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October 24, 2024

Afghan immigrants, caught up in misunderstandings and societal narratives/Mohammad Alizadeh


The history of Iranians encountering Afghan immigrants is a long and complex one. Since the 1979 revolution, a large portion of Afghan immigrants have sought refuge in Iran. Over the years, various judgments, perceptions, and narratives have been formed in the minds of Iranians about Afghan immigrants, which, without being reviewed or stopped, have become official and accepted narratives for Iranians. With the efforts of Afghan cultural activists, the coexistence of immigrants and Iranians has improved. However, there is still a long way to go to eliminate the prejudices of both sides.

Art and culture open the closed windows of two worlds. The experience of countries that have been hosting immigrants for years shows that with art and culture, the people of a country and the immigrants who have come to it can be brought closer to each other and thus help in the process of integrating immigrants into society.

If we expect any change from Iranian media, we have essentially kept ourselves in a futile cycle. A significant portion of Iranian media, while taking on

First Misunderstanding: All Afghans are construction workers, janitors, unskilled, and illiterate.
Now it has become clear that this image is far from reality and the main culprit, as usual, are a significant part of the media. Afghans, especially migrants inside Iran, have a silent and overlooked community that has achieved numerous scientific and cultural successes, but no one sees them. The success of Afghan students, intellectuals, and artists in the past few years has been complicated by a few media outlets, and I will only mention some of them as examples.

Mojtaba Nikzad, an Afghan student at Bahonar University in Kerman, ranked first in the country in the field of agricultural economics in the master’s degree program in 2012. Nikzad also ranked 5th in the doctoral exam in 2014 and became the top student in the country.

Mustafa Rezai, a young inventor, is also an Afghan migrant who has succeeded in building a multi-axis centrifuge. Sharif Ibrahim was recently selected as the top researcher in Iran.

Second Misunderstanding: Why don’t Afghans return to their country? Has the war not ended? Is it not time to rebuild their homeland?
It is natural that the ideal situation for both migrants and the host country is for the migrants to return to their own country. However, the situation is not as simple as that.

There are three points to consider. First, the reality is that the war is not over. Almost 30-40% of Afghanistan is still under Taliban control, and it is natural to not expect Afghan migrants in Iran, especially the Shia minority, to return to the arms of the Taliban. They fled from the oppressive rule of the Taliban and came to a country where they could live a religious life. In addition, insecurity still prevails in public spaces in Afghanistan, and the main reason for Afghan migration to Iran has not been resolved. Girls’ schools are still threatened by suicide attacks or poisoning, and women do not have the right to live freely in many areas of the country.

Second, it seems that the time for rebuilding the country has not yet come. This statement comes from a picture painted by Western media

Misunderstanding 3: When Iranians went to Japan, they were treated the same way, migration is the same all over the world and Iran has actually treated them very well compared to other countries.
First point: This statement is not entirely true. Governments, especially those after the war, do not have a positive track record in this regard. In other countries that are more welcoming to immigrants, although governments may have strict conditions for immigrants, they are far ahead of Iran in significant areas such as providing educational opportunities for immigrant children, both legally and illegally. The existence of some unwise actions at the middle management level or the actions of small-minded executive agents have led to dissatisfaction.

The people of Iran, throughout these years, with some ups and downs – more downs in recent years and more ups during the war years – have been better hosts to Afghan immigrants compared to other people in the world. However, government policies towards immigrants, the behavior of special forces, and incorrect and sometimes racist policies of the officials of the regime have created an unfavorable image of Iran in the minds of immigrants.

Second point: 40 years ago, a revolution took place in this country, so that Iran could no longer

Fourth Misunderstanding: Afghan immigrants have harmed Iran’s security, increased crime and violence in the country, and have high rates of sexual assault. We demand their expulsion for the safety of our women and children.
Speaking is easy, but providing reasons is harder than that. Official statistics usually make things difficult. According to the latest statistics announced by the Prison Organization, there are 228,000 prisoners in Iranian prisons. Out of these 228,000, apparently 5,000 are Afghan nationals. The population of Iran is 75 million and the population of Afghan immigrants inside Iran is a maximum of 3 million. If we accept that all of these 5,000 are Afghan immigrants inside Iran (which they are not, and many of them are drug traffickers who have been arrested at the border and are not residents of Iran), the rate of Afghan criminals becomes 0.16%. If the same rate is calculated for Iranian criminals, it becomes a larger number, 0.29%. This is in a situation where we put aside all the influential factors in this comparison, such as the higher likelihood of crime in immigrant communities and minorities in any society. The number itself is clear and clearly shows

Fifth Misunderstanding: Afghans are one of the main reasons for unemployment in Iran. They take job opportunities from our youth, which has led to an increase in the unemployment rate in the country.
It seems that in this period, the main reasons for Iranians’ pessimism towards immigrants are economic pressure and people’s unawareness of the real reasons, as well as lack of knowledge about the situation of immigrants. I believe that whenever inflation and unemployment increase in society, people look for a scapegoat and in many cases, they blame immigrants who they believe have taken away job opportunities from them, even if those jobs are low-paying.

The argument of Salahu’l-Zahir seems reasonable, but is it really true? We quote a statement from Sardar Ahmadinejad, the commander of the Iranian police. Ahmadinejad recently made important remarks about Afghan immigrants, some of which we repeat here: “We install barbed wire fences on our borders, the route for foreign nationals to enter opens from the sea, we control the sea routes, these foreigners enter legally but they don’t leave the country anymore; all of this is due to the problems in Afghanistan and the need for labor in

Sixth Misunderstanding: Afghans do not pay taxes, but they use public facilities. They do not incur any expenses and consume the rights of Iranians.

This statement is not true, at least not in the current conditions and after the targeted subsidies have been implemented. Afghans pay a high cost to stay in Iran and do not receive much in terms of social services. They must go to the relevant centers to renew their passport, residence card, and work permit every few months and pay fees for these services. Afghan children also have to pay for their education in Iranian schools. Even if an Afghan student gets the highest score on the university entrance exam, they still have to pay tuition in dollars to attend university. They are also not covered by health insurance or social security, and if they are able to get insurance, they must pay for private insurance. This means they do not benefit from medical and pharmaceutical subsidies. They are deprived of many social services. Legal Afghan immigrants in Iran cannot open bank accounts, buy or sell goods, obtain a driver’s license, or buy a SIM card. They are denied even the most basic human rights. Meanwhile,

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July 22, 2020

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