Document Type : Research Paper
Author
Assistant Professor of Anthropology, Research Institute for Social and Cultural Studies, Ministry of Science, Research and Technology
Abstract
Migration become a lived experience for millions of Iranian in the last decades. This paper tries to shed light on the Iranian diaspora and its transnational relations with the homeland. Based on a qualitative method this ethnographic research has been conducted through 48 semi-structured interviews with Iranian migrants’ lives in Germany. It also followed by participant observation and expert interview with 9 associations which work for immigrants in selected cities in Germany. Because of various reasons such as time of migration, motivations for immigration, differences in terms of class, ethnicity and religious affiliation, intergenerational challenges and political perspectives Iranian migrants make a fragmented, hybrid and contested diaspora which impact upon diasporic identity.
Keywords
- Abdollahpour, M & Mohseni, A & Rasteh, D (2017), Diaspora and Kurdish Nationalism in Terms of Conflict Models, Qualrterly Journal of Political Research in Islamic World, Vol. 7, No. 1.
- Adamson, F (2012), Constructing the Diaspora: Diaspora Identity Politics and Transnational Social Movements, in Politics from Afar: Transnational Diasporas and Networks, Edited By T. Lyons, And P. Mandaville, 25–42. New York: Columbia University Press.
- Anthias, F (1998), Evaluating Diaspora: Beyond Ethnicity?, Sociology, Vol. 32, No. 3.
- Appadurai, A (1991), Global Ethnoscapes: Notes and Queries for a Transnational Anthropology. Recapturing Anthropology: Working In The Present, Ed. RG Fox, Santafe: School of American Research Press.
- Arabestani, M (2018), Desire to Leave, Emigration in the Iranian Intersubjectivity, Research Institute for Culture, Art and Communication, Tehran. [In Persian]
- Arabestani, M (2019), Changing World of the Mandaeans, Iranian Journal of Anthropology Research, Vol. 9, No. 17. [In Persian]
- BAMF (2019), Report, Available From: Www.Bamf.De.
- Barnes, D (2001), Resettled Refugees’ Attachment to Their Original and Subsequent Homelands: Long-Term Vietnamese Refugees in Australia, Journal of Refugee Studies, Vol. 14, No. 4.
- Bastani Ghomsheh, M (2003), Strange Acquaintances Generation Iranian Immigrants in Europe, Tehran: Negaheh Moaser Organization. [In Persian]
- Basu, P (2001), Hunting Down Home: Reflections on Homeland and the Search for Identity in the Scottish Diaspora, In Bender, B. And Winer, M (Eds) Contested Landscapes: Movement, Exile And Place. Oxford: Berg.
- Bauböck, R & Faist, T (Eds) (2010), Diaspora and Transnationalism: Concepts, Theories and Methods, Amsterdam University Press.
- Baudrillard, J (2004), In the Shadow of the Silent Majorities, Tehran: Markarz Publisher. [In Persian]
- Blunt, A & Dowling, R (2006), Home, London: Routledge.
- Borbor, T (2014), Diaspora and the Possibility of a Move from the Sense of Exile to Emplacement: A Survey of Approaches, Journal of Social Sciences, Vol. 21, Issue. 66. [In Persian]
- Bozorgmehr, M & Douglas, D (2011), Success(Ion): Second-Generation Iranian Americans, Iranian Studies, Vol. 44, No. 1.
- Brah, A(2005), Cartographies of Diaspora Contesting Identities, New York: Routledge.
- Bratu, R (2015), Children of Romanian Migrants Between ‘Here’ and ‘There’: Stories of Home Attachment, Social Change Review, Vol. 13, No. 1.
- Breckenridge, C & Appadurai, A (1989), On Moving Targets, Public Culture, Vol. 2, No. 1.
- Brettell, C (2013), Anthropology and Migration: Essays of Transnationalism, Ethnicity and Identity, Altamira Press US.
- Brubaker, R (2005), The ‘Diaspora’ Diaspora, Ethnic and Racial Studies, Vol. 28, No. 1.
- Bryman, A (2016), Social Research Methods, Oxford University Press.
- Budarick, J (2011), Media, Home and Diaspora, LSE Electronic Working Paper, No. 21.
- Burrell, K (2003), Small-Scale Transnationalism: Homeland Connections and The Polish ‘Community’ in Leicester, International Journal of Population Geography, Vol. 9, No. 4.
- Butler, KD (1998), Freedoms Given, Freedoms Won: Afro-Brazilians in Post-Abolition São Paulo and Salvador, New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers UP.
- Butler, KD (2001), Defining Diaspora, Refining a Discourse, Diaspora, Vol. 10, No. 2.
- Change Institute (2009), The Iranian Muslim Community in England, Understanding Muslim Ethnic Communities, Communities and Local Government: London.
- Clifford, J (1994), Further Inflections: Toward Ethnographies of the Future, Cultural Anthropology, Vol. 9, No. 3.
- Cohen, R (2008), Global Diasporas: An Introduction, Routledge.
- Cohen, RA & Yefet, B (2019), The Iranian Diaspora and the Homeland: Redefining The Role of a Center, Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, Online.
- Culic, I (2013), The Limits of the State and Transnationalism: A Critical Look at Canada’s Economic Class Immigration Policy, Working Paper No. 118. Berlin.
- Dahya, B (1973), Pakistanis in Britain: Transients or Settlers?, Race and Class, Vol. 14, No. 3.
- Darzinezhad, E & Baradaran Jamili, L (2017), The Translocality of Home in Mohja Kahf’s Diasporic Discourse, Critical Language & Literary Studies, Vol. 14, No. 19. [In Persian]
- Deciu-Ritivoi, A (2002), Yesterday’s Self: Nostalgia and the Immigrant Identity, Oxford: Rowman & Littlefield
- Dufoix, S (2008), Diasporas, University of California Press.
- Duval, DT (2004), Linking Return Visits and Return Migration Among Commonwealth Eastern Caribbean Migrants in Toronto, Global Networks, Vol. 4, No. 1.
- Ehrkamp, P (2005), Placing Identities: Transnational Practices and Local Attachments of Turkish Immigrants in Germany, Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, Vol. 31, No. 2.
- Elliott, J (2005), Using Narrative in Social Research: Qualitative and Quantitative Approaches, Sage.
- Faist, T (1999), Transnationalization in International Migration: Implications for the Study of Citizenship and Culture, Working Paper WPTC-99-08, Transnational Communities Program.
- Fakouhi, N & Ebrahimi, M (2009), Iranian Scientific Diaspora and Its Impact Upon Localization in Iranian Social Sciences, Journal of Iranian Social Research, Vol. 3, No. 1.
- Fortier, AM (2000), Migrant Belongings: Memory, Space, Identity, New York: Oxford (Berg).
- Georgakopoulou, A (2006), Thinking Big with Small Stories in Narrative and Identity Analysis, Narrative Inquiry, Vol. 16, No. 1.
- Ghaneirad, MA (2017), Knowledge Elites: Cooperation or Immigration?, Institute for Social and Cultural Studies, Ministry of Science, Research & Technology, Tehran. [In Persian]
- Ghasemisiani, AA (2004), Iranian Immigrant Cultural Communication with the Host Society (Case Study: Iranian Immigrants in Germany), Journal of National Studies, Vol. 5, No. 2. [In Persian]
- Gholami, R (2014), Is This Islamic Enough?’ Intra-Diasporic Secularism and Religious Experience in the Shi’a Iranian Diaspora in London, Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, Vol. 40, No. 1. [In Persian]
- Glick Shiller, N & Levitt, P (2004), Conceptualizing Simultaneity: A Transnational Social Field Perspective on Society, International Migration Review, Vol. 38, No. 145.
- Gusterson, H (1997), Studying Up Revisited, Political and Legal Anthropology Review, Vol. 20, No. 1.
- Hakimzadeh, A (2006), A Vast Diaspora Abroad and Millions of Refugees at Home, Washington, Migration Policy Institute.
- Hall, S (1990), Cultural Identity and Diaspora, in Identity: Community, Culture, Difference, Ed J Rutherford, Lawrence & Wishar, London.
- Hall, S (2017), Familiar Stranger: A Life Between Two Islands, Duke University Press Books.
- Ho, EL & Mcconnell, F (2017), Conceptualizing ‘Diaspora Diplomacy’: Territory and Populations Betwixt The Domestic and Foreign, Progress in Human Geography, Online.
- Hobsbawm, EJ & Ranger, to (Eds.) (1992), The Invention of Tradition, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge
- Israel, M (2000), South African War Resisters and the Ideologies of Return from Exile, Journal of Refugee Studies, Vol. 13, No. 1, Pp. 26–42.
- Janmardi, M (2009), A Sociological Analysis of Elite Migration from (1943) Until (2006) Case Study: Saghez in Kurdistan Province, Peyk Noor, Vol. 7, No. 3. [In Persian]
- Karim, PM (2013), Guest Editor’s Introduction Iranian Diaspora Studies, Iranian Studies, Vol. 46, No. 1.
- Khosravi, Sh & Graham, M (1997), Home Is Where You Make It: Repatriation and Diaspora Culture Among Iranians in Sweden, Journal of Refugee Studies, Vol. 10, No.2.
- Kivisto, P (2001), Theorizing Transnational Immigration: A Critical Review of Current Efforts, Ethnic and Racial Studies, Vol. 24, No. 4.
- Koinova, M (2014). Why Do Conflict-Generated Diasporas Pursue Sovereignty-Based Claims Through State-Based or Transnational Channels?, European Journal of International Relations, Vol. 20, No. 4.
- Kvale, S & Brinkmann, S (2009), Interviews: Learning the Craft of Qualitative Research Interviewing, Sage.
- Lal, BB(1990), The Romance of Culture in an Urban Civilization: Robert E. Park on Race and Ethnic Relations in Cities, London: Routledge.
- Levitt, P (1998), Social Remittances: Migration Driven Local-Level Forms of Cultural Diffusion, International Migration Review, Vol. 32, No. 4.
- Levitt, P (2003), Keeping Feet in Both Worlds: Transnational Practices and Immigrant Incorporation in the United States, In C. Joppke and E. Morawska (Eds) Toward Assimilation and Citizenship: Immigrants in Liberal Nation-States, Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
- Ley, D & Kobayashi, A (2005), Back to Hong Kong: Return or Transnational Sojourn?, Global Networks, Vol. 5, No. 2.
- Lu, HP (2011), Models Explaining Exogamy- A Study Of 1.5 And Second Generation Asian Immigrants in Canada, WP11- 02.
- Lyons, T & Mandaville, P (2010), Think Locally, Act Globally: Toward A Transnational Comparative Politics, International Political Sociology, Vol. 4.
- Massey, D(1994), Space, Place and Gender, Minneapolis: University Of Minnesota.
- Mavroudi, E (2007), Diaspora as Process: (De)Constructing Boundaries’, Geography Compass, Vol. 1, No. 3.
- Mavroudi, E (2018), Deconstructing Diasporic Mobilisation at a Time of Crisis: Perspectives from the Palestinian and Greek Diasporas, Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, Vol. 44, No. 8.
- Mcauliffe, C (2007), A Home far Away? Religious Identity and Transnational Relations in the Iranian Diaspora, Global Networks, Vol. 7, No. 3.
- Moghissi, H(2006), Muslim Diaspora: Gender, Culture and Identity, Routledge
- Mohabbat-Kar, R (2016), Identity and Exile: The Iranian Diaspora between Solidarity and Dierence, Berlin: Heinrich Böll Foundation.
- Mohammad-Alamouti, M (2004), Globalization and Elite Migration: Case of Iran, Journal of Social Welfare, Vol. 4, No. 15. [In Persian]
- Morley, D(2000), Home Territories: Media, Mobility and Identity. London: Routledge.
- Mortensen, EB (2014), Not Just a Personal Decision, African Diaspora, Vol. 7, No. 1
- Muggeridge, H & Doná, G (2006), Back Home? Refugees’ Experiences of Their First Visit Back to Their Country of Origin, Journal of Refugee Studies, Vol. 19, No. 4.
- Naderi, A & Bayat, R (2016), Study Overseas: Ethnography About Ambivalence among Iranian Students in Germany, Journal of Iranian Cultural Research, Vol. 9, No. 34.
- Naficy, H (1996), The Making of Exile Cultures: Iranian Television in Los Angeles, University of Minnesota Press.
- Nagel, CR & Staeheli, LA (2008), Integration and the Negotiation of “Here” and “There”: The Case of British Arab Activists, Social and Cultural Geography, Vol. 9, No. 4.
- Naghdi, A (2010), Iranian Diaspora: With Focus on Iranian Immigrants in Sweden, Asian Social Science, Vol. 6, No. 11.
- Noor, A (2014), Iranian Women in the Diaspora, ‘Being Here and Being There’, MA. Thesis, Institute of Social Studies, The Hauge, The Netherlands.
- Nyers, P (2010), Abject Cosmopolitanism: The Politics of Protection in the Anti-Deportation Movement, Third World Quarterly, Vol. 24, No. 6.
- Parkin DJ (1999), Mementoes as Transitional Objects In Human Displacement, Journal Of Material Culture, Vol. 4, No. 3.
- Parvin-Steward, T (2017), In between Home and Homeland: Diaspora Identity as a Cultural Hybrid in Mohsen Namjoo’s ‘Cielito Lindo’, Popular Communication, Vol. 15, No. 3.
- Portes, A & Haller, W & Guarnizo, L (2002), Transnational Entrepreneurs: the Emergence and Determinants of an Alternative form of Immigrant Economic Adaptation, American Sociological Review, Vol. 67, No. 2.
- Portes, A & Rumbaut, RG (2001), Legacies: The Story of the Immigrant Second Generation, Berkeley: University of California Press.
- Portes, A, Guarzino LE & Landolt, P (1999), The Study of Transnationalism: Pitfalls and Promise of an Emergent Research Field, Ethnic and Racial Studies, Vol. 22, No. 2, Pp. 217-237.
- Rahmani, J & Sharbafchizadeh, Z (2012), Identity as Dynamic Process, Layerd Identity of Iranian Immigrant in India, Journal of Iranian Cultural Research, Vol. 5, No. 18. [In Persian]
- Rajabi, P (2007), Itiniary Sociology of Migration, Tehran: Ameh Book Publisher. [In Persian]
- Ranani, M & Shirazi, H & Sadeghi, B (2014), Analysis of Motivations for Iranian Migration Flow with Panel Pouya Model, Journal of Economical Research, Vol. 49, No. 2. [In Persian]
- Redclift, V (2017), The Demoblization of Diaspora: History Memory and ‘Latent Identity’, Global Networks, Vol. 17, No. 4.
- Rumbaut, RG (2012), Educational Experiences of Generation 1.5, In Encyclopedia of Diversity in Education, Edited by James A. Banks, 1–2. Thousand Oaks: SAGE Publications.
- Sabbagh, G & Bozorgmehr, M (1980), High Status Immigrants: A Statistical Profile of Iranian in the United States, Iranian Studies, Vol. Xxi, No. 3-4.
- Safran,W(1991), Diasporas in Modern Societies: Myths of Homeland and Return, Diaspora, Vol. 1.
- Saidi, S (2016), Representation of Identity Through Culinary Culture: An Ethnographic Study of Migration and Changes in Afghan Food Preferences in Iran, Journal of Letter of Anthropology, Vol. 14, No. 24. [In Persian]
- Saidi, S (2018), Juggling Between Two Worlds, Sociocultural Change in Afghan Immigrant Women’s Identity in Germany, LIT Verlag, Berlin.
- Saidi, S (2019), Transnationalism and Gender: Iranian Women in Diaspora’s Contribution to the Developmental Process of the Homeland, Journal of Population, Vol. 25, No. 105-106. [In Persian]
- Saidi, S (2020), Return Migration and Reintegration Challenges: Lived Experience of Expert Returnees Via Iranian Universities, Quarterly Journal of Research and Planning In Higher Education, Vol. 25, No. 4. [In Persian]
- Salavati, B & Maleki, A (2018), International Mobility of Students (Iran and the World), Sharif Policy Research Institute, Tehran. [In Persian]
- Savas, O (2014), Taste Diaspora: The Aesthetic and Material Practice of Belonging, Journal Of Material Culture, Vol. 19, No. 2.
- Sheffer, G (2006), Transnationalism and Ethnonational Diasporism, Diaspora, Vol. 15, No. 1.
- Silverstone, R (1993), Television, Ontological Security and the Transitional Object, Media, Culture and Society, Vol. 15.
- Snel, E & Engbersen, G & Leerkes, A (2006), Transnational Involvement and Social Integration, Global Networks, Vol. 6, No. 3.
- Sreberny-Mohammadi, L (2013), Coee Shops and Cigarettes: On the ‘Return’ to Tehran of Young Diasporic Iranians, Iranian Studies, Vol. 46, No. 1.
- Tavakol, M (2011), Brain Drain: Problems And Solutions, Islamic Perspective, Vol. 8. [In Persian]
- Tehranian, M (2017), University, Communication and National Development in Iran, Via Khaniki, H, Institute for Social and Cultural Studies, Ministry of Science, Research & Technology, Tehran. [In Persian]
- Tölölyan, K (1996), Rethinking Diaspora(S): Stateless Power in the Transnational Moment, Diaspora, Vol. 5, No. 1.
- Valizadeh, a & Alizadeh, SH (2015), Armenian Diaspora: Opportunities and Threats for Iran, Journal of Politics, Faculty of Law and Political Science, Tehran University, Vol. 45, No. 4. [In Persian]
- Van Houte, M (2016), Return Migration to Afghanistan, Moving Back or Moving Forward?, Palgrave Macmillan.
- Vertovec, S )1999), Three Meanings of ‘Diaspora’, Exemplified among South Asian Religions, Diaspora, Vol. 7, No. 2.
- Vertovec, S (2003), Migration and Other Modes of Transnationalism: Towards Conceptual Cross-Fertilization, The International Migration Review, Vol. 37, No. 3.
- Walsh K (2006), British Expatriate Belongings: Mobile Homes and Transnational Homing, Home Cultures, Vol. 3.
- Wilcock, C (2018), Mobilising Towards and Imagining Homelands: Diaspora Formation Among U.K. Sudanese, Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, Vol. 44, No. 3.
- World Bank (2019), Record High Remittances to Low- and Middle-Income Countries in (2017), April 23, (2018), Available from: Http://Www.Worldbank.Org/ En/News/Press-Release/(2018)/04/23/Record-High-Remittances-To-Low-Andmiddle-Income-Countries-In-(2017)
- Zhou, M & Cai, G (2002), Chinese Language Media in the United States: Immigration and Assimilation in American Life, Qualitative Sociology, Vol. 25, No. 3.
)