Throughout their history and compared to other peoples, Iranians have been less inclined to leave their homeland and immigrate. Out of 50,000 people who left their countries for the United States in the interval between two world wars, only 1,000 were Iranians. However, it seems that in certain historical junctures, special religious, political, economic and social circumstances have encouraged Iranians to immigrate. Even under the tyrant Abbasid caliphs, Iranian Zoroastrians were not willing to leave Iran until the 3rd century AH and most of them immigrated from Khorasan and eastern parts of Iran to settled in the central province of Yazd and are still living there.

However, changing global conditions have also changed that trend and immigration of Iranians has taken an unprecedented turn both in terms of quality and quantity. Here, we will review the situation and status of Iranians in other countries, in order to understand various aspects of the new trend.

1. A report issued by International Monetary Fund shows that Iranians account for 105,000 university graduates in the United States, thus ranking the third in terms of number of university graduates compared to other minorities only after China (265,000 graduates) and India (288,000 graduates). Mr. Bakhshandeh, president of Shahid Chamran University of Ahvaz had warned about brain drain in Iran, noting that about 92.5 percent of Iranian students taking part in international Olympiads have immigrated. He added in a meeting of the Administrative Council of Khuzestan province in 2000 that “increase in the number of Iranian researchers has stood at 550 researchers per one million people. Until recently our situation was similar to Turkey, but now we lag behind them.” He blamed poor research facilities; low level of researchers, as well as economic and political situation in the country as the main factors exacerbating the brain drain. He added, “More than 182,000 Iranian specialists and middle-ranked managers have referred to the Canadian embassy in order to leave the country.”

2. According to a report issued by Persian-speaking society of MIT University, “Based on studies, out of one million Iranian Americans in 1990, 54 percent held bachelor’s degrees and 26 percent held higher degrees.” The study also revealed that 280 major American companies were run by Americans of Iranian stock and out of 1,000 national American companies, 400 belonged to Iranians, who contributed 400 billion dollars a year to the American economy.

3. A report prepared by consultative commission of the High Council for Cultural Revolution revealed that based on 1990s census in the United States, about 220,000 people were of Iranian descent and about 77 percent of them were university graduates.

The main question is “Have those elite willfully left the country, or we have made them do that?” Evidence shows that temporary solutions were never effective in making specialist return to their homeland.

Based on more recent figures published by the United Nations, about 240,000 Iranians holding academic degrees were living in the United States. According to latest reports, 1,826 full-time faculty members at the American universities were Iranians. If the number of half-time members were added, the figure would rise to about 5,000. Based on figures issued by the “Council for Attracting Elites”, the number of professors and associate professors in Iran stood at about 1,500 in late March 1994 and the figure reached 2,200 in 1996. The number of assistant professors stood at about 6,000. Iran’s representative office at the United Nations had collected specifications of about 100,000 Iranians living in the United States and was in touch with them until the second half of the Iranian year 1373 (1994-95). Out of that figure, 46 percent were university graduates (19.5 percent holding doctorates, 9 percent holding medical degrees, 8 percent holding master’s degrees, and 9.5 percent holding bachelor’s degrees) and 54 percent were capitalists or businesspeople. Iranian faculty members in the United States amount to about 1,826, including 635 specialists in social sciences, 195 mathematicians, 65 specialists in information technology and 216 specialists in basic sciences. A total of 5,500 Iranian physicians as well as 650 specialists in basic medical sciences and 430 Iran scholars are active in 45 small and big institutes as well as 45 Iranian painters. A large number of Iranians specializing in various fields also live in western European countries, especially in German, England and France and it seems that in terms of education, specialty and capital, Iranians are ahead of two major racial groups living in the United States (blacks and whites) in proportion to their population.

Also, due to large number of local specialists in Western countries and increased unemployment among graduates, with unemployment rates as high as 7-12 percent in major European countries like France and Italy, the West does not need to attract specialists from the East and high employment of Iranians in those countries attest to high quality of the Iranian manpower.

4. According to statistics released by the Bureau of Citizenship and Immigration Services, the number of Iranians arriving in the United States as students has increased from 997 in 1960 to 4,832 in 1973. In the same year, about 17 percent of Iranian students had asked for permanent residence in the United States after termination of their studies. Figures released by Institute of International Education (IIE) for the academic year 1973-74, a total of 9,623 Iranian students studied at the American universities in that year of whom 71 percent studied in bachelor’s degree courses, 22 percent in master’s degree courses, and 2 percent for doctorates. Most of them studied administrative sciences, education, engineering, humanities, physical and biological sciences as well as social sciences. If we assume 17 percent of them had stayed in the United States, their number would hit 1,637 students.

During 1967-69, out of 1,357 Iranian specialists arriving in the United States with permanent residence permits, 45 percent specialized in technical and basic sciences, about 34 percent in medical sciences, and about 12 percent in humanities. Moreover, based on a study on foreign physicians living in the United States in 1970, a total of 1,631 specialists in medical and paramedical fields hailed from Iran which included 32 percent men and 8 percent women with an average age of 39 years. In 1973, out of about 3,000 Iranians seeking asylum in the United States, 50 percent were managers, businesspeople and otherwise skilled manpower. Based on separate statistics, a total of 4,616 Iranian physicians had immigrated to the United States by 1993. More recent reports have it that 6,000 Iranian physicians and 3,000 medical students live in the United States.

According to general census in 1990, more than 15 percent of Iranians graduating from non-American universities had immigrated to the United States. The same source adds, “About 25 percent of Iranians holding academic degrees have immigrated to other member states of Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). According to UN statistics, about 240,000 Iranians holding higher education degrees lived in the United States in 1993 of whom 1,862 were full-time faculty members and 3,200 persons were half-time faculty members. Most full-time faculty members were associated professors and professors. Interestingly, the total number of full-time faculty members in Iranian higher education centers (as associate professors and professors) stood at 1,900 in 1996-97.

According to statistics released by the American databank of specialists and Bureau of Citizenship and Immigration Services, specifications of 37,362 Iranian specialists holding bachelor’s degrees and higher degrees had been recorded in that databank by 1997. Out of that figure, 29 percent held doctorate degrees, 33 percent held master’s degrees, and the rest were bachelor’s degree graduates. According to educational field, technical and engineering fields account for 49 percent of them with the least percentage going to agriculture graduates at less than 4 percent. About 200,000 Iranians live in Germany and France, about 60 percent of whom are university graduates. In addition, many other Iranians with academic degrees live in other countries.

5. As for businesspeople, Iran ranks the third in terms of sending immigrants to Canada (after South Korea and Taiwan). In 1999, Iran was among the top 10 countries sending out businesspeople as immigrants. Iran’s ranking in 1997 and 1998 stood at 7th and 6th, respectively, which fell to 5th in 1999.

6. In 1993, a total of 3,614 graduates of Iranian medical universities were studying in the United States and 59 of them were practicing in San Diego, California alone. Iranian physicians living in the United States are estimated at 7,000, of whom 6,000 are practicing medicine and the rest are working in unrelated fields or have been retired.

Dr. Hosseinali Ronaqi has studied the number of Iranian physicians in New York, Chicago, Boston, and Huston and maintains that the above figures are correct with an error coefficient of 5 percent.

Dr. Nasser Eqbali maintains that a total of 22,000 Iranian physicians worked outside the country in 1997. Dr. Massoud Khatami, head of the society of Iranian specialists in the United States, estimates the number of Iranian physicians in the US at 10,000. Taking part in a conference called “Discourse of Iranians” in Tehran, he added that Iranian immigrants were superior to other minorities in terms of material and spiritual capacities, noting “If we considered the assets of only five Iranian businesspeople in the United States, it would surpass annual budget of our country.”

Based on figures related by Germany medical council, the number of Iranian physicians in that country totaled 1,240 in 1993, accounting for the biggest proportion of foreign physicians (out of 243,600 physicians in Germany). In 1996, there were 109,000 Iranians in Germany 1,547 of whom were studying at medical faculties.

At present, there are about 500 Iranian doctors and 120 dentists in Los Angeles in addition to tens of active medical institutes. Dr. Hossein Habibi, an urologist living in the United States, maintains that it is difficult to find correct number of Iranian doctors in the United States as many of them work for state-run institutes or various insurance firms and it is not easy to find their names. He estimated that there are 6,000-7,000 Iranian physicians in the United States. He added that there were 23 Iranian doctors in San Jose, ranking the third in terms of number after Indian and Chinese doctors. Hosseinali Ronaqi also stated that between 1966 and 1970, immigration of Iranian doctors to the United States has increased 45-50 percent. During the same period, 1,230 Iranian physicians had taken part in medical assessment exams called ACFMG, of whom 326 had been accepted. During those years, 240 Iranian physicians had taken part in exams to obtain work permits in the United States. Out of 66 medical graduates in Tehran in 1961-1962, 47 went to the United States to become specialists. Some 32 of them never returned. He noted that most physicians who had returned to Iran after becoming specialists, returned to the United States later and permanently settled there.

According to figures released by Ministry of Health, total number of Iranian physicians stood at 8,300 in 1973 while the country needed 31,000 doctors; in fact, we were short of 22,700 doctors.

Dr. Nasser Rahimi, university professor and researcher, maintains that apart from physicians who leave the country, some people immigrate after obtaining their high school diplomas in order to study medicine abroad. If they were added to the number of 45,000 Iranian students studying overseas, the number of Iranian physicians in the United States will go well beyond 10,000.

On average, 500 Iranian physicians took part in annual medical assessment exams to be sent to the United States. In 1955, the US consulate in Tehran announced that they had received 10,163 applications for student visas while the total quota for the whole American continent was 10,063 and was 6,000 for a country like Mexico which was a US neighbor.

Therefore, brain drain, especially among physicians, dates back to years before victory of the Islamic Revolution. One year before victory of the 1979 Islamic Revolution, New York Times published an article announcing that during the said year, Iran has had -1 medical graduate. According to that report, total graduates of medicine in Iran amounted to 700 in 1977 while 701 physicians had left the country.

The American newspaper also noted that the United States spends 1-1.5 million dollars on education of every physician and stated that immigration of Iranian physicians to the United States fetched the country hundreds of millions of dollars in material benefits. Of course, immigration of Iranian physicians to the United States had started many years before the revolution; so that, in 1970, a total number of 1,626 Iranian physicians lived in the United States, accounting for 15 percent of total Iranian physicians (8,950).

At that time, 390 Iranian doctors were practicing in New York state alone which was equal to number of Iranian specialists who had returned to Iran in 1970 and had gone back to the United States.

7. Ali Jalali, a seasoned Iranian journalist living in Log Angeles wrote an article in daily Ettelaat two years before victory of the Islamic Revolution in which he regretted brain drain and added, “A major reason for brain drain is maltreatment of the elites who have returned to the country due to inefficient regulations in our country.”

The main question is “Have those elite willfully left the country, or we have made them do that?” Evidence shows that temporary solutions were never effective in making specialist return to their homeland. Dr. Alireza Shafaei, member of the board investigating health and treatment problems in Iran, has noted that shortage of research and educational budget; advanced facilities in developed countries, as well as absence of basic plans to get the specialists back are major reasons behind brain drain, which is not limited to physicians alone. In 1966, 106 engineers and specialists in other academic fields immigrated to the United States from Iran. The figure reached 190 the next year with a great number of dentists, pharmacists, veterinary surgeons, and nurses among them.

8. An expert at the World Bank has opined that brain drain from developing to developed states is due to increased number of specialists in the former group of countries. For example, he notes, there are two million people holding bachelor’s and master’s or higher degrees in India. However, this is not the case in Iran. Average age of Iranian physicians who leave the country has been determined at 25 and they usually age 30 when they complete their field of specialty. If physicians retire at an age of 65 in the United States, then every Iranian physician would have served the United States for 35 years. At the same time, we have one physician for every 3,310 Iranians in the country.

Iran accounted for the highest number of students in the United States among developed countries in the academic year 1976-77. According to existing figures the number of Iranian students in the United States was 2.5 times that of Indian students (whose population was 15 times that of Iran). In other words, at that time (1976) one out of 9 foreign students was Iranian.

The rate of scientific dependence of Iran on foreign institutes was also significant. In 1976, out of 215,000 Iranian students inside and outside the country, 40,000 studied overseas which put Iran’s scientific dependence on foreign institutes at 5.18 percent. According to “Political Economy” (August 1966) profits reaped by the United States through immigration of 43,000 scientists and specialists over 12 years (1949-1961) surpassed one billion dollars. In fact, each specialist has paid the United States 23,000 dollars in order to become a specialist.

The World Bank expert maintains that most immigrants are needed in their own countries, but they prefer to permanently settle in another country due to different economic, political, and other reasons. The expert, along with Dr. Jahangir Amouzegar, has divided the Iranian students outside the country into three categories.

The first group comprises those bright students who are potentially outstanding future scientists and the country is not ready to make good use of them. This group does not account for more than half percent of Iranian students.

The second group consists of students from lower social classes or with incomplete studies who believe that they would not have a suitable cultural or social status upon returning to their country. They are in a kind of “suspended immigration”. This group accounts for 40-70 percent of Iranian students. Finally, there is a third group of students who are studying under ordinary conditions. The report also notes that most Iranian students who have been attracted to other countries have been studying medicine or technical fields. A comparative study shows that Iranians are more inclined than Iraqis, Indians, and Turks to marry foreign nationals and this is considered the most important reason why Iranians are easily assimilated in foreign cultures.

9. According to Peik periodical (No. 3, 1965), which is published by society of Iranian students in California, during three years (from 1961 to 1964) about 62 percent of all Iranians who were naturalized in the United States aged 20-39. In that period, 1,002 Iranians of various age groups were naturalized. According to Dr. Farhang Mehr, the then president of Pahlavi University (renamed Shiraz University), 73 percent of medical graduates of that university who had left for the United States to study specialties, had remained in the United States for various reasons. Dr. Mehr maintained that teaching in English language was a major factor which caused those students to be attracted to the United States.

When immigration regulations of the United States were changed in 1966 and quotas were considered for various nationalities, more Iranian specialists set off for the United States.

During 1959-64, more than 1,329 Iranians, 30-50 percent of whom were technical and vocational experts, were naturalized in the United States which was the highest figure compared to three other Asian nations, that is, India, Turkey and Iraq.

10. Another statistics pertains to scientific situation of Iranian graduates in the United States. In the academic year 2003-04, out of 30 graduates of bachelor’s degree in power from Stanford University, 15 were Iranians. Meanwhile, students ranking from the 1st to 5th were also Iranians.

11. How much is turnover of Iranians’ capitals in the United States? Are all Iranian immigrants well-off? According to the most optimistic estimates, a total of 15-20 percent of Iranian immigrants to the United States are financially well-off and most of them make the ends meet by working collectively (along with their families) and in two shifts

In Los Angeles, for example, you can see Iranian physicians who work at gas stations. There are former generals who are taxi drivers, former jet pilot who is baking breads, former sportspersons who work at gas stations and restaurants, and even lawyers who work in groceries and bakeries. Iranian women who used to have servants in their own country are now working as waiters and servants.

There are various figures on circulating capital of Iranian immigrants. An official of Iran Cultural Heritage, Handicrafts and Tourism Organization maintained that the turnover of the capital of 3 million Iranian immigrants in the United States stood at over 400 billion dollars.

An Iranian merchants maintains that it stands between 200-400 billion dollars and notes that during past few years, wealthy Iranians have invested several billion dollars in Turkey alone (Hamshahri newspaper, March 1994). The estimate sometimes goes as high as 800 billion dollars. At the same time, Vietnamese have invested more than 3 billion dollars in the United States during the past three years.

About 7.3 percent of Iranian immigrants are simple workers. This figure is 18 percent for Americans and 27.5 percent for immigrants from other countries. A study carried out by Dr. Mehdi Bozorgmehr and Professor George Sabbagh as well as figures released in 1980 show that 14.6 percent of Iranian are self-employed, which is twice the Americans (6.9 percent) and threefold of other immigrants who had arrived in the United States in 1970-80 (4.1 percent). Average income of non-student Iranians stood at 17,537 dollars in 1979, which was two times the income of other immigrants.

A number of Iranian students work during their studies. About 21.3 percent of Iranian students work at restaurants and other places related to food industry. Dr. Behrouz M says, “A few years ago, when I was studying in San Francisco, I worked the nights at an expensive French restaurant. One night, one of the customers was informed that I was a medical student and he left a generous tip for me. Afterwards, whenever he was at the restaurant, he asked me to wait on him. Later on, I knew that he was a famous physician in the city and gave me generous tip to just help me with my studies. In the United States, it is customary to give 5-10 percent of the bill to waiters as tip.”

Some 23 percent of Iranians hold bachelor’s degrees. At the same time, the corresponding figure for Americans is 7.5 percent and 12.5 percent for Americans who have been born outside their country. The interest shown by Iranian youth in medicine and engineering fields is also noteworthy. Some 7.6 percent of non-student Iranians are physicians, 12.2 percent are involved in dentistry services, chiropractics and health services, and 7.5 percent are involved in engineering fields. In this regard, Iranian immigrants are superior to other minorities and are called “exceptional immigrants”.

According to this study, a maximum of 10 percent of Iranians speak English at home while 86 percent of them have said in the interview that their English is good or very good. Iranian religious minorities like Jews, Zoroastrians, Armenians, and Assyrians speak their own languages and this is also true about Turks, Kurds and other ethnic minorities.

12. A report published by US State Department on the situation of Iranians in the United States shows that 46 percent of Iranians with republican affiliation are university graduates. According to that report, organizing the affairs of Iranian immigrants is now of national importance due to their economic potentials, their scientific capacities compared to other immigrants, their power of lobby which is higher than other minorities, the negative trend of their cultural identity as well as many other issues.

Figures produced by the Iranian Foreign Ministry on the number of Iranian immigrants is based on statistics provided by Iranian affairs center of that ministry as well as statistics obtained through the website www.persian.org, which is run by Iranian Armenians living in the United States. They have launched an institute called “Iranians World Service Organization” whose goal is to promote Christian faith among Iranians.

Figures produced by the British embassy on May 21, 2003 up to a year later, showed that 1,290 transit visas, 3,866 trade visas, and 605 immigration visas have been issued during the same period. The interesting point is that the British embassy was closed for 100 days during that year. Out of people applying for student visas, one-third applied for master’s courses, on-third for bachelor’s courses, and one-third aimed to learn English language.

Also, based on agreements between the British embassy and some airlines, there is no need for applicants to be present at the embassy (unless interviews are needed) and representatives of airlines will take action to issue visas. According to another statistics released by the British statistical center, 4,767 Iranians have been living in Britain and Wales in 2001. Of course, the figure is not reliable as the center for Iranians’ affairs has estimated the number of Iranian immigrants in that country to stand at 100,000 and this does not include illegal immigrants. Based on Foreign Ministry’s report total number of immigrants has been mentioned at about 125-150 million and in some articles, the number of illegal immigrants has been put at 30 million.

Statistics on Iranian immigrants can be divided into four categories:

1. Official figures released by destination countries;

2. Official figures released by the Iranian government;

3. Approximate figures;

4. Oral (unofficial) figures.

Differences among the statistics are due to existence of the above categories. According to official figures released by US authorities, there are 285,000 Iranians living in the United States while oral statistics has been mentioned as high as 4 million. Mohajer monthly, which is published by the center for Iranian affairs has noted in its September 2002 issue that “immigrants usually give exaggerated figures on the number of Iranians living outside the country for two reasons: firstly, to aggrandize political and social problems in their homeland, and secondly, to justify their immigration and, more importantly to gain political or social advantages in the host country.”