Iranian Diaspora Studies as a Global Field

While ethnic studies paradigms have helped us to better understand Iranian American experiences, in this roundtable I suggest that greater attention to transnational and comparative research of our global diaspora must be emphasized when considering the future of Iranian Diaspora Studies. As Iranian immigrants in the U.S. have encountered American ideas of assimilation and citizenship, their experiences of exclusion have as much to do with political rhetoric, geopolitics, and security regimes as with racial, cultural, and other vectors of difference – a position well-understood and studied in other US immigrant communities. The interventions of ethnic studies scholars have thus informed our understanding of American multiculturalism, neoliberalism, and racial formation, proving invaluable when researching Iranian American communities. However, building on my own comparative research among Iranians in Europe and North America, and highlighting the new work of colleagues beyond the US, I suggest that this emerging field of study must broaden its outlook and work especially to support research in contexts where these paradigms may or may not prove as useful, whether in Vancouver, Stockholm, Dubai, or, Kuala Lumpur. When placed in comparative analysis, such research undoubtedly will improve our understanding of the diaspora -- including of Iranian Americans’ place within it.