Iranian Americans

Following a wave of immigration from Iran, which was estimated to have a population of 71.2 million people in 2007, during the last quarter of the 20th century, Iranian Americans have emerged as a substantial ethnic community in the United States. Although Iranian Americans are drawn from the several ethnic and religious groups of Iran, a set of shared experiences have reinforced a specifically Iranian identity and strengthened shared cultural traditions. The Iranian American community has simultaneously undergone processes of assimilation to the dominant U.S. culture and strengthening of a specifically Iranian ethnic identity. This entry briefly reviews Iranian immigration and then focuses on the ethnic, religious, and economic characteristics of the Iranian American community, its political issues, and its adaptation to the new home country.

Immigration History

Iranian immigration dates back to the late 19th century, including a group of Iranians in the Iranian [Page 752]Exhibition of the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago. Through the first half of the 20th century, the number of new Iranians entering the United States numbered several hundred annually. More substantial numbers of Iranians did not enter until the late 1960s and early 1970s. Iran was rapidly industrializing during this period, and a growing professional class in Iran was seeking education and professional opportunities outside Iran.

The political turmoil preceding the Iranian Revolution of 1979 sparked a mass exodus of Iranians to locations in Western Europe and the United States. The Iranian Revolution played a major role in shaping the subsequent relationship between Iranian Americans, the nation of Iran, and their host society of the United States and was the direct cause of many immigrants' departure for the United States. As such, the Iranian Revolution remains a powerful memory for most Iranian Americans and continues to influence the construction of their ethnic identity.