Iranians Top Asylum League as Only Citizens Fleeing Country Not Embroiled in Strife

With conflict and insecurity on the rise across the Middle East, the region is pushing refugees out into the industrialiazed world in record numbers. “Asylum Trends 2013”, published by the UN Refugee Agency (UNCHR) on 21^st March, reveals an increase in refugees applying for asylum in 44 industrialized countries, highest amongst them being the United States of America, Germany and Sweden. The report is especially revealing about trends among Iranian asylum seekers, finding that rather than turning to neighbouring countries for refuge, many Iranians are aiming straight for the West and the advanced nations of Asia.

It’s no surprise that Syrian refugees top the list in terms of sheer numbers, as the country’s civil war has forced  between 1.5 to 2.5 million people to flee their homes. Afghanistan, Eritrea, Somalia, Iraq and Pakistan, all countries where conflict ruptures people’s daily lives and blunts economic and social opportunities, also head the list as “source countries”.  

But what is startling in the UN report is how close the Islamic Republic of Iran comes in at the top, with Iranians accounting for four per cent of asylum seekers in the world. There are other countries, Egypt for example, that also face political strife and an ailing economy, but do not produce refugees in the volume that Iran is producing today. The question the report throws up is this: Why is a country not at war, without overwhelming internal conflict, so high up on the list?

Iranians seek asylum abroad for a variety of reasons, including religious practice, political affiliations and employment that, for one reason or another, leads to confrontation with the government or the country’s religious powers. Among professionals who have had to leave the country are journalists and artists. But increasingly, Iran’s economy continues to pose its own particular threats.

Within Iran, asylum remains a taboo subject. Despite the fact that in recent decades, at least five million Iranians have left the country, it is not widely discussed or reported on television or in print media. While the country’s brain drain does occasionally receive mention, the flight of the country’s ordinary citizens doesn’t seem to register as part of any national debate.

With a combined total of 357,100 registered asylum claims in 2013, Germany, the United States of America, France, Sweden and Turkey took in more asylum seekers than other countries, accounting for nearly six out of ten asylum claims submitted in the 44 industrialized countries covered by the UN report. When planning a route out of the country, Iranians have traditionally sought refuge from industrialized countries in the West.

Turkey

Following the 2009 disputed presidential elections and the ensuing political unrest, thousands of Iranians fled to Turkey. Four years on, the wave of immigration hasn’t stopped. In 2013, Iran was still one of the main source countries for asylum applicants to Turkey. With 5,900 claimants, Iran comes third on the list, with only Iraqi citizens, who filed 25,300 claims and Afghan citizens, who registered 8,700, coming first.

Hessam, an Iranian journalist living in Ankara, left Iran amidst the post-2009 crackdown on media workers and protesters. Though he says he didn’t feel he was particularly at risk, many of his friends and colleagues were summoned to the Ministry of Intelligence and the sense that they could be next made many like Hessam consider pre-emptive asylum.

He filed an asylum case in 2012 and is still waiting to be interviewed. “I was frustrated at the beginning,” he says, “but waiting has become a part of my daily life now.”

Like many Iranians, Hessam can understand some Turkish and is able to communicate and meet his basic needs. He said he chose Turkey because it was the easiest country to reach that didn’t require visas from Iranian citizens.

Other countries, including Malaysia, allow Iranians in without a visa.  But flights there are expensive and Hessam says his “main destination is Europe”. If an asylum seeker ultimately hopes to settle in Australia, it makes sense to seek asylum in Malaysia first.

Hessam does feel the situation in Iran has changed somewhat following the 2013 election and the ascent of President Hassan Rouhani. “Many of my friends who lived in hiding for a few months after the election unrest in 2009 are now back to work. They are more motivated, feel freer to write and, more importantly, feel more respected.”

Yet Hassam does not want to return and is hesitant about being too hopeful. “I don’t want to get fooled again. This always happens in Iran. One president gives you more freedom; the next one comes and puts you in jail. You can’t count on anything.”

He knows that finding a job as a journalist is going to be extremely difficult in Europe. But he believes if he manages to find work, he will have stability for the rest of his life.

Germany

Many Iranians have their sights on northern Europe, with countries like Sweden offering a history of welcome reception. Among those seeking asylum in Denmark and Finland, Iranians are one of the largest groups of applicants for refugee status, coming seventh in the list of source countries, and sixth on the list of those applying to Germany.

In Albania, Iranians apply for asylum more than people from any other country. Iranians come sixth in Germany’s list of the highest number of claims by country.

Mahrou, a young Iranian woman who has been studying in Germany for the past two years, plans to file a request for political asylum this year. “I didn't see any future for myself in Iran,” she says. “I felt I was living on an island, far from everywhere, while I wanted to be the citizen of the world.”

“My motivation for immigration was not all political,” she said. “Half of it was due to personal reasons. As a woman I couldn't tolerate Iran’s patriarchal and sexist society, whether in the workplace or in private relationships.”  This aspect of Iranian culture made her feel alienated, and she says she felt it was deep-rooted enough that the election of a new president would do little to shift gender relations meaningfully.

“Germany is a wealthy country and the chance of being accepted and finding a good job is really high,” she says. Germany is another European country where Iranians have arrived in record numbers and managed to relatively thrive, forming close communities in cities like Cologne and Hamburg.

There are challenges, of course, to living in a foreign country as an immigrant. Mahrou has been living in Berlin for the last four years but has not mastered the German language to the level that would make her fully employable. But overcoming these difficulties is worth it: the German government provides strong support for its immigrant communities, paying close attention to their assimilation and employment prospects.

The United States of America

For the first time in eight years, the United States of America is not the largest single recipient of asylum seekers among the group of 44 industrialized countries. In 2013, it dropped to second position, with an estimated 88,400 asylum claims registered. Now Germany takes in more asylum seekers than any other country, with 109,600 claims in 2013.

For those forced to flee Iran because of their political, religious, or journalistic activities, or for economic reasons, seeking asylum in the United States is made extremely difficult by the absence of official diplomatic ties necessary to acquire first-time visas. Despite this, hundreds of Iranians manage to reach the United States every year.

A young couple, Haleh and Majid, recently received asylum  in Texas. Majid is a doctor and, like many of his fellow Iranians, hoped to work in a country with advanced medical practices and research.

“We left Iran because everything was out of place,” Majid says, ‘I was a doctor in Tehran Emergency and my manager didn’t even have a university education. It really bothered me to have to ask for his permission to leave.”

Majid says there was no reason for them to stay in Iran, where he says studying medicine is extremely challenging. Once a student passes his exams, he or she is likely to be sent to a small town, where they work long shifts and are paid a small salary. While this is true to some extent around the world, where junior doctors move frequently for training, the world of medicine in Iran is run by cliques of doctors and powerful hospitals where positions are often assigned through patronage and personal connections.

“When I was in Iran, I was paying $800 in rent but was paid only $500 for my job at a hospital,” says Majid. After completing their studies, newly-qualified doctors normally work a few years in small, under-developed villages without adequate equipment. “Only well-connected people end up in big cities,” he says.

Majid and Haleh travelled to the US on a student visa so Majid could continue his studies. But when their visa neared its expiry date they discovered they would need to pay $1,500 a month for its extension.  They decided to ask for asylum.

In the United States, he says, the work is challenging but the rewards are very different. Students who work in hospitals are well paid and earn a decent salary after qualifying.

“We changed our religion and became Zoroastrians,” Haleh says. Many Iranians ask for asylum based on their conversion, since Iranian criminal law holds that a Muslim who converts out of Islam can be executed for apostasy. For the couple immigrating to America, the process was not enormously involved; Haleh says much is dependent on the state in question, but for them, the wait was only a few months.

Iranians in Other Countries

Iranians were the second largest category of asylum seekers In the United Kingdom, with 2,900 applicants last year. They also make up a substantive number of asylum seeking cases in Australia. Out of 24,300 claims registered in 2013, a third came from either Iran or Sri Lanka, despite Australia’s toughening of its border protection measures and its sometimes dire and controversial policy of holding all asylum seekers on an island detention center.

According to "Asylum Trends 2013", more than 610,000 people applied for asylum in North America, Europe, East Asia and the Pacific last year – the highest total for any year since 2001.

While most asylum seekers abandon their countries to escape civil war and life-threatening unrest, the UN report makes clear that many young Iranians are compelled to leave simply to secure a more stable, promising future. What that says about the state of their country, despite its high oil income and relative security, is clear in the numbers.