Iranian diaspora

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The Iranian diaspora comprises people of Iranian origin living outside Iran, including Iranian emigrants and their descendants. While Iranian migration has occurred historically, a significant wave of Iranians fled Iran after the 1979 Islamic Revolution due to political persecution under the new government. This trend has continued and intensified in the 2020s due to economic instability and political unrest. In 2021, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Iran published statistics showing that 4,037,258 Iranians were living abroad. This figure includes people of Iranian ancestry in the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Israel, Turkey, and Bahrain whose families may have left Iran decades prior to the 1979 revolution, as well as those with partial ancestry. In December 2025, United Nations data indicated that there were 1.6 million Iranian asylum seekers worldwide, though most Iranians abroad are not asylum seekers. Over one million people of Iranian descent live in the United States, with significant...

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