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ABSTRACT
Since its founding in 1979, the Islamic Republic has received one of the largest Afghan refugee/migrant populations of any country. The Iranian state first pursued an open-door immigration policy, but after a decade, it changed its course and turned to restriction, repatriation and expulsion. To explain Iran’s migration policies and their changes overtime, this study brings together a search for answers to two interrelated questions: first, how and why did these policies come about and second, to what degree does the state exercise control over such consequential policies. The latter question engages the concept of state, its capacities and limitations, and its relations with society. Iran’s immigration history, which includes policies and their outcomes, provides a fertile context for this consideration, and conversely the question of the state’s control leads to a better understanding of the changing Iranian immigration policies themselves.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Notes
1 According to the latest United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) published in 2022 over three million Afghan citizens live in Iran. 780,000 of these migrants have refugee status, 600,000 are Afghan passport holders and the rest, estimated to be 2.1 million, are undocumented. See: https://data.unhcr.org/en/country/irn
2 In a 2000 Third Economic, Social, and Cultural Development Plan’s report, foreign nationals were divided into groups of panahandih (refugee), avarih (asylum seeker/undocumented migrant), muhajir (foreigner with residency rights), and foreign nationals with proper documentation/passports. Even though there is a legal difference between refugee and other forced migrants, in the everyday lives of Afghans in Iran such differentiation hides the shared precarity of both. See, David Scot FitzGerald and Rawan Arar, ‘The Sociology of Refugee Migration.’ in https://www.annualreviews.org/doi/pdf/10.1146/annurev-soc-073117-041204
3 See Fariba Adelkhah and Suzanna Olszewska, 2007. ‘The Iranian Afghans’. Iranian Studies 40 (2): 137–165, Shahin Gerami. 2008. ‘Extralegal Practices of Afghans in Iran: Exploring Feminist Transnationalism and immigration Theories’. Journal of Interdisciplinary Feminist Thought, 3 (1): 1–21, Ali Yusefi and el, 2013. ‘The Social Networks of Afghan Migrants of Mashhad: The Case of Afghan Residents in Golshahr’. Iran’s Social Problems. 4 (1): 213–239, and Mohammad Abbasi-Shavazi and el. May 2005 (68 pages) and Oct. 2005 (64) ‘Return to Afghanistan: A Study of Afghans Living in Tehran and ‘Return to Afghanistan: A Study of Afghans Living in Zahedan’. Afghanistan Research and Evaluation Unit.
4 One of the few State-centred accounts on migration policy is Bahram Rajaee. 2000. ‘The Politics of refugee in Post-Revolutionary Iran’. The Middle East Journal, 54 (1): 44–63.
5 For the historiography of state-centred literature on Iran see, Cyrus Schayegh. 2010. ‘“Seeing Like State”: An Essay on the Historiography of Modern Iran’. International Journal of Middle East Studies (42): 37–61.
6 For a sample of this literature see, Ervand Abrahamian. 1993. Essays on Khomeinism. Oakland: University of California Press, Kazem Alamdari. 2005. ‘The Power Structure of Islamic Republic of Iran: Transition from Populism to Clientelism and Militarization of Government’. Third World Quarterly. 26 (8): 1285–1301, Said Amir Arjomand. 2009. After Khomeini: Iran under His Successors. Oxford: Oxford University Press, and Kian Tajbakhsh. 2020. ‘Authoritarian state building through political decentralization and local government law: Evidence from the Islamic Republic of Iran’. Onati Socio-Legal Series. 10 (5): 1040–1074.
7 Examples of this general literature on state include: Timothy Mitchell. 1991. ‘The Limits of the State: Beyond Statist Approaches and Their Critics’. The American Science Review 85 (1): 77–96; and Kimberly Morgan and Ann Shola Orloff, ed. 2017. The Many Hands of the State. New York: Cambridge University Press.
8 Asef Bayat. 1997. Street Politics: Poor People’s Movement in Iran. New York: Columbia University Press.
9 Arang Keshavarzian. 2007. Bazaar and State in Iran: The Politics of the Tehran Marketplace. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
10 Kevan Harris. 2017. A Social Revolution: Politics and the Welfare State in Iran. Oakland: University of California Press, and Maziyar Ghiabi. 2018. ‘Maintaining Disorder: The Micropolitics of Drug Policy in Iran”. Third World Quarterly 39 (2): 277–297.
11 For a discussion of this literature see Steve Sawyer. 2015. ‘Foucault and the State’. The Tocqueville Review 36 (1): 135–164.
12 ‘Afghan Immigrants in Persia,’ Encyclopaedia Iranica, http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/diaspora#pt10
13 For excerpts of Khomeini’s speeches about Afghan migrants, one to the IRGC and the other to the Bazaar merchants, see: https://avapress.com/fa/61843/امام-خمینی-ره-و-افغانستان
14 See Shirin Hakimzadeh, ‘Afghan and Iraqi Refugees’. 2006. Migration Policy Institute, in https://www.migrationpolicy.org/article/iran-vast-diaspora-abroad-and-millions-refugees-home
15 Graeme Hugo, Mohammad Jalal Abbasi-Shavazi and Rasoul Sadeghi, 2012 ‘Refugee Movement and Development: Afghan Refugees in Iran’. Migration and Development, 1 (2): 268.
16 Deportation of migrants, including some documented refugees, was a practice in the 1990s. see Bill Frelick. June 1999. ‘Refugees in Iran: Who Should Go? Who Should Stay’? Refugee Reports, US Committee for Refugees and Immigrants.
17 See the text of the document in http://rc.majlis.ir/fa/law/show/125429
18 Doris Buddenberg and William Byrd. 2006. Afghanistan Drug Industry: Structure, Functioning, Dynamics and Implications for Counter-Narcotics Policy. The book is sponsored by World Bank and UN Office on Drugs and Crime, jointly.
19 Buddenberg and Byrd, Op. Cit, p. 179.
21 Djavad Salehi-Isfahani. 2011. ‘Iranian Youth in Times of Economic Crisis’. Iranian Studies. 44 (6): 789–806.
22 See the report by Human Rights Watch regarding this deportation in https://www.hrw.org/news/2007/06/19/iran-halt-mass-deportation-afghans#
23 Farshid Farzin and Safinaz Jadali. Sept. 2013. ‘Freedom of Movement of Afghan Refugees in Iran’. Forced Migration Review. https://www.fmreview.org/detention/farzin-jadali
24 Shadi Sadr. 1386. ‘Demanding Matrimonial Citizenship: A Look at The Official Policies Regarding Marriage of Iranian Women with Afghan Men’. Guftigu. (50): 61–82.
25 The daily Etemad, 20 Mihr, 1390, p. 12
27 Alireza Nader et al, 2014. Iran’s Influence in Afghanistan: Implications for the U.S. Drawdown, Rand Corporation: 21–22.
29 See https://www.irna.ir/news/83001377/طرح-خروج-و-مراجعت-اتباع-افغانستانی-در-خراسان-رضوی-اجرایی-شد
30 For the amount of outside contribution see, http://reporting.unhcr.org/node/2527
31 For 2019 statistics on deportation see https://afghanistan.iom.int/sites/default/files/Reports/iom_afghanistan-return_of_undocumented_afghans-_situation_report_10_-_16_feb_2019.pdf
34 According to UNHRC’s estimates, 65% of the 500,000–1,000,000 Afghans who fled to Iran were expelled. See, https://data.unhcr.org/en/country/irn
35 R.K. Ramazani, 1989 ‘Iran’s Foreign Policy: Contending Orientations’. Middle East Journal, (92) Spring: 202–217
36 Kevan Harris, 2017. See in particular chapters 3 and 4.
37 Eventually, the enormity of number of refugees led to the formation of the Refugee Foundation to address, exclusively, the needs of displaced Afghans.
38 For more information on ULM see Siavoshi, Sussan. 2017. Montazeri: The Life and Thought of Revolutionary Ayatollah. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press: 122–129
40 A direct reference to the problem of lack of harmony among these institutions appears in the statement by the BAFIA director of Tehran Province. https://www.mashreghnews.ir/news/1022124/%D9%86%D9%82%D8%B4-%D8%A7%D8%AA%D8%A8%D8%A7%D8%B9-%D8%AE%D8%A7%D8%B1%D8%AC%DB%8C-%D8%AF%D8%B1-%D8%A7%D8%BA%D8%AA%D8%B4%D8%A7%D8%B4%D8%A7%D8%AA-%D8%A2%D8%A8%D8%A7%D9%86. There are also frequent complaints made by the Majlis deputies during the parliamentary proceedings.
43 https://www.tasnimnews.com/fa/news/1398/05/01/2059837/تبعات-مثبت-اصلاح-قانون-تابعیت-ایران-در-مجلس
45 Farshid Farzin and Safinaz Jadali, Op. Cit.
46 https://www.radiofarda.com/a/f12_14_provinces_of_iran_forbidden_territory_for_afghans/24601613.html
47 Michael Lipsky. 1980. Street-Level Bureaucracy: Dilemmas of Individuals in Public Services. New York: Russell Sage Foundation.
48 See Firouzeh Taherpoor, et al. 2006. ‘Comparative Study of Individual, Cognitive, and Motivational Basis of Prejudice Towards Afghan Immigrants’, Psychological Research, 8 (3&4): 9–29.
49 Diane Tober. 2007 ‘‘My Body Is Broken Like My Country’: Identity, Nation, and Repatriation among Afghan Refugees in Iran’. Iranian Studies. 40 (2): 269.
51 For example, see the pioneering study of this kind of relationship in the case of China by AJ Spires. 2011. ‘Contingent symbiosis and Civil Society in an Authoritarian: Understanding the Survival of China’s Grassroots NGOs’. American Journal of Sociology. 117 (1): 1–45
52 Negar Katirai. 2005. ‘NGO Regulations in Iran’. International Journal of Not-for-Profit Law. 7(4): 28–42
53 Of special importance is Shabakeh Yari Koudakan Kar (The Assistance Network for Child Labour), a network of around forty NGOs.
54 Pooya Alaedin and Ameneh Mirzayi, ‘Integration of Afghan Migrants in Tehran’s Urban regions: The Case of Harandi Neighbourhood.’ 2018 Iranian Humanities Studies 8 (1): 7–25
55 For the breakdown of the number and locations of these bureaus see, https://www.yjc.news/fa/news/6361582/آدرس-دفاتر-کفالت-اشتغال-و-اقامت-اتباع-خارجی-سراسر-کشور
57 See, Homa Hoodfar. 2007. ‘Women, Religion and the “Afghan Education Movement” in Iran’. Journal of Development Studies. 43 (2): 255–293, and Homa Hoodfar. ‘Refusing the Margins: Afghans Refugee Youth in Iran’ in Dawn Chatty, ed., 2010. Deterritorialized Youth: Sahrawi and Afghan Refugees at the Margins of the Middle East, NY: Berghahn Books: 145–182.
58 F. Adelkhah and Z. Olszewska. 2007. ‘Iranian Afghans’ Iranian Studies, 40 (2): 145–6.
59 S. Olszewska. 2015. The Pearl of Dari: Poetry and Personhood among Young Afghans in Iran, Bloomington: Indiana University Press.
60 For an example of such attempts, see the speech of Mohammad Kazem Kazemi, the celebrated Afghan poet imploring Iranian high officials, who were present in a night of poetry in his honour, to be mindful of the plight of Afghan workers. https://www.mashreghnews.ir/news/275730
61 Shahin Gerami. 2008. ‘Extralegal Practices of Afghans in Iran: Exploring Feminist Transnationalism and immigration Theories’. Journal of Interdisciplinary Feminist Thought, V3 (1): 8
62 Abassi-Shavazi, Op.Cit, May. 2005: 34–35. And Oct. 2005: 32–33
63 According to the Deputy Internal Minister around 90% of undocumented Afghans enter Iran through Pakistan. See, https://www.mashreghnews.ir/news/965121
64 Nassim Majidi, 2018. ‘Community Dimensions of Smuggling: The Case of Afghanistan and Somalia’. The Annals of the American Academy of political and Social Sciences 676:97–113, and Alessandro Monsutti, 2016. War and Migration: Social Networks and Economic Strategies of the Hazaras of Afghanistan, London: Routledge: 145–172.
66 https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/08/world/asia/smugglers-afghanistan.html and Alessandro Monsutti, Op. Cit.
67 The following data in two UNHCR’s links are instructive. The first indicates the lack of donation by the US, one of the largest donors to UNHCR, and the second demonstrates the huge gap between the needed budget and the amount of actual funding for the years 2015–2020. https://data.unhcr.org/en/documents/details/94043 and https://www.unhcr.org/ir/partners-and-donors/
68 See a list of domestic and governmental institutions and NGOs that partner with UNHCR at the end of this link: https://www.unhcr.org/ir/partners-and-donors/ For UNHCR activities in Iran visit UNHRC page on Iran https://www.unhcr.org/ir/. The most comprehensive accounts of such activities are in the periodic ‘Global Reports’ on different countries. For Iran, the last one was published in 2013. See, https://www.unhcr.org/539809fb0.pdf
69 Several studies indicate the difference in attitudes relates to a variety of factors, such as age and gender, or concerns about the economy and security, or more broadly a consideration of cultural values. For a sample of such studies, see, H.K. Qasemi and B. Naderpoor. 2018. ‘The Effects of Afghan Citizens Migration on Iranian Society: The Case of Qazvin’. Geography. 8 (3): 289–305; and M. Shaterian et al, 2016. ‘The Relationship between Cultural Values and Perceptions of Afghan Migrants: The Case of Eighteen and Older Citizens in Kashan’. Intercultural Studies, 29: 143–165.
73 See the site of ICCIMA http://iccima.ir/about/about-iccima/ See also, Peyman Jafari. 2013. ‘The Ambiguous Role of Entrepreneurs in Iran’, in P. Aarts an F. Cavatorta. Civil Society in Syria and Iran: Activism in Authoritarian Contexts. London: Rienner: 93–118
76 See a MERIP interview with the economist Mohammad Maljoo on ‘Labour and Class in Iran at http://merip.org/2017/labour-and-class-in-iran/
78 For a sample of his activities as a parliamentarian, see https://www.icana.ir/Fa/Search/ST=محجوب_کارگر_بیگانه%7CTT=AND
79 During the 2015 International Workers’ Day march, organized by Khanih-yi Kargar, several banners with the slogan ‘Shame on you, employer, let go of the Afghani’ were carried.
80 For a list of interviews with critical Majlis deputies see, https://www.icana.ir/Fa/Tags/5037/%D8%A7%D8%AA%D8%A8%D8%A7%D8%B9-%D8%A8%DB%8C%DA%AF%D8%A7%D9%86%D9%87/2