For the last four decades Iran has been host to one of the largest refugee population in the world. Starting with an open-door approach in the 1980s, the Islamic Republic has since moved toward a policy of closing borders, repatriation of refugees, and expulsion of the undocumented. What explains this turn?

The plight of the migrants, the overwhelming majority of whom are Afghans, has been subject of several studies by cultural anthropologists, sociologists and medical scientists. As significant as these migrant-centric studies are, they provide very little insight, if any, into the policy making processes of the Islamic Republic. What are Iran’s migration policies, who makes them, and why? By answering these questions this presentation hopes to provide a systematic and historically informed explanation of Iran’s approach to Afghan migrants.

Dr. Sussan Siavoshi is the Una Chapman Cox Professor of International Affairs at Trinity University.

This lecture is part of the Iran Lecture Series and is sponsored by the Center for Middle Eastern Studies at UT Austin.