Iranians in Britain

Iranians in the UK amount perhaps to no more than 80,000 (half of them second generation)of which a large number of them consider themselves as Armenians,Arabs or Baha'i depending on the current international affairs and how the Tabloid newspapers of Britain educate the public opinion on how negative it is to be thought of Iran. The Iranian mentality however is an ever thriving element in their everyday life. Most Iranians who moved to the UK before the revolution for educational reasons that did not return, have long moved on to the USA or other destinations, furthermore those who came to the UK after 1980, having experienced the classic bureaucratic resistance of the British establishment towards their natural aspirations, moved on to settle elsewhere where they would be considered as majority rather than some ethnic minority group living on an island. Those Iranians who were an ethnic or religous minority in Iran, like the above mentioned groups are the ones who felt and feel homey in Britain since their status as "minority" was an issue they were accustomed to.

Many Iranians, who moved to Britain with next to nothing to start a life, are mostly scattered across England and Wales, Scotland on the other hand is not a very pleasant place in the eyes of most Iranians, reasons of which we shall leave out. Those immigrated Iranians with a bit of a start capital managed to settle in London and Kent. An important or a well meant advice would be, Iranians ought to invest 6 years of their lives should they immigrate to Britain, trying to elevate their social, financial and academic lifestyle, should that be of no avail, then they should really consider moving on to the USA or Canada, most certainly not Australia since the Aussie system is a combination of that special British petty bourgeois mentality , along with a conspicuous sense of an inferiority complex (caused because of their heritage), which causes them to be very anti middle-eastern and anti Asian.

The British politics however, never trusts the Iranian community with an Islamic background,well aware of their nationalistic tendencies and well aware of the traditional mistrust Iranians generally have towards the British intentions regarding Iran, so its natural that should Britain ever decide to use their so called Iranian assets in Britain, then its usually the Arab or Baha'i people, the latter is exceptionally well educated, also well integrated and assimilated in their environment, which is in itself a natural development by second generation minorities who come from minority backgrounds. The British foreign office , therefore always approaches these groups of Iranians for services that are considered "Borderline" by some, and cultural treason by others.(considering Anglo-Iranian history)

To draw conclusions, Iranians in Britain are always at the edge of things, almost all want to leave for other countries, yet very few have the financial means to move on. Relatively happy are only those Iranians living in and around London, those further away are somehow stuck and bored, constantly looking for a sunny day.

Not to forget,as always, there are exceptions to the rule.