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94-617: Iranian Americans , also known as Persian Americans , are citizens or nationals of the United States who are of Iranian ancestry. Most Iranian Americans arrived in the United States after 1979, as a result of the Iranian Revolution and the fall of the Iranian monarchy , with over 40% settling in California, specifically Los Angeles. They have created many distinct ethnic enclaves, such as

188-784: A New York Times article claimed that Middle Eastern Armenians, which includes Armenians from Iran, preferred to settle in Glendale, California , while Armenian immigrants from the Soviet Union were attracted to Hollywood, Los Angeles. A study regarding Americans of Armenian descent showed that Armenians from Iran (Iranian-Armenians) are known for quick integration into American society: for example, only 31% of Armenian Americans born in Iran claim not to speak English well, while those Armenians from other nations were shown to have less success at integrating. The Small Business Administration (SBA) conducted

282-583: A "founding benefactor" of the Houston Museum of Fine Arts . The George Bush Presidential Library has a gallery named after him. Iranians in Houston particularly came under the spotlight when Iranian student and activist Gelareh Bagherzadeh was murdered in Houston in 2012. The perpetrator, Ali Irsan , was later convicted and sentenced to death for the crime, an honor killing in retaliation against Bagherzadeh's encouragement of Irsan's daughter to leave Islam and marry

376-474: A Christian man. The other notable Iranian in Texas that gained national attention in recent years was UT Austin 's Omid Kokabee who was imprisoned in Iran for political reasons. The Dallas-Fort Worth metropolitan area is estimated to have over 30,000 Iranian-Americans. Iran's first astronaut Anousheh Ansari for many years was a resident of Plano, Texas , a suburb of Dallas-Fort Worth . Dallas' Iranian community

470-594: A cooperation rate of 31.2%. The margin of error for the results was +/- 5 percentage points, with higher margins of error for sub-groups. Notably, the number of Muslims decreased from 42% in 2008 to 31% in 2012. According to Harvard University 's Robert D. Putnam , the average Iranian is slightly less religious than the average American. In the book Social Movements in 20th Century Iran: Culture, Ideology, and Mobilizing Frameworks , author Stephen C. Poulson adds that Western ideas are making Iranians irreligious . There are religious and ethnolinguistic differences among

564-435: A disproportionate share of Iran's religious minorities, as well as subsequent ex-Muslim asylum seekers and other conversions away from Islam. Many Iranian Americans identify as irreligious or Shiite , but a full one-fifth are Christians , Jews , Baháʼís , or Zoroastrians . Additionally, there are also some Iranian Mandaeans , but they are very small in number. According to Pew Research, about 22% of those who left Islam in

658-411: A master's or doctoral degree, the highest rate among 67 ethnic groups studied. A 1990 University of California, Los Angeles study showed that by virtue of education and occupation, native-born and Armenian-Americans of Iranian origin "tend to have the highest socioeconomic status... while those from Turkey have the lowest", although Turkish Armenians boast the highest rate of self-employment. In 1988,

752-459: A second language in Iran, were highly desirable as new students at colleges and universities in the United States. By the mid-1970s, nearly half of all Iranian students who studied abroad did so in the United States. By 1975, the Institute of International Education's annual foreign student census figures listed Iranian students as the largest group of foreign students in the United States, amounting to

846-402: A study that found Iranian immigrants among the top 20 immigrant groups with the highest rate of business ownership, contributing substantially to the U.S. economy. According to the report, there were 33,570 active and contributing Iranian American business owners in the U.S., with a 21.5% business ownership rate. The study also found that the total net business income generated by Iranian Americans

940-557: A total of 9% of all foreign students in the country. As the Iranian economy continued to rise steadily in the 70s, it enabled many more Iranians to travel abroad freely. Consequently, the number of Iranian visitors to the United States also increased considerably, from 35,088, in 1975, to 98,018, in 1977. During the 1977–78 academic year, of about 100,000 Iranian students abroad, 36,220 were enrolled in American institutions of higher learning. During

1034-560: Is Iranian Assyrian. Kings Point, New York , a village in Great Neck , New York, is said to have the largest concentration of Iranians in the United States (nearly 30%). However, unlike the population in Los Angeles, the Great Neck population is almost exclusively Jewish . Nashville, Tennessee has the largest Kurdish population in the United States, with many of them coming from Iran. It

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1128-621: Is a problem of underrepresenting due to the fact that "many community members have been reluctant in identifying themselves as such because of the problems between Iran and the United States in the past two decades." and also because many were ethnic minorities (Jewish, Armenian, and Assyrian Iranians) who instead identify as the ethnic group they are part of rather than as Iranians. Estimates of 1,000,000 and above are given by many Iranian and non-Iranian organizations, media, and scholars. Kenneth Katzman, specialist in Middle Eastern affairs and part of

1222-707: Is composed of 18 offices and affiliates, 600+ staff, and 1,600 higher education partners worldwide. Each office networks local colleges, universities, and NGOs to administer regional programs as well as ensure the goals of sponsors are fulfilled. The IIE Headquarters are located in New York City; regional offices are located in Washington D.C., Chicago, Denver, Houston, and San Francisco in the United States. IIE also administers 14 Regional Educational Advising Coordinators who provide training, resources, and mentoring to support

1316-545: Is not indicative of the entire United States, merely of the areas in which most of the Iranian-American population is concentrated. Though Iranian-Americans have historically excelled in business, academia, and the sciences, they have traditionally shied away from participating in American politics or other civic activities. Iranian-Americans do not appear to engage in American politics, as demonstrated by survey results from large cities showing only 10 percent of them voted in

1410-487: Is now NAFSA and the CIEE . In the 1940s, IIE aided more than 4,000 U.S. students to study and work on reconstruction projects at European universities devastated by the war. By the 1950s the number of foreign students to the United States nearly doubled. As a result, the institute formed a network of U.S. offices to serve the growing number of students under its administration. IIE began producing an annual statistical analysis of

1504-537: Is part of the reason so many Iranians began to flee to America. The third phase of Iranian immigration started in 1995 and continues to the present. According to the 2000 US Census , there were 283,225 Iranian-born people in the US. According to the same 2000 US Census, there were 385,488 Americans of Iranian ancestry at that time. The 2011 American Community Survey (ACS) estimate found 470,341 Americans with full or partial Iranian ancestry. However, most experts believe that this

1598-464: Is widely believed that most Iranian-Americans in the United States are clustered in the large cities of California, namely Greater Los Angeles , the San Francisco Bay Area , San Diego , Sacramento , and Fresno . According to extrapolated U.S. Census data and other independent surveys done by Iranian-Americans themselves in 2009, there were an estimated one million Iranian-Americans living in

1692-537: The 2010 United States Census was not according to race, but rather ancestry, which is collected by the annual American Community Survey (ACS). Data on Iranian ancestry from the annual ACS is available on the Census Bureau's American Factfinder website. Racially, on the Census, Iranian Americans have been classified as a white American group. Most experts believe that the underrepresented number of Iranian Americans in

1786-693: The Arianoi . Strabo , in his Geographica (1st century AD), mentions of the Medes , Persians, Bactrians and Sogdians of the Iranian Plateau and Transoxiana of antiquity: The name of Ariana is further extended to a part of Persia and of Media, as also to the Bactrians and Sogdians on the north; for these speak approximately the same language, with but slight variations. The Bactrian (a Middle Iranian language) inscription of Kanishka (the founder of

1880-636: The Congressional Research Service , in December 2015 estimated the number at over 1,000,000. Paul Harvey and Edward Blum of the University of Colorado and the University of San Diego in 2012 estimated their number at 1,000,000, as well as Al-Jazeera . According to the PAAIA (Public Affairs Alliance of Iranian Americans), estimates range from 500,000 to 1,000,000, numbers backed up by Ronald H. Bayor of

1974-597: The Georgia Institute of Technology as well. The Atlantic stated that there were an estimated 1,500,000 Iranians in the United States in 2012. The Iranian interest section in Washington, D.C., in 2003 claimed to hold passport information for approximately 900,000 Iranians in the US. Today, the United States contains the highest number of Iranians outside of Iran. The Iranian-American community has produced individuals notable in many fields , including medicine, engineering, and business. Although Iranians have lived in

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2068-693: The Iranic peoples , are the collective ethno-linguistic groups who are identified chiefly by their native usage of any of the Iranian languages , which are a branch of the Indo-Iranian languages within the Indo-European language family . The Proto-Iranians are believed to have emerged as a separate branch of the Indo-Iranians in Central Asia around the mid-2nd millennium BC. At their peak of expansion in

2162-482: The Islamic Republic of Iran , yet this rationale has been criticized as the term "Iran" was widely used before 1979 as well. The term "Iranian" is regarded as more inclusive than "Persian", as the term "Persian" excludes non-Persian ethnic minorities of Iran. While the majority of Iranian-Americans come from Persian backgrounds, there is a significant number of non-Persian Iranians such as Azeris and Kurds within

2256-511: The Kushan Empire ) at Rabatak, which was discovered in 1993 in an unexcavated site in the Afghan province of Baghlan , clearly refers to this Eastern Iranian language as Arya . All this evidence shows that the name Arya was a collective definition, denoting peoples who were aware of belonging to the one ethnic stock, speaking a common language, and having a religious tradition that centered on

2350-471: The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Iran have stated the United States has the highest number of Iranians outside the country , stating 1,500,000 Iranians who were born in Iran are living in the U.S. However this number only represents Iranian born population who moved to the U.S. at some point and does not include the number of U.S.-born Iranian-Americans and other groups with Iranian ancestors. Roughly half of

2444-414: The PAAIA (Public Affairs Alliance of Iranian Americans), estimates range from 500,000 to 1,000,000, numbers backed by Ronald H. Bayor of the Georgia Institute of Technology . The Atlantic , in 2012, stated that there are an estimated 1,500,000 Iranians in the United States. The Iranian interest section in Washington D.C., in 2003, claimed to hold passport information for approximately 900,000 Iranians in

2538-872: The Parthians , the Persians , the Sagartians , the Saka , the Sarmatians , the Scythians , the Sogdians , and likely the Cimmerians , among other Iranian-speaking peoples of West Asia , Central Asia, Eastern Europe , and the Eastern Steppe . In the 1st millennium AD, their area of settlement, which was mainly concentrated in the steppes and deserts of Eurasia , was significantly reduced due to

2632-765: The Sintashta culture and the subsequent Andronovo culture within the broader Andronovo horizon, and their homeland with an area of the Eurasian steppe that borders the Ural River on the west and the Tian Shan on the east. The Indo-Iranian migrations took place in two waves. The first wave consisted of the Indo-Aryan migration through the Bactria-Margiana Culture , also called "Bactria-Margiana Archaeological Complex," into

2726-439: The U.S. Department of State 's network of EducationUSA advisers. Current REACs are located in the following cities around the world: Lima , Mexico City , Rio de Janeiro , Budapest , Kyiv , Bratislava , Amman , Accra , Johannesburg , Lahore , Delhi , Beijing , Tokyo , and Kuala Lumpur . The institute (IIE) governs more than 200+ programs serving more than 27,000 people from 185 nations each year. The focal point of

2820-598: The USSR , 11.5% in Lebanon , 9.7% in Turkey , 11.7% in other Middle Eastern countries (Egypt, Iraq , Israel , etc.), and the rest in other parts of the world. Beverly Hills , Irvine , and Glendale all have large communities of Iranian Americans (much of the Iranian population in Glendale being of Armenian descent); 26% of the total population of Beverly Hills is Iranian Jewish , making it

2914-677: The Western world , Iran was known as "Persia". On the Nowruz of 1935, Reza Shah Pahlavi asked foreign delegates to use the term Iran , the endonym of the country used since the Sasanian Empire , in formal correspondence. Since then the use of the word "Iran" has become more common in Western countries. This also changed the usage of the terms for Iranian nationality, and the common adjective for citizens of Iran changed from "Persian" to "Iranian." In 1959,

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3008-1244: The Zazas . Their current distribution spreads across the Iranian Plateau ;– stretching from the Caucasus in the north to the Persian Gulf in the south and from eastern Anatolia in the west to western Xinjiang in the east – covering a region that is sometimes called Greater Iran , representing the extent of the Iranian-speaking peoples and the reach of their geopolitical and cultural influence. The term Iran derives directly from Middle Persian Ērān / AEran ( 𐭠𐭩𐭥𐭠𐭭 ) and Parthian Aryān . The Middle Iranian terms ērān and aryān are oblique plural forms of gentilic ēr- (in Middle Persian) and ary- (in Parthian), both deriving from Old Persian ariya- ( 𐎠𐎼𐎡𐎹 ), Avestan airiia- ( 𐬀𐬌𐬭𐬌𐬌𐬀 ) and Proto-Iranian *arya- . There have been many attempts to qualify

3102-403: The 1800s. He was inspired to travel around the world due to the contradiction between the democratic ideals he read about and how his fellow Iranians were treated by their leaders. He began his travels as a 23-year-old looking for knowledge, to experience the lives of others, and to use that knowledge to help with Iran's progress. His stay in the United States lasted 10 years, and he traveled across

3196-575: The 1978–79 academic year, on the eve of the revolution, the number of Iranian students enrolled in American institutions rose to 45,340, and in 1979–80, that number reached a peak of 51,310. At that time, according to the Institute of International Education , more students from Iran were enrolled in American universities than from any other foreign country. The pattern of Iranian migration during this phase usually only involved individuals, not whole families. Due to Iran's increasing demand for educated workers in

3290-459: The 1979 revolution were mostly experienced physicians who came with their families and an intent to stay permanently. As of 2013, there are 5,050 Iranian medical school graduates in the United States. Prior to the revolution, the 1,626 physicians migrated to the United States were 15% of all Iranian medical school graduates, while the 5,045 medical graduates who migrated post-Islamic Revolution represent only 5% of total Iranian medical graduates. This

3384-424: The 1979 revolution. About 50 percent of all working Iranian Americans are in professional and managerial occupations, a percentage greater than any other group in the United States (Bayor, 2011). The earliest Iranian people in the U.S. were mostly young trainees who worked as medical interns or residents. Some established themselves to continue practice beyond the residency stage. Their motives to extend their stay in

3478-482: The 2004 election. Iranian peoples Pontic Steppe Caucasus East Asia Eastern Europe Northern Europe Pontic Steppe Northern/Eastern Steppe Europe South Asia Steppe Europe Caucasus India Indo-Aryans Iranians East Asia Europe East Asia Europe Indo-Aryan Iranian Indo-Aryan Iranian Others European The Iranian peoples , or

3572-657: The ACS is a problem due to the fact that "many community members have been reluctant in identifying themselves as such because of the problems between Iran and the United States in the past two decades." Estimations of 1,000,000 and above are given by many Iranian and non-Iranian organizations, media, and scholars. Kenneth Katzman, specialist in Middle Eastern affairs and part of the Congressional Research Service , estimated their number at over 1,000,000 in published December 2015. Historians Paul Harvey and Edward Blum estimate their number at 1,000,000 in 2012, as well as Al-Jazeera . According to

3666-756: The Greek sources. Herodotus , in his Histories , remarks about the Iranian Medes that "Medes were called anciently by all people Arians " (7.62). In Armenian sources, the Parthians, Medes and Persians are collectively referred to as Iranians . Eudemus of Rhodes (Dubitationes et Solutiones de Primis Principiis, in Platonis Parmenidem) refers to "the Magi and all those of Iranian ( áreion ) lineage". Diodorus Siculus (1.94.2) considers Zoroaster ( Zathraustēs ) as one of

3760-603: The Indo-Aryans who founded the Mitanni kingdom in northern Syria; ( c.  1500  – c.  1300 BC ) the other group were the Vedic people. Christopher I. Beckwith suggests that the Wusun , an Indo-European Caucasian people of Inner Asia in antiquity , were also of Indo-Aryan origin. The second wave is interpreted as the Iranian wave, and took place in the third stage of

3854-614: The Indo-European migrations from 800 BC onwards. The Sintashta culture, also known as the Sintashta–Petrovka culture or Sintashta–Arkaim culture, is a Bronze Age archaeological culture of the northern Eurasian steppe on the borders of Eastern Europe and Central Asia , dated to the period 2100–1800 BC . It is probably the archaeological manifestation of the Indo-Iranian language group. The Sintashta culture emerged from

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3948-464: The Iranian American community, most notably Baháʼís, Jews, Armenians, and Assyrians. According to the 1980 US Census , there were 123,000 Americans of Iranian ancestry at that time. Between 1980 and 1990, the number of foreign-born people from Iran in the United States increased by 74 percent. The revolution caused a drastic change in the Iranian culture. Iran was no longer a thriving country. This

4042-532: The Iranian-American community, leading some scholars to believe that the label "Iranian" is more inclusive, since the label "Persian" excludes non-Persian minorities. One of the first recorded Iranians to visit North America was Martin the Armenian, an Iranian-Armenian tobacco grower who settled in Jamestown, Virginia in 1618. Mirza Mohammad Ali , also known as Hajj Sayyah, was an Iranian who came to North America in

4136-726: The Levant, founding the Mittani kingdom ; and a migration south-eastward of the Vedic people, over the Hindu Kush into northern India. The Indo-Aryans split off around 1800–1600 BC from the Iranians, whereafter they were defeated and split into two groups by the Iranians, who dominated the Central Eurasian steppe zone and "chased [the Indo-Aryans] to the extremities of Central Eurasia." One group were

4230-611: The Los Angeles Tehrangeles community in Westwood, Los Angeles . Based on a 2012 announcement by the National Organization for Civil Registration, an organization of the Ministry of Interior of Iran , the United States has the greatest number of Iranians outside the country . Iranian Americans are among the most highly educated people in the United States . They have historically excelled in business, academia, science,

4324-862: The Muslim, Jewish, Baháʼí, Zoroastrian, Christian, Armenian , Azerbaijani , Kurdish , and Assyrian groups. Calculating the percentage of Christian Iranian-Americans is difficult because most Iranian Christians (especially those raised in the faith) are of Armenian or Assyrian origin; and, apart from identifying as Iranian, a number amongst them also strongly self-identifies as Armenian or Assyrian, rather than as (or apart from) Iranian. The majority of Iranian-Americans are ethnic Persians , with sizeable ethnic minorities being Iranian Azerbaijanis , Armenians , Iranian Jews , Kurds , Assyrians , Mandaeans , Turkmen , Baloch , Arabs , among others. According to Hakimzadeh and Dixon in 2006, members of religious and ethnic minorities such as Baháʼís, Jews, Armenians, and Assyrians were disproportionately represented amongst

4418-423: The PAAIA, is likely because, as a group, they are more likely to adhere to traditional Iranian values, including making marriages that are approved by their families and are within Iranian cultural norms. Regarding language proficiency in the United States among its immigrant groups, the first generation principally speaks their native language, the second generation speaks both English and their parents' language, and

4512-770: The Public Affairs Alliance of Iranian Americans (PAAIA) in 2008, only 21 percent of Iranian-Americans reported interacting mostly with other Iranian Americans outside of their workplace, demonstrating that most of them have successfully integrated into United States society. The intermarriage rate is very high among Iranian Americans. It has been estimated that nearly 50 percent of Iranian-Americans who married between 1995 and 2007 married non-Iranian Americans. Research has furthermore indicated that Iranian-Americans who are Muslim are more open to intermarry than those who are members of religious or ethnic minorities, such as Jews and Armenians. Compared to men, Iranian women are less likely to mix or intermarry outside their group, which, according to

4606-489: The U.S. Census in 2000. Second generation Iranians located outside these concentrated cities showed high rates of marrying a non-Iranian and low literacy rates in Persian . In San Diego County, the communities of La Jolla and Westlake village also held a large Iranian population. La Jolla was the first American city to have an Iranian American mayor Iraj Broomand. Texas also has a large population of Iranian descent. And like California, Iranians in Texas are concentrated in

4700-654: The U.S. for a year of academic study and practical professional experience. The International Education Information Center opened at IIE's New York headquarters in the 1980s and new offices in Budapest and Hanoi were established in the 90s. In 2008, IIE president Allan Goodman led the institute's first U.S. higher education delegation. Eleven delegates representing seven U.S. colleges and universities traveled to Southeast Asia to enhance and expand linkages with institutions in Thailand, Vietnam, and Indonesia. IIE has since led U.S. higher education delegations to countries such as Brazil, China, Indonesia, India, Myanmar, and Russia with

4794-424: The U.S. government to create a new category of non-immigrant student visas, bypassing post-war quotas set by the Immigration Act of 1921 . In the 1930s, IIE began expanding its activities beyond Europe, opening the first exchanges with the Soviet Union and Latin America. Edna Duge was director of the IIE's Latin America department in the 1940s. After World War II , the institute facilitated the establishment of what

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4888-405: The U.S., with the largest concentration—about 300,000 people—living in the greater Los Angeles area. For this reason, the Westwood, L.A. area, with its Iranian American residents, is sometimes colloquially referred to as " Tehrangeles ", "Irangeles", or "Little Persia" among Iranian-Americans. In 1985, the Los Angeles Times estimated 200,000 Iranian Americans were living in California; and by 1991

4982-432: The US. According to research done by the Iranian Studies Group, an independent academic organization at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Iranian Americans are most likely far more numerous in the United States than census data indicate. The group estimates that the number of Iranian Americans may have topped 691,000 in 2004—more than twice the figure of 338,000 cited in the 2000 U.S. census . Sources from

5076-503: The United States are Iranian Americans. A 2012 national telephone survey of a sample of 400 Iranian-Americans, commissioned by the Public Affairs Alliance of Iranian Americans and conducted by Zogby Research Services, asked the respondents what their religions were. The responses broke down as follows: Muslim 31%, atheist / realist / humanist 11%, agnostic 8%, Baháʼí 7%, Jewish 5%, Protestant 5%, Roman Catholic 2%, Zoroastrian 2%, "Other" 15%, and "No response" 15%. The survey had

5170-514: The United States in relatively small numbers since the 1930s, a large number of Iranian-Americans immigrated to the United States after the Iranian Revolution of 1979. Data on this group is well documented by the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS). According to the 2000 US Census , there were 385,488 Americans of Iranian ancestry at that time. In the 2011 ACS , the number of Americans of full or partial Iranian ancestry amounted c. 470,341. Federal data on Iranian Americans in

5264-407: The United States were more for professional than economic reasons. Researchers from Johns Hopkins University in 1974 reported, in the Journal of the American Medical Association , that, in 1971, the number of Iranian physicians in the U.S. was 1,625. The authors further studied the causes for immigration by sending questionnaire to all Iranian MDs in the United States. According to the 660 respondents,

5358-469: The United States who chose not to return home, created a large pool of highly educated and skilled Iranian professionals in the United States. By 2002, an estimated 1.5 to 2.5 million Iranians lived abroad, mainly in North America and Europe, due to the Islamic government's authoritarian practices. A further notable aspect of the migration in this phase is that members of religious and ethnic minorities were starting to become disproportionally represented among

5452-417: The United States. Four benchmarks are traditionally used to measure assimilation: language proficiency, intermarriage, spatial concentration, and socio-economic status. Per these criteria, one can determine with a significant degree of confidence that the Iranian-American community has made significant strides in successfully assimilating to a new culture and way of living. According to a survey commissioned by

5546-530: The aim of expanding educational ties with the United States. In the 2010s, the institute established the IIE Centers of Excellence and launched the Emergency Student Fund (ESF). In 2011, IIE hosted the first in a series of conferences in Iraq designed to engage key stakeholders in advancing higher education discussions and development efforts in Iraq. In 2012, IIE began administering the government of Brazil's Scientific Mobility Program , which provides scholarships to Brazilian undergraduate students primarily in

5640-415: The arts, and entertainment. Many have become doctors, engineers, lawyers, and tech entrepreneurs. Research by the Iranian Studies Group at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 2004 estimated the number of Iranian Americans at 691,000, about half of which live in the US state of California. "Iranian-American" is sometimes used interchangeably with "Persian-American", partly due to the fact that, in

5734-525: The basis of the cultural, economic, and social networks that would enable large-scale immigration in the years that followed. The second phase of Iranian migration began immediately before and after the Iranian Revolution of 1979 and the overthrow of the Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi , and became significant in the early 1980s. As Ronald H. Bayor writes, "The 1979 Revolution and the 1980–88 war with Iraq transformed Iran's class structure, politically, socially, and economically." The revolution drastically changed

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5828-462: The cessation of World War I . Nobel Peace Prize winners Nicholas Murray Butler , president of Columbia University , Elihu Root , former secretary of state, and Stephen Duggan, Sr. , professor of political science at the College of the City of New York (and IIE's first president) formed the Institute of International Education with the idea that educational exchange would incite understanding between nations. IIE president Stephen Duggan influenced

5922-432: The city's largest religious community. Iranian Americans have formed ethnic enclaves in many affluent neighborhoods mostly in the Los Angeles metropolitan area. In Los Angeles , Iranians were concentrated in Tarzana , West Hills , Hidden Hills , Woodland Hills , Beverly Hills , Calabasas , Brentwood , and Rancho Palos Verdes . Tarzana has the highest concentration of Iranians in Los Angeles County, according to

6016-662: The command of Shapur I gives a more clear description. The languages used are Parthian, Middle Persian, and Greek. In Greek inscription says "ego ... tou Arianon ethnous despotes eimi" , which translates to "I am the king of the kingdom ( nation ) of the Iranians". In Middle Persian, Shapur says "ērānšahr xwadāy hēm" and in Parthian he says "aryānšahr xwadāy ahēm" . The Avesta clearly uses airiia- as an ethnic name ( Videvdat 1; Yasht 13.143–44, etc.), where it appears in expressions such as airyāfi daiŋˊhāvō ("Iranian lands"), airyō šayanəm ("land inhabited by Iranians"), and airyanəm vaējō vaŋhuyāfi dāityayāfi ("Iranian stretch of

6110-419: The country from New York to San Francisco. He met a variety of influential American figures including President Ulysses S. Grant , who met with him on several occasions. On 26 May 1875, Hajj Sayyah became the first Iranian to become an American citizen. He was imprisoned upon his return to Iran for taking a stand against living conditions there. He looked to the United States to protect him but to no avail. During

6204-403: The cult of Ohrmazd. The academic usage of the term Iranian is distinct from the state of Iran and its various citizens (who are all Iranian by nationality), in the same way that the term Germanic peoples is distinct from Germans . Some inhabitants of Iran are not necessarily ethnic Iranians by virtue of not being speakers of Iranian languages. Some scholars such as John Perry prefer

6298-529: The early exiles of the 1978–1979 revolution. According to DHS , in 2015, 13,114 people born in Iran were issued green cards , while 13,298 were issued one in 2016. In 2015, 10,344 Iranians became naturalized, with a further 9,507 in 2016. Nearly all Iranians who reside in the United States are either citizens (81%) or permanent residents (15%) of the United States (2008 survey). Iranian-Americans regard their culture and heritage as an important component of their day-to-day life and their overall identity within

6392-424: The estimate jumped to 800,000, however the accuracy of these numbers could be debated due to a lack of data. In 1990, Los Angeles had a larger population of religious minorities than Muslims, who were the religious majority in Iran. Regarding Iranian-Americans of Armenian origin, the 1980 US Census put the number of Armenians living in Los Angeles at 52,400, of whom 71.9% were foreign born: 14.7% in Iran, 14.3% in

6486-419: The expansion of the Slavic peoples , the Germanic peoples , the Turkic peoples , and the Mongolic peoples ; many were subjected to Slavicization and Turkification . Modern Iranian peoples include the Baloch , the Gilaks , the Kurds , the Lurs , the Mazanderanis , the Ossetians , the Pamiris , the Pashtuns , the Persians, the Tats , the Tajiks , the Talysh , the Wakhis , the Yaghnobis , and

6580-416: The foreign student population in the United States and named the study, Open Doors . In the 1960s, the institute opened overseas offices in Asia, Africa, and Latin America. In 1979, the IIE joined the White House and USIA to develop the innovative Hubert H. Humphrey North-South Fellowships , which brings mid-career professionals in public service fields from developing countries and East Central Europe to

6674-411: The good Dāityā"). In the late part of the Avesta (Videvdat 1), one of the mentioned homelands was referred to as Airyan'əm Vaējah which approximately means "expanse of the Iranians". The homeland varied in its geographic range, the area around Herat ( Pliny 's view) and even the entire expanse of the Iranian Plateau ( Strabo 's designation). The Old Persian and Avestan evidence is confirmed by

6768-459: The government of Mohammad Reza Pahlavi , Reza Shah Pahlavi's son, announced that both "Persia" and "Iran" could officially be used interchangeably. The issue is still debated today. There is a tendency among Iranian-Americans to categorize themselves as "Persian" rather than "Iranian", mainly to dissociate themselves from the negative stereotypes of Iranians in media. Some Iranian-Americans also don't prefer "Iranian" to disassociate themselves with

6862-470: The influence of the late Abashevo culture , a collection of Corded Ware settlements in the forest steppe zone north of the Sintashta region that were also predominantly pastoralist . Allentoft et al. (2015) also found close autosomal genetic relationship between peoples of Corded Ware culture and Sintashta culture. Institute of International Education The institute was established in 1919 at

6956-528: The interaction of two antecedent cultures. Its immediate predecessor in the Ural-Tobol steppe was the Poltavka culture , an offshoot of the cattle-herding Yamnaya horizon that moved east into the region between 2800 and 2600 BC. Several Sintashta towns were built over older Poltavka settlements or close to Poltavka cemeteries, and Poltavka motifs are common on Sintashta pottery. Sintashta material culture also shows

7050-575: The larger major cities of the state. Houston has the largest population of Iranians and Iranian expats, with an estimated 70,000 residents (50,000 in 1994), mainly due to the Texas Medical Center and the presence of large energy companies. Houston contains an Iranian business district including shops and restaurants that has been dubbed "Little Persia" by the Houston Press . There are many Iranian Zoroastrians and Baháʼís living there. Some of

7144-576: The literature of Avesta . The earliest epigraphically attested reference to the word arya- occurs in the Bistun Inscription of the 6th century BC. The inscription of Bistun (or Behistun ; Old Persian : Bagastana ) describes itself to have been composed in Arya [language or script]. As is also the case for all other Old Iranian language usage, the arya of the inscription does not signify anything but Iranian . In royal Old Persian inscriptions,

7238-458: The main reasons for migration were mandatory two-years' military service, low salaries as compared to the United States, expensive housing, and socio-political reasons. In 2013, another report was published, in the Archive of Iranian Medicine (AIM), saying that, post-revolution, the number of Iranian medical school graduates in the United States had grown to 5,045. Those who migrated to the U.S. after

7332-493: The mass migration after the fall of the Shah . According to Bayor, from the very beginning, Iranian immigrants differed from other arrivals in their high educational and professional achievements. According to Census 2000 , 50.9 percent of Iranian immigrants have attained a bachelor's degree or higher, compared to a 28.0 percent national average. According to the latest census data available, more than one in four Iranian-Americans holds

7426-768: The mid-1st millennium BC, the territory of the Iranian peoples stretched across the entire Eurasian Steppe ; from the Danubian Plains in the west to the Ordos Plateau in the east and the Iranian Plateau in the south. The ancient Iranian peoples who emerged after the 1st millennium BC include the Alans , the Bactrians , the Dahae , the Khwarazmians , the Massagetae , the Medes ,

7520-557: The middle east are settled in the San Antonio area. The Shah of Iran was also last hospitalized at San Antonio's Wilford Hall Ambulatory Surgical Center in Lackland Air Force Base during his last days. This is the same base that trained many pilots of Iran's Royal Air Force before the 1979 revolution. Many Iranian Americans are non-Muslim due to the religious composition of those fleeing the Iranian Revolution , which included

7614-529: The more well known residents of the Houston area in the past or present are Jasmin Moghbeli , Susan Roshan , Shawn Daivari , Farinaz Koushanfar , and Kavon Hakimzadeh (captain of the USS Harry Truman Naval aircraft carrier). Ibrahim Yazdi was a graduate of Baylor College of Medicine and Kamal Kharazi also is an alumnus of University of Houston . Hushang Ansary , an active philanthropist, has been

7708-415: The movement of a considerable amount of wealth. During and after the revolution, most students did not return to Iran, and those who did were gradually purged from the newly established Islamic Republic . Many students who graduated abroad after the revolution also did not return, due to the ruling clergy's repression. As a result, the educated elite who left Iran after the revolution, and the new graduates in

7802-466: The nation's Iranians reside in the state of California alone. Other large communities include New York / New Jersey , which have 9.1% of the U.S.'s Iranian population, followed by Washington, D.C. / Maryland / Virginia (8.3%) and Texas (6.7%). Approximately 6,000–10,000 Iranian Americans reside in the city of Chicago , while up to 30,000 reside in the Chicago metropolitan area . Some of this population

7896-555: The pattern and nature of Iranian emigration to the United States, while the Iran-Iraq War that ensued afterwards was also another factor that forced many of the best-educated and most wealthy families into exile in the United States and other countries. Once basically an issue of brain drain during the Pahlavi period, it was now predominantly an involuntary emigration of a relatively large number of middle- and upper-class families, including

7990-504: The peak period of worldwide emigration to the United States (1842–1903), only 130 Iranian nationals were known to have immigrated. The first wave of Iranian migration to the United States occurred from the late 1940s to 1977, or 1979. The United States was an attractive destination for students, as American universities offered some of the best programs in engineering and other fields, and were eager to attract students from foreign countries. Iranian students, most of whom had learned English as

8084-762: The programs includes Fellowship and Scholarship Management, Higher Education Institutional Development, Emergency Student and Scholar Assistance, Leadership Development, and International Development. The programs involve participation in the US and abroad. IIE conducts applied research and policy analysis in the field of international student mobility. Through research and program evaluations, IIE provides advising and counseling on international education and opportunities abroad. IIE's publications, reports, and policy papers also provide resources for students and advisers, domestic and international governmental agencies, non-governmental organizations, and foundations. Some of IIE's research projects include Open Doors, Project Atlas, and

8178-631: The science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) fields. IIE brought together delegates from 15 countries and the EU in Washington, DC, for the 2012 International Education Summit on the Occasion of the G8, to discuss national priorities and educational cooperation among nations. In 2024, it was designated as an " undesirable organization " by the Russian authorities. The Institute of International Education's Global Network

8272-482: The term Iranic as the name for the linguistic family of this category (many of which are spoken outside Iran), while Iranian for anything about the country Iran. He uses the same analogue as in differentiating German from Germanic or differentiating Turkish and Turkic . German scholar Martin Kümmel also argues for the same distinction of Iranian from Iranic . The Proto-Indo-Iranians are commonly identified with

8366-505: The term arya- appears in three different contexts: In the Dna and Dse, Darius and Xerxes describe themselves as "an Achaemenid, a Persian, son of a Persian, and an Aryan, of Aryan stock". Although Darius the Great called his language arya- ("Iranian"), modern scholars refer to it as Old Persian because it is the ancestor of the modern Persian language. The trilingual inscription erected by

8460-481: The third generation typically speaks only English, while maintaining a knowledge of some isolated words and phrases from their ancestral tongue. The Iranian American community follows this pattern. Camp Ayandeh, sponsored annually by the Iranian Alliances Across Borders (IAAB), has attracted children of the Iranian diaspora from multiple nations with the intention of uniting Iranian youth following

8554-540: The verbal root of ar- in Old Iranian arya- . The following are according to 1957 and later linguists: Unlike the Sanskrit ārya- ( Aryan ), the Old Iranian term has solely an ethnic meaning. Today, the Old Iranian arya- remains in ethno-linguistic names such as Iran , Alan , Ir , and Iron . In the Iranian languages , the gentilic is attested as a self-identifier included in ancient inscriptions and

8648-513: The years before the revolution, the majority of the Iranian students in America intended to return home after graduation to work, especially those who had received financial aid from the Iranian government or from industry on condition of returning to take jobs upon graduation. Due to the drastic events of the 1979 Revolution , the students ended up staying in the United States as refugees. These several thousand visitors and students unintentionally became

8742-549: Was $ 2.56 billion. Almost one in three Iranian-American households have annual incomes of more than $ 100,000 (compared to one in five for the overall U.S. population). Ali Mostasahri, a founding member of the Iranian Studies Group, offers a reason for the relative success of Iranian-Americans compared to other immigrants. He believes that, unlike many other immigrants who left their home countries because of economic hardships, Iranians left due to social or religious reasons like

8836-614: Was large and influential enough to host US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo for a private visit in April 2019. And San Antonio and Austin each are said to have 3000-5000 Iranian American residents each, who are mostly attracted to large academic centers of excellence such as South Texas Medical Center and UT Austin or the climate of the Texas Hill Country area that is not un-similar to the southern Iran Zagros Mountains region. The largest concentration of Mandaeans from Khuzestan outside

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