The status of Iranian immigrants in foreign countries: transformations, routes and remittances

Valiollah Rostamalizadeh, National Population Studies and Comprehensive Management Institute, Iran
Ali Ghasemi Ardahaee, National Population Studies and Comprehensive Management Institute, Iran

This study seeks to describe the status of Iranian immigrants in the world, the level of their remittances sent back to Iran, and transformations of these funds as compared with other selected countries. The methodology of the study is the documentary approach and is based on secondary analysis of the statistics provided by international organizations and other findings relevant to the subject of the study. The findings suggest that there have been several changes in the pattern of internal and international migration in Iran. Based on Zelinsky’s (1971) theory of mobility transition, along with the process of development in Iran, these changes have made city to city migration and emigration more important, in a way that the findings indicate: First, the decline in migration from rural to urban areas and the subsequent increase in migration from cities to cities. Second, the decline in migration from cities to villages and from villages to villages and also the reduction of total migrations to villages. Third, an increase in immigration to foreign countries. Also, the results show that the growth of Iranian immigrants has been constantly high from 1960s to 2013, and today Iran’s immigrant population has reached 1,604,750 people. Iranian immigrants are often in two types of countries: developed countries or countries with high revenues and potentials for trade with Iran. Moreover, more than 60 percent of the total remittances has been transfered to Iran from UAE, the US, and Germany with 26.3, 24.8 and 9.8 percent, respectively. But the per capita of remittances as well as the annual growth rate of transfered remittances from Iranian immigrants have been lower than the global average and than that in all the studied countries.