Au moment où l’Iran semble à un moment charnière de sa position internationale (reprise du dialogue avec les principales puissances mondiales), il est temps de revenir sur la manière dont les conséquences des sanctions économiques ont recomposé la diaspora et les mouvements migratoires régionaux.

Argument

Now that, with the resumption of dialogue with the major powers, Iran seems to be at a turning-point in its international situation, it is time to take a fresh look at how the consequences of economic sanctions have recomposed the diaspora and regional migratory movements.

The historical stratification of the diaspora explains its heterogeneity. In the 1960s, with revenues from oil exports and a series of reforms aimed at modernisation, Iranian society saw the rise of rich urban families who started to travel outside Iran, in the West in particular, and send their children there for higher education.

Following the 1979 revolution, a significant portion of students living abroad stayed in the country they were studying in, while other family members joined them on account of their proximity to the former monarchy or their involvement in the army. They were gradually followed by the sympathisers of other political movements that had participated in the revolution but were rapidly excluded, as power consolidated around Ayatollah Khomeini and Islamist movements faithful to the Supreme Leader’s ideology. Since then, the presence of the Iranian opposition (or rather, oppositions) abroad has been in constant flux; today it is more diverse and shifting than ever.

The trajectories followed have diversified; they are no longer exclusively oriented towards North America and Europe, but also towards newly-emerging destinations, especially in Asia. Recent migrations have been made up of quite numerous representatives of the middle classes: qualified personnel, entrepreneurs, academics and students. In particular, Iranian artists are playing an intense part in reflections on the migratory experience. Departures, but also returns and travel in-between are of multiple kinds and contribute to the formation of the “off-shore Iranian-ness” and the “thousand-and-one frontiers of Iran” described in her latest work by Fariba Adelkhah.

We are also witnessing the modification of the much older-established cross-border movements of people living on Iran’s peripheries towards territories nearby.

Even if Iranian government policy with regard to its diaspora remains ambiguous, there is no doubt that migration has strengthened its regional influence and its participation on globalisation, making it a diasporic power. This issue will emphasise on the study of the Iranian diasporic policies through the following research themes:

Suggestion for topics:

• Historical approach of the diaspora
• Local and regional dynamics of migration within and outside Iran.
• Returnees and Iranian State policy towards the diaspora since 1979
• Emerging forms of mobility and cosmopolitanism (artists, entrepreneurs, skilled migration, students, etc.)