Afghans in Iran: the state and the working of immigration policies

Since its founding in 1979, the Islamic Republic has received one of the largest Afghan refugee/migrant populations of any country. The Iranian state first pursued an open-door immigration policy, but after a decade, it changed its course and turned to restriction, repatriation and expulsion. To explain Iran's migration policies and their changes overtime, this study brings together a search for answers to two interrelated questions: first, how and why did these policies come about and second, to what degree does the state exercise control over such consequential policies. The latter question engages the concept of state, its capacities and limitations, and its relations with society. Iran's immigration history, which includes policies and their outcomes, provides a fertile context for this consideration, and conversely the question of the state's control leads to a better understanding of the changing Iranian immigration policies themselves.