Political Science

This paper aims at exploring the issues of migration and immigration in relation to Iran. It will also look into how such aspects have affected religion, women, and other minority groups in the country.

Traditionally, there has been very minimal immigration to Iran safe for the Shia Muslims that checked in from Iraq. On the converse, there has been widespread emigration to the west especially Europe and the United States of America. This was in particular to people that sought to further their studies during the revolutionary time of 1979. Approximately, 1000, 000 Kurds were transferred to Iraq as the suppression of the Kurds rebellion took its toll. The period between 1980 and 1990 saw the fleeing of Shia Muslims into Iran from Iraq due to the atrocities of the gulf wars. At the termination of the war, about 1, 250, 000 people had taken refuge in the Iran. This serves to allude to the fact that Iran has been an epicenter of immigration and migration in the recent past. However, the Iranian government perceives the immigration level as disturbing while finding the migration level satisfactory (Adelkhah, 2000).

The inflow and outflow of people within a country presents a major challenge to any state. To begin with, it affects the countrys economic conditions, it induces new elements into a country, and an outflow of individuals may lead to brain drain. In a nutshell, the positives and the negatives of the immigration and migration aspects are far reaching and need to be explored.

Religion and its impact
Christianity remains a minority religion in Iran, though its history can be traced back to the early days of the faith. The major state religions include Shia Shia Islam Islam, Zoroastrianism Zoroastrianism. In the older churches there also exist divisions in the sense that different ethnic groups identify with different and distinct denominations. This presents a divisive aspect. During the revolutionary times, there was outright persecution directed towards members of the Christian churches. Due to this and other more pressures that were believed to have been occasioned by the revolution, a good number of Christians were forced to opt out of the country in search for a save haven and  this prompted unprecedented emigration to the USA, Canada, and Western Europe. It is also pointed that the Muslim community was also emigrating due to issues associated with the revolution (Adelkhah, 2000).

While the government of Iran made efforts in providing for the basic rights of Christians like parliament representation, production and sale rights, complaints relating to expropriation, forced closure, persecution among other issues have been directed towards the Christian community. This was however rampant in the formative years. Recently, the jailing of Hamid Pourmand Hamid Pourmand, a pastor, and the murder of Ghorban Tourani Ghorban Tourani, another pastor from the evangelical church is a pointer to the complexities of religion in the country (Cheissari, 2006).

The fact that Christian churches are currently growing by spreading their gospel, is a cause for friction. This is because the membership that they seek to enlarge depends on the downsizing of other religions like Islam. Basically, the growth of Christian membership must come at a price because it is the defection of Muslims to the faith that makes it possible. Given this scenario, there is a conflict of interest. The Muslim community does not view it kindly when the Christian faithful attempts to encroach into a zone they unduly consider theirs. From this point, it is clear that the chase for converts is a recipe for confrontation between the two groups (Adelkhah, 2000).

The Christian faith bestows in a woman as much responsibility as it does to men. This aspect of the Christian doctrine is in a clear head on collision with the Muslim code which demands that men presume a superior role to women. In regards to this, a conflict is inherent. The two systems appear to be splitting the society and creating friction in the socio-cultural relations of the population.

Another sticky aspect concerns the dress code. In the muslin world, women are supposed to be covered in veils, a requirement that is not supported by the Christian world. Any woman that appears to contravene this Islam requirement regardless of their faith is likely to be courting trouble as Muslims are unlikely to take it lightly.

Iran ethnic make-up
As an approximation, 70 percent of Iranians speak native languages. The main groups occupying this category include Kurd Kurds, Persian people Persians, Gilaki Gilakis, Pashtuns Pashtuns, Mazandarani Mazandaranis,  Lurs Lurs, etc. The other main group speaks Turkic. Small communities include Brahui and Georgian (Adelkhah, 2000).
 
The Persians are the dominant group representing about 35 million people. They differ both linguistically and religiously. They form different strata that reflect the different divisions in the Islamic religion. The Azeries who are Turks form the second largest group. They are bilingual and they practice Shiism. This is an Islamic differential though its effects can not be laid in the open because the ethnic group is tied in one approach to religion. The Lurs and Bakhtiaris are Persian-speaking Shiites. They maintain identities that separate them from Persians on the basis of their historically tribal ways of life. The Kurds population presents a clearly segmented ethnic group. 90 percent of them identify with the Shia religion while the remaining portion identifies with Christianity and Sunni (Axworthy, 2008).

Members of religious minorities like the religio-ethnic and Bahais groups composed of the Armenians, Jews, and Assyrians were forced to flee at some point during the Pahlavi regime due to persecution trends. The second wave of revolution was to come during the revolution. The revolutionary elements, followed by women, and children were the next to leave (Afary, 1996).From the above revelation, it is clear that the Iranian society embraces Christianity and Islam. It is however noted that the Christian faith forms the minority religion as it enjoys a limited following. Christianity is closely linked to the west. It is a fact that the west and Iran have always remained on cold terms over policy matters and international issues. The Christian faith is hence viewed as a western tool to extend their influence, an issue that jeopardizes the faiths development in the country.

Conclusion
On the basis of this paper, the country of Iran has witnessed a high level of migration and immigration. These two aspects have in turn played a significant role in shaping the relations in the country. The spread of the Christian faith has not been fast though progress has been made. The two aspects have influenced the ethnic make-up, economic conditions, and social relations in the country over the past and will continue shaping the country for some time to come.