Refugees and migrants in Iran: the Iran-Iraq war (1980–88) and the Intifada (1991)

Abstract

Thus far, the literature around the Iran-Iraq War (1980 – 88) has not adequately attended to local histories, including the demographic and commercial changes in war-torn towns and their neighboring provinces, which accommodated an influx of refugees and evacuees. This article addresses this gap in the historiography and suggests new lines of inquiry and sources. By bringing together two historical events that are often described separately, the Iran-Iraq War and the Iraqi Intifada (1991), the piece centers the story of migrants and border dwellers, particularly in Khuzistan, the southwestern Iranian province bordering Iraq that Saddam Hussein invaded in 1980. I argue that through the 1980s-90s, Iran’s Islamic Republic struggled to fund organizations supporting internal and external refugees. Nevertheless, despite the pressure to stabilize Khuzistan, migrants and border dwellers continued to exert tremendous agency by building their own communities and assessing the feasibility of relocation.