Ethnic groups in West Asia

The ethnic groups in West Asia refers to the various peoples that reside in West Asia. The region has historically been a crossroad of different cultures. Since the 1960s, the changes in political and economic factors (especially the enormous oil wealth in the region and conflicts) have significantly altered the ethnic composition of groups in the region. While some ethnic groups have been present in the region for millennia, others have arrived fairly recently through immigration. The five largest ethnic groups in the region are Arabs, Azerbaijanis, Kurds, Persians, and Turks[1] but there are dozens of other ethnic groups which have hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of members.

Other Indigenous, native, or long-standing ethnic groups include: Arameans, Armenians, Assyrians, Balochs, Berbers, Copts, Druze, Gilaks, Greeks, Jews, Kawliya, Lurs, Mandeans, Mazanderanis Mhallami, Nawar, Samaritans, Shabaks, Talishis, Tats, Turcomans, Yazidis, and Zazas.

More recent migrant or diaspora populations include Albanians, Bengalis, British people, Bosniaks, Chinese, Circassians, Crimean Tatars, Filipinos, French people, Indians, Indonesians, Italians, Malays, Pakistanis, Pashtuns, Punjabis, Romani, Sikhs, Sindhis, Somalis, Sri Lankans, and Sub-Saharan Africans.

Arabian Peninsula, the Levant and Mesopotamia

Africans - North Africans
Africans - Sub Saharan Africans
Arabic peoples
Israelites
Syriac-speaking peoples
Indo-European speakers
Turkic peoples
Other Ethnic Groups

Anatolia

Ethnic map of Asia Minor and Caucasus in 1914

Cyprus

Iran

Diaspora Populations

Because of the low population of many of the Arab States of the Persian Gulf and the demand for labor created by the large discoveries of oil in these countries there has been a steady stream of immigration to the region (mainly from South Asia). Ethnic groups which comprise the largest portions of this immigration include Bengalis, Britons, Chinese, Filipinos, Hindus, Nepalis, Pakistanis, Punjabis, Sikhs, Sindhis, Somalis, and Sri Lankans. Many of these people are denied certain political and legal rights in the countries in which they live and frequently face mistreatment by the native-born citizens of the host countries.

See also

References

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