"I never imagined that I would leave the country one day. I love my country very much, and because I am the only daughter of my mother, I am very attached to her."

So says an Iranian plastic surgeon who left her country 6 months ago and settled in Canada with her husband.

Regarding what prompted her to migrate, the doctor, who asked not to be named for security reasons, adds, "I am fed up with everything around me, even though I used to enjoy a prominent social status and a good financial situation in my country."

And she continued, in an interview with Al-Jazeera Net, "I lost hope because of the suffering experienced by my relatives and friends at all levels: political, economic, freedoms, and human rights."

She described the situation in her country as "irrational, improper and very tiring".

The doctor says, "I used to receive threats a lot because of what I publish on my Instagram account of publications related to my profession and also because of my clothes that I wear in my clinic, in addition to a lawsuit filed against me for this reason."

She recalls an incident where she was threatened by individuals who are called in Iran "people of civilian clothing", who are members of the security and intelligence services. She said that they entered her clinic and handed her a paper containing a handwritten text and threatened her because of her clothes, which they considered to be in violation of the Hijab law.

She said she was wearing a shirt, pants and a small head covering that looked like a hat.

The doctor's account comes after a statement by the Secretary-General of the United Nations, Antonio Guterres, by the end of 2022, in which he said that "immigration should be a choice, not a necessity."

As for the head of the Migration Observatory in Iran, Bahram Salawati, he said that the immigrants were the ones who did their best to achieve their demands, but they did not succeed.

Restriction of freedoms is one of the reasons for immigration among Iranian women, especially (French)

Expatriates.. a parallel people

After the Islamic Revolution of 1979, Iran witnessed a comprehensive emigration of a wide class of its opponents, as the Iranian expatriates are considered a people parallel to the Iranian people at home, and their number is estimated, according to foreign sources, at more than two million people.

In recent years, as conditions have worsened under international sanctions, migration indicators have increased in the country.

There are no official statistics in this regard, but the head of the Immigration Observatory in Iran, Bahram Salawati, says that from 2010 to 2021, 86,000 non-tourist visas were issued annually to Iranians.

Salawati told Al-Jazeera Net that his country had set records in immigration, although the data of the "Immigration Observatory" in Iran reveal that the Iranian passport ranks 102nd in the world among 116 countries.

While the Iranian rial is declining sharply against the US dollar, the amount of money leaving the country is rising.

In this regard, Salawati says that the emigration of every Iranian means the departure of at least $45,000 from the country.

Unofficial Iranian sources reveal that $70 billion went from Iran to Canada, through the corporate and real estate sectors, in the past year and a half.

My prayers reveal that the costs of education and health spent by the state on each immigrant are equivalent to two billion Iranian “tomans” (formerly the official Persian currency).

According to the investigations of the Iran Immigration Observatory of the Sharif University of Technology in Tehran, “In the Iranian month of Khordad in 1401 (May 22 to June 21, 2022), the most important reasons for the migration of Iranians were: the way the country was ruled, economic instability, and institutional corruption.” , sanctions to which the country is subject, currency fluctuations, inflation and difficult living conditions.

The Migration Observatory clarifies in its yearbook, which was issued at the end of 2022, that the option to "escape from the current situation" was not among the responses to the question of the reasons for wanting to emigrate previously, while this option was added in the past few years.

Given that remote work was reducing immigration, Salawati criticized the country's internet restrictions, explaining that they had greatly reduced the possibility of remote work.


Immigrate to Canada

In turn, the head of the Iranian-Canadian Trade Association, Mohammad Vahidi Rad, links the rise in the exchange rate of the US dollar in Iran to the amount of Iranian immigration to Canada and the entry of their money into that country.

Wahidi Rad told Al-Jazeera Net that since 2018, Canada has increased the difficulties of entry of specialized human resources to it, so immigration has become towards it through investment and educational attainment, and the two methods contribute to the introduction of a lot of money to it.

For his part, the head of a scientific team that handles the immigration procedures of students from Iran to Canada and obtaining admission to its universities explains that most of those who consult him believe that immigration for the purpose of studies is the easiest way to leave the country in search of a prosperous future.

He adds that the number of those wishing to immigrate increases annually, although prices in Canada are high for Iranians, but it is their preferred choice because the approved language is English, and also the prospects for development there are open to everyone.

And about the impact of the protests that erupted in Iran 4 months ago after the death of the young woman, Mahsa Amini, while she was being detained by the Morals and Morals Police in Tehran, the head of the scientific team, who asked not to be named - in his interview with Al-Jazeera Net - divides the Iranians into 3 sections: those who made a final decision to emigrate, And those who decided to stay in the country, believing that there will be a radical change and reform soon awaiting them, and the third category is waiting and hesitant between staying and leaving the country.

Iranians are waiting for their turn to obtain medicine, some of which have become a rare commodity in light of the sanctions (Al-Jazeera)

Iranian Diaspora

According to the latest statistics of the "Immigration Observatory", the number of Iranians who were born in Iran and live in 20 countries - which includes the largest number of Iranians in the world - is approximately two million. America, Canada, Turkey, Germany and England are the preferred destinations for Iranian expatriates.

These statistics say that in terms of establishing "unicorn" companies (start-up companies with a capital exceeding one billion dollars, most of which are related to technology), Iranians rank tenth.

Also, in the years 2020 and 2021, 1,661 companies were established in Turkey with the contribution of Iranians.

Fahima Behzadi, head of the economic migration department at the Iranian Immigration Observatory, reveals that Iranians spent 3 and a half billion dollars in 2022 to buy homes in Turkey, in addition to 22 million dollars to register their companies there in the same year.

According to the census conducted by America in 2018, 29 thousand Iranians worked in the health sector in America, including 8 thousand doctors and surgeons, and this number constitutes 26% of Iranians working in the health sector in America.

In the past few months, Iran has warned of a shortage of doctors, mainly due to immigration. The head of the medical system, Mohammad Raiszadeh, said, "If the situation continues as it is, the country will, after 5 years, be without specialists in some fields, especially heart surgery."

On the other hand, in 2018, the American analysis and consulting company known as the Gallup Foundation calculated the percentage of immigrants' desire to return to their home countries.

According to this institution, the rate of desire to return in the world is equivalent to 7%, while the Iranian "Immigration Observatory" reveals that this percentage among Iranians is only 1%.