Put into that perspective, the rantings make perfect sense.
The Islamist in Iran are mostly Afghans.
In the years prior to ayatollah arrival to Iran in 1979 are there any records of mass migration into Iran from other nations and if so where from
Thought for 20s
Yes, there were records of notable (but not massive) immigration into Iran in the years leading up to Ayatollah Khomeini's return in February 1979.However, the scale was much smaller than the post-1979 refugee waves. Pre-revolution migration was primarily economic/labor migration driven by Iran’s oil boom, rapid industrialization, and labor shortages under the Shah. It was not a sudden “mass refugee crisis” like what followed the 1978 Saur Revolution and 1979 Soviet invasion of Afghanistan.Main Source: AfghanistanAfghans made up the vast majority of foreign migrants/workers.
Migration from Afghanistan to Iran has historical roots (19th–early 20th century), but it intensified significantly in the 1960s–1970s.
Key drivers: Iran’s economic growth (oil revenues), seasonal labor demand, and droughts/famine in Afghanistan (especially 1971–1972).
Official figures:By 1975, Iran had roughly 18,000 registered migrant workers, of whom ~74% were Afghan.
Unofficial estimates put the total Afghan presence (including undocumented/seasonal workers) at up to 600,000 by 1978.
Most Afghans worked in construction, agriculture, and low-skilled manual labor, especially in eastern Iran (e.g., Khorasan region).
Other Notable SourcesPakistan: Smaller but steady flows of Pakistani laborers (especially Baloch and Pashtun workers) due to shared borders and economic opportunities.
Iraq: In 1974, ~100,000–150,000 Iraqi Kurds fled to Iran due to conflict with the Iraqi government (a one-time spike, not sustained mass migration).
Other nationalities: Very limited. There were small numbers of Turks, Indians, Koreans, and Western expatriates (Europeans/North Americans, ~35,000 total skilled workers/technicians in 1975), but these were not “mass” movements.
Scale and ContextIran’s total population in the mid-1970s was ~33–35 million.
Foreign migrant workers remained a small fraction of the population (far smaller than post-1979 numbers, which reached 2–3 million Afghans alone).
Most pre-1979 movement was temporary/seasonal labor migration, not permanent settlement or refugee flows.
Internal rural-to-urban migration inside Iran was actually much larger due to the Shah’s modernization policies.
Bottom line: The only significant pre-1979 immigration wave into Iran was from Afghanistan (economic migrants and laborers). There were no large-scale inflows from distant countries or other major “mass migration” events in the years immediately before Khomeini’s return.After 1978–1979, the situation changed dramatically with the arrival of millions of Afghan refugees following the communist coup and Soviet invasion.