Kurdish American
| Total population | |
|---|---|
|
17,000 0.0125% of the US population |
|
| Regions with significant populations | |
| Nashville, Tennessee, Vestal, New York, California, New York, Texas, New Jersey, Florida, Los Angeles, Washington, D.C. | |
| Languages | |
| Kurdish; American English, (some knowledge of Turkish, Arabic and Persian) | |
| Religion | |
| Mostly Islam with minorities of Atheism, Zoroastrianism & Agnosticism | |
| Related ethnic groups | |
| Iranian peoples |
17,000
Kurds in the United States may refer to people born in or residing in the United States of Kurdish origin.
The majority of Kurdish Americans are recent migrants from Turkey, Iran, Iraq and Syria. Kurdish emigration to the United States began in the twentieth century and has increased in recent years.
In recent years, the Internet has played a large role in mobilizing the Kurdish movement, uniting diasporic communities of Kurds around the Middle East, European Union, Canada, the US, and Australia.
Kurdish immigration to the US began in the 20th century. Kurdish immigration started after World War I, with several waves of migration to the United States from the area considered "Kurdistan". Following the war, the Iraqi Revolution increased the emigration of Kurds to the United States (as well as Iran). After the war, the Kurds had been promised an autonomous region, Kurdistan in the Treaty of Sèvres in 1920.The ideology of the time was heavily influenced by Woodrow Wilson's doctrine of the right to self-determination
After the Turkish War of Independence, however, the treaty was annulled and replaced with the Treaty of Lausanne, which denied any Kurdish claim to an autonomous region. After the reversal of Kurdish land claims and ensuing persecution, Kurdish emigration from the Middle East began. Many diaspora communities were established in Europe and other Kurds emigrated to the US.
Following the wave of migrants that left in the aftermath of the World Wars, a second wave of Kurds in 1979 came from the north of Iraq and Iran. Many of the Kurds who emigrated at this time did so because they rejected the theocratic system agar the Iranian Revolution. There were also large groups of Kurds that left because of the socio-political turmoil, a byproduct of the revolution and general political instability. Many of the immigrants who made the journey in 1979 had hopwd to overthrow the Shah or at least opposed him. The opposition to the shah, many immigrants from Iran were granted asylum with little trouble and received assisted travel to the US. Other byproducts of the revolution were border disputes between Iran and Iraq, which culminated in the Iran–Iraq War, from 1980 to 1988.
...
Wikipedia