"The marked increase in immigration can be explained through two important events. First due to the substantial wealth of the country prior to the 1979 revolution, many families and the government chose to send students abroad for higher level education. By 1977, Iran had more students abroad than any other country in the world at 227,497. By 1979 in the US alone, there were 51,310 college students, ranking first amongst foreign nationalities. Second, after the revolution in 1979, not only did many of these students opt to remain in the US, but many of their relatives also decided to join them, later becoming naturalized citizens (or residents)."
I have to say...I have always enjoyed the Iranians who I had a chance to meet. I found them to be intelligent, thoughtful people with a well developed sense of humor.
The ones that I knew were grief stricken at what happened to their country, as was I.
I always kept in mind they were not part of the Arab world, and spoke Farsi rather than arabic. I still think that, although an entire generation has had to live under the hand of those moronic idiots who rule the country, and that generation has known nothing else. I wonder how much of the "Great Satan" rhetoric has stuck in their heads.
Thanks for the link...interesting read.