alone and one out of five living in the Los Angeles–Long Beach metropolitan area. This community continued to expand into the twenty-first century, growing from more than 204,000 in 1990 to 290,000 in 2000. In 2020, this community numbered 357,000. In the mid-2020s approximately 400,000 Iranian-born people lived in the United States with about 130,000 in Los Angeles. Among the Iranian population, L.A. acquired the nickname "Tehrangeles."
Revolution and Immigration
Much of the immigration from Iran to the United States resulted from political unrest in Iran and as a consequence of people fleeing the Iranian Revolution of 1978–79 and the creation of the Islamic Republic in 1980. As a state devoted to the majority religion of the Shia form of Islam, the Iranian republic has been intolerant of minority religions. While an estimated 98 percent of Iranians are Shia Muslims, immigrants to the United States have disproportionately contained adherents of Iran’s minority religions, which include Sunni Muslims, Zoroastrians, Jews, Baha’is, and Christians. Between the time of the revolution and 1990, the easiest way for an Iranian to obtain legal permission to enter the U.S. was by obtaining refugee status. Even after that time, Iranian refugees entered the United States at a rate of about 2,700 per year. From 1990 to 2008, nearly 50,000 people from Iran were admitted to the United States as refugees. However, not all these people were included in the official immigration statistics because they were all accepted as refugees receiving legal permanent resident status.
Another important way that Iranians have entered the United States has been to come as students and then apply for legal residence. Generally, Iranians who have sought student or other types of visas have usually gone to Turkey first because the United States closed its embassy in Iran after 1979. Before the revolution, Iran went through a rapid period of development, so that it has many well-educated people. In addition, many Iranian high school students already studied English by the early 1970s, and knowledge of this language has made it easier for Iranian students to gain admission to American colleges and universities.
The period of tension between the United States and Iran immediately following the revolution created problems for Iranians living in the United States. With the tacit approval of their new government, Iranians seized the American embassy in the capital of Tehran. They held Americans captive there for 444 days, creating an international crisis that contributed to U.S. president Jimmy Carter’s electoral defeat in 1980 and caused strong anti-Iranian sentiments to sweep across the United States. The United States responded by instituting an “Iranian Control Program,” which scrutinized the immigration status of nearly 60,000 people studying in the United States. In addition, even Iranian immigrants who were opposed to the new government in their country sometimes experienced open expressions of public hostility.
The terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, prompted changes in US policies toward Iranian immigrants and refugees, especially after President George W. Bush referred to Iran, along with Iraq and North Korea, as part of an "axis of evil." The number of Iranian immigrants and refugees granted US visas decreased in 2002 and 2003.
Iranians in the United States
By 2007, the geographic concentration of Iranian immigrants had grown greater. About 60 percent of them lived in California, with more than one-third of Iranian-born people in the United States living in the Los Angeles-Long Beach metropolitan area and another 7 percent in nearby Orange County. In 2022, 10 percent of worldwide Iranian-born people living outside of Iran live in Southern California. Outside California, the largest numbers of Iranians could be found in Texas (home to about 6 percent) and in New York State (also about 6 percent). However, there were at least some Iranians in most of the states.
Because of their generally high levels of education, Iranians in the United States have tended to work in white-collar, professional occupations. In 2007, more than one-fifth of them worked as managers, officials, or proprietors. Other common occupations included salespeople, professional and technical workers, and physicians and surgeons. The most common industrial concentrations were in educational services or medical services. However, compared to native-born American women, Iranian women have shown relatively low labor force participation. In 2007, only about half of Iranian-born women in the United States were in the labor force.
As of 2019, the United States remained the most popular country among Iranians living outside of Iran. Fifty percent of the Iranian population in the United States lived in California, and one-third lived in the Los Angeles metro area. Washington, D.C., New York state, and Texas also had significant Iranian populations. Iranian immigrants tended to be college educated, have high incomes, and speak English fluently.
The Iranian American community in the United States maintains close familial connections with extended family in Iran. Many Iranian societal issues resonate with counterparts in America. An idea often expressed among US-based members is that they hope for regime change in Iran, but as an internal matter without the meddling of outsiders.
In 2022, the cause of women in Iran spurred great outpourings in America. This issue was personified by the 2022 arrest, beating, and death of Mahsa Amini, a twenty-two-year-old who was killed under the custody of Iranian religious police. Her alleged crime was not properly wearing a head covering. In California, thousands of Iranian Americans rallied for Amini in cities such as Los Angeles, San Francisco, and San Diego.
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