Academic: Up to 10% of Iran’s population emigrated due to ‘social upheavals’

An Iranian academic claims that between 8 to 10 percent of the country’s entire population has emigrated to other countries, most of whom have been professionals and scientists.

Hossein Salari Amoli, a member of the academic border of Tehran-based Amir Kabir University of Technology, said one of the root causes of emigration from Iran are “fluctuations” and “severe social upheavals” in the sanctions-hit country.

He said the number of emigrations from Iran is higher than the global average, but the main concern is that most of the migrants in the world are ordinary people and workers, whereas most of those who leave Iran are prominent scientists, businessmen and sports people.

Another source of concern is that the Iranian emigrants take out a huge amount of foreign currencies along with them, contrary to the normal trend elsewhere in the world, he added.

Observers have long been voicing concerns about “a growing desire in the public” to leave the homeland in search of a better life elsewhere, as Iran is severely hit by inflation, a declining national currency value, unemployment, and low wages, among other things.

In January, Bahram Salavati, the head of the immigration observatory of Iran, said from 2020 to 2021, Iran saw a 30 percent rise in the number of migrants, but after the events of late 2022 and early 2023, things escalated and the figure crossed the 100 thousand mark.

He was referring to a wave of social unrest and riots that broke out in Iran in the wake of the death of an Iranian woman in police custody.

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