Swedish Iranians Explained

Group:Swedish Iranians
Native Name:Swedish: svenskiranier
Persian: ایرانیان سوئد
Population:121,019
Popplace:Stockholm, Gothenburg, Malmö, Uppsala.
Rels:Shi'a Islam, Irreligion, Christianity, Baháʼí Faith, Judaism, Sunni Islam, Zoroastrianism, Other
Langs:Swedish, Persian
(Armenian, Azerbaijani, Kurdish, Luri, and other languages of Iran)

Swedish Iranians or Swedish Persians[1] consist of people of Iranian nationality who have settled in Sweden, as well as Swedish residents and citizens of Iranian heritage. As of 2019, there were 80,136 residents of Sweden born in Iran, as well as 40,883 born in Sweden with at least one Iranian-born parent.[2]

Terminology

Swedish-Iranian is used interchangeably with Swedish-Persian,[1] [3] [4] [5] partly due to the fact[6] that, in 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 the 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.[7] However the issue is still debated today.[8] [9]

There is a tendency among Swedish Iranians to categorize themselves as "Persian" rather than "Iranian", mainly to dissociate themselves from the Islamic regime of Iran which has been in charge since the 1979 Revolution, and also to distinguish themselves as being of Persian ethnicity, which comprise about 65% of Iran's population.[10] While the majority of Iranians come from Persian backgrounds, there is a significant number of non-Persian Iranians such as Azeris[11] [12] [13] and Kurds within the Iranian community of Sweden,[14] leading some scholars to believe that the label "Iranian" is more inclusive, since the label "Persian" excludes non-Persian minorities. The Collins English Dictionary uses a variety of similar and overlapping definitions for the terms "Persian" and "Iranian".[15] [16]

Demographics

There are approximately 63,828 people born in Iran living in Sweden today, as well as 28,600 people born in Sweden with at least one parent born in Iran. They are one of Sweden's largest immigrant groups, accounting for about 1.7% of the population.[17]

The very first wave of Iranian refugees consisted of 5,000 Iranian refugees who fled to Sweden in 1979-1980 most of them were middle-aged, middle-class Pahlavi supporters who were opposing the revolution. When the Iran-Iraq War broke out in 1980, almost 20,000 Iranian citizens found asylum in Sweden. Second generation Iranian Swedes are well-represented in higher education and in some well paying professions like dentistry and engineering. About 60% percent of Swedish Iranians go on to higher education – more than the Swedish average (45%).[18] Iranian culture with its emphasis on education may be part of the reason for this. Becoming an engineer or a doctor is a mantra in many families. Abundantly represented minorities amongst the Swedish Iranians, like in other Iranian diaspora nations are Azerbaijanis, Kurds, Armenians and Assyrians.

Notable Iranians in Sweden

See also

External links

Notes and References

  1. Maryam. Daha. Contextual Factors Contributing to Ethnic Identity Development of Second-Generation Iranian American Adolescents. Journal of Adolescent Research. September 2011. 26. 5. 543–569. 10.1177/0743558411402335. 146592244. ... the majority of the participants self-identified themselves as Persian instead of Iranian, due to the stereotypes and negative portrayals of Iranians in the media and politics. Adolescents from Jewish and Baháʼí faiths asserted their religious identity more than their ethnic identity. The fact Iranians use Persian interchangeably is nothing to do with current Iranian government because the name Iran was used before this period as well. Linguistically modern Persian is a branch of Old Persian in the family of Indo-European languages and that includes all the minorities as well more inclusively..
  2. Web site: Population statistics. 2020-06-21. Statistiska Centralbyrån. en.
  3. Book: Nakamura, Raymond M.. Health in America: A Multicultural Perspective. 2003. Kendall/Hunt Pub.. 978-0-7575-0637-6. 31. Iranian/Persian Americans – The flow of Iranian citizens into the United States began in 1979, during and after the Islamic Revolution..
  4. Book: Zanger, Mark. The American Ethnic Cookbook for Students. December 21, 2016. 2001. ABC-CLIO. 978-1-57356-345-1. 213.
  5. Racial and Ethnic Relations in America, Carl Leon Bankston,"Therefore, Turkish and Iranian (Persian) Americans, who are Muslims but not ethnically Arabs, are often mistakenly..", Salem Press, 2000
  6. Book: Darya, Fereshteh Haeri. Second-generation Iranian-Americans: The Relationship Between Ethnic Identity, Acculturation, and Psychological Well-being. 21 December 2016. 2007. 978-0-542-97374-1. 3–4. According to previous studies, the presence of heterogeneity is evident among Iranian immigrants (also known as Persians – Iran was known as Persia until 1935) who came from myriads of religious (Muslim, Christian, Jewish, Armenian, Assyrian, Baháʼí and Zoroastrian), ethnic (Turk, Kurds, Baluchs, Lurs, Turkamans, Arabs, as well as tribes such as Ghasghaie, and Bakhtiari), linguistic/dialogic background (Persian, Azari, Gialki, Mazandarani, Kurdish, Arabic, and others). Cultural, religious and political, and various other differences among Iranians reflect their diverse social and interpersonal interactions. Some studies suggest that, despite the existence of subgroup within Iranian immigrants (e.g. various ethno-religious groups), their nationality as Iranians has been an important point of reference and identifiable source of their identification as a group across time and setting..
  7. Yarshater, Ehsan Persia or Iran, Persian or Farsi, Iranian Studies, vol. XXII no. 1 (1989)
  8. [Hooman Majd|Majd, Hooman]
  9. Book: Frye, Richard Nelson. Richard N. Frye. Greater Iran: A 20th-century Odyssey. Mazda. 2005. December 21, 2016. 9781568591773.
  10. Book: Bozorgmehr, Mehdi. Mary C. Waters. Reed Ueda. Helen B. Marrow. The New Americans: A Guide to Immigration since 1965. https://books.google.com/books?id=z-y_q4J_eCEC. 2009. Harvard University Press. 978-0-674-04493-7. 469. Iran.
  11. Book: Svante E. Cornell. Azerbaijan Since Independence. 20 May 2015. Routledge. 978-1-317-47621-4. 7.
  12. Book: Barbara A. West. Encyclopedia of the Peoples of Asia and Oceania. 1 January 2009. Infobase Publishing. 978-1-4381-1913-7. 68.
  13. Book: James Minahan. Encyclopedia of the Stateless Nations: S-Z. 1 January 2002. Greenwood Publishing Group. 978-0-313-32384-3. 1766.
  14. Elizabeth Chacko, Contemporary ethnic geographies in America // Ines M. Miyares, Christopher A. Airriess (eds.), Rowman & Littlefield, 2007, pp. 325–326
  15. Web site: Collins English Dictionary – Complete & Unabridged 11th Edition . September 4, 2012 . Collinsdictionary.com .
  16. Web site: Definition of "Persian" . Collins English Dictionary . January 12, 2016.
  17. Web site: be0101_Fodelseland_och_ursprungsland (XLS).
  18. News: Klassresa är möjlig trots hinder. SvD.se. 2017-12-18. sv.
  19. Web site: Chair no. 15 - Jila Mossaed Swedish Academy . www.svenskaakademien.se . 2 March 2022.
  20. Web site: The COMSOL Group - the Origin of Multiphysics Software.

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Swedish Iranians".

Except where otherwise indicated, Everything.Explained.Today is © Copyright 2009-2024, A B Cryer, All Rights Reserved. Cookie policy.