Iranian Americans
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 Persian monarchy, with over 40% settling in California, specifically Los Angeles. Unable to return to Iran, they have created many distinct ethnic enclaves, such as 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.[4][9]
Iranian Americans are among the most highly educated people in the United States.[10][11] They have historically excelled in business, academia, science, the arts, and entertainment. Many have become doctors, engineers, lawyers, and tech entrepreneurs.[12][13]
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.[10][14][15]
Terminology[edit]
"Iranian-American" is sometimes used interchangeably with "Persian-American",[16][17][18][19] partly due to the fact that, in the Western world, Iran was known as "Persia".[20] 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, the government of Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, Reza Shah Pahlavi's son, announced that both "Persia" and "Iran" could officially be used interchangeably.[21] The issue is still debated today.[22][23]
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.[16] Some Iranian-Americans also don't prefer "Iranian" to disassociate themselves with the Islamic Republic of Iran,[24] yet this rationale has been criticized as the term "Iran" was widely used before 1979 as well.[16] The term "Iranian" is regarded as more inclusive than "Persian", as the term "Persian" excludes non-Persian ethnic minorities of Iran.[24] While the majority of Iranian-Americans come from Persian backgrounds, there is a significant number of non-Persian Iranians such as Azeris[25][26][27] and Kurds within the Iranian-American community,[24][28] leading some scholars to believe that the label "Iranian" is more inclusive, since the label "Persian" excludes non-Persian minorities.[24][29][30]
Shahrvand newsletter has been published in Dallas for over 20 years.
A popular Persian restaurant in southern Texas.
Accomplishments[edit]
In Los Angeles, Persians have become the largest ethnic group in many Los Angeles' wealthiest enclaves including Bel Air, Beverly Hills, Tarzana, Encino, and Woodland Hills.[130]
The Iranian Revolution resulted in many Iranians fleeing to America in the late 1970s, where, forty years later, Iranian immigrants have become a major force in Silicon Valley as investors, executives, and creators. Iranians have been founders or senior executives at eBay, Oracle, Google, Dropbox, YouTube, Uber, Expedia, Twitter, and other major corporations.[131] After surveying Fortune 500 companies, researchers at Massachusetts Institute of Technology discovered that 50 Iranian-Americans held senior leadership positions at companies with more than $200 million in asset value.
Iranians have the highest percentage of master's degrees than any other ethnic group in the United States.[132] Iranians have also played a large role in the American education system with over 500 Iranian-American professors teaching at top-ranked U.S. universities which include Massachusetts Institute of Technology; Harvard University; Yale University; Princeton University; University of California, Berkeley; University of California, Los Angeles; and Stanford University.[133]
Iranian philanthropists constructed the Freedom Sculpture in the Century City neighborhood, in honor of the Persian artifact Cyrus Cylinder.[134]