Difference between revisions of "Chaldean diaspora"
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The Assyrian/Chaldean/Syriac diaspora (Galuta[citation needed]) refers to the estimated population of indigenous ethnic Assyrians who share a common language of Eastern Aramaic and ancient Assyria in-Upper Mesopotamian ancestry who migrated outside of their original Mesopotamian homeland of northern Iraq, northwest Iran, northeast Syria and southeast Turkey.[1]
They are a Semitic Christian people, with most being members of the Assyrian Church of the East, Syriac Orthodox Church, Chaldean Catholic Church, Ancient Church of the East, Assyrian Pentecostal Church and Assyrian Evangelical Church.
The worldwide diaspora of Assyrian communities begins during World War I, with the Assyrian Genocide by the Young Turks government of the Turkish Ottoman Empire, together with allied Kurdish, Iranian and Arab tribes. The emigration of Assyrians out of the Middle East accelerated further beginning in the 1980s, with mainly Neo-Aramaic speaking ethnic Assyrians fleeing persecution in the Islamic Republic of Iran and in Ba'athist Iraq, and again in the wake of the Iraq War during the 2000s.[2]
Contents
Demographic estimates
Country or Region | Most Recent Census | Estimated Assyrian-Chaldean-Syriac Population (2008) |
Total Country or Region Population (2008)[3] ** |
% Assyrian | Further information |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Iraq | - | 500,000[4][5]-1,500,000[6] | 30,711,152 | 2%-5% | Assyrians in Iraq |
Syria | - | 900,000[7]-1,200,000[8] | 20,581,290 | 4.9% | Assyrians in Syria |
United States | 82,355 (2000)[9] | 100,000[10]-500,000[6][11] | 307,006,550 | 0.03%-0.17% | Assyrian/Chaldeans/Syriac American |
Sweden | - | 100,000[12]-120,000[6] | 9,219,637 | 1.2% | Assyrians in Sweden |
Jordan | - | 44,000[6]-150,000[13][14] | 5,906,043 | 0.7% | Assyrians in Jordan |
Germany | - | 70,000[15]-100,000[6] | 82,110,097 | 0.12% | Assyrians in Germany |
Iran | - | 74,000[11]-80,000[16] | 71,956,322 | 0.11% | Assyrians in Iran |
Lebanon | - | 37,000[17]-100,000[6] | 4,193,758 | 0.9%-2.38% | Assyrians in Lebanon |
Turkey | - | 24,000[11]-70,000[18] | 73,914,260 | 0.03%-0.1% | Assyrians in Turkey |
Russia | 13,649 (2002)[19] | 70,000[6] | 141,950,000 | 0.05% | Assyrians in Russia |
Australia | 24,505 (2006)[20] | 60,000[21] | 21,431,800 | 0.28% | Assyrian/Chaldo-Assyrian/Syriac Australian |
Canada | 8,650 (2006)[22] | 38,000[23] | 33,311,400 | 0,11% | Assyrian/Chaldo-Assyrian/Syriac Canadian |
Netherlands | - | 20,000[6] | 16,445,593 | 0.12% | Assyrians in the Netherlands |
France | - | 20,000[6] | 62,277,432 | 0.03% | Assyrians in France |
Belgium | - | 15,000[6] | 10,708,433 | 0.14% | |
Georgia | 3,299 (2002)[24] | 15,000[6] | 4,385,400 | 0.34% | Assyrians in Georgia |
Armenia | 2,769 (2011)[25] | 15,000[6] | 3,018,854 | 0.09% | Assyrians in Armenia |
Brazil | - | 10,000[6] | 193,733,795 | 0.005% | |
Switzerland | - | 10,000[6] | 7,647,675 | 0.13% | |
Denmark | - | 10,000[6] | 5,493,621 | 0.18% | |
Greece | - | 8,000[6] | 11,237,094 | 0.07% | Assyrians in Greece |
Great Britain | - | 8,000[6] | 51,446,000 | 0.02% | Assyrians in the United Kingdom |
Austria | - | 7,000[6] | 8,336,926 | 0.08% | |
Italy | - | 3,000[6] | 59,832,179 | 0.005% | |
Azerbaijan | - | 1,400[6] | |||
New Zealand | 1,683 (2006)[26] | 3,000[6] | 4,268,900 | 0.07% | |
Mexico | - | 2,000[6] | 106,350,434 | 0.002% | |
Other | - | 100,000[6] | |||
Total | - | 3.3 million[27]-4.2 million[28] |
Historic census
Former Soviet Union
History[29]
Assyrians came to Russia and the Soviet Union in three main waves. The first wave was after the Treaty of Turkmenchay in 1828, that delineated a border between Russia and Persia. Many Assyrians found themselves suddenly under Russian sovereignty and thousands of relatives crossed the border to join them.
The second wave was a result of the repression and violence during and after World War I.
The third wave came after World War II, when Moscow unsuccessfully tried to establish a satellite state in Iran. Soviet troops withdrew in 1946, and left the Assyrians exposed to exactly the same kind of retaliation that they had suffered from the Turks 30 years earlier. Again, many Assyrians found refuge in the Soviet Union, this time mainly in the cities. From 1937 to 1959, the Assyrian population in USSR grew by 587.3%[30]
The Soviets, expressed an atheistic ideology, in the thirties oppressed anyone who expressed any religious affiliation and as a result the Soviet authority persecuted Assyrian religious and community leaders, in the same way as the Soviet authority persecuted those Russian who remained in some way connected to the Russian Orthodox Church.
In recent years, the Assyrians have tended to assimilate within the Armenian community within the Soviet Union, but their cultural and ethnic identity, strengthened through centuries of hardships, found new expression under Glasnost.
USSR census
- 1897 census: 5,300 "Assyrians" (by language)[31]
- 1919 refugee status:
- 8,000 - 7,000 "Assyrian" refugees in Tbilissi[32]
- 2,000 Assyrians in Yerevan[32]
- 15,000 Assyrians from Hakkari, 10,000 from Urmia and Salmas in the Russian region of Rostov[33]
- 1926 census: 9,808 Assyrians (Aisor)[32]
- 1959 census: 21,083 Assyrians[34]
- 1970 census: 24,294 Assyrians[35]
- 1979 census: 25,170 Assyrians[36]
- 1989 census: 26,289 Assyrians[34]
Russia
- 1989 census: 9,600 Assyrians, of whom 4,742 spoke the Syriac Language; 1,738 in the Krasnodar region[29]
- 2002 census: 13,649 Assyrians (ассирийцы)[19]
Armenia
- 1926 (Soviet) census:[35] 21,215 Assyrians
- 1989 (Soviet) census:[37] 5,963 Assyrians
- 2001 census:[38] 3,409 Assyrians (3rd minority ethnic group after Yazidis and Russians): 524 urban, 2,485 rural
- 2011 census:[25] 2,769 Assyrians
Georgia
Ukraine
- 2001 census: 3,143[39]
Kazakhstan
Near East
Lebanon
estimates on December 31, 1944, by province (Muhafazat)[41]
denomination | Beyrouth | Mount Lebanon | North Lebanon | South Lebanon | Biqa' | Total |
Syriac Catholics | 4,089 | 275 | 169 | 9 | 442 | 4,984 |
Syriac Orthodox | 2,070 | 209 | 100 | 22 | 1,352 | 3,753 |
Chaldean Catholic | 974 | 120 | 1 | 10 | 225 | 1,330 |
1932 census and further estimates
denomination | 1932 census[42] | 1944 estimates[41] | 1954 estimates[42] |
Syriac Catholics | 2,675 | 4,984 | .. |
Chaldean Catholics | 528 | 1,330 | .. |
Syriac Orthodox | 2,574 | 3,753 | 4,200 |
Church Of The East | 800 | 1,200 | 1,400 |
Israel
Palestine
Jordan
The Americas
Canada
- 2001 Census: Assyrian - 6,980
- 2006 Census: Assyrian - 8,650[43]
- 2011 Census: Assyrian - 10,810[44]
United States
- 1990 census: 46,099 Assyrians[45]
- 19,066 born in the US
- 16,783 arrived before 1980
- 10,250 between 1980 and 1990.
- 27,494 Syriac as the "Language Spoken at Home"[46]
- Unemployment: 9.1%
- 2000 census: 82,355 Assyrian/Chaldean/Syriac[47]
- 34,484 in Michigan
- Sterling Heights, Michigan: 5,515 (4.4% of the city)
- West Bloomfield, Michigan: 4,874 (7.5%)
- Southfield, Michigan: 3,684 (4.7%)
- Warren, Michigan: 2,625 (1.9%)
- Farmington Hills, Michigan 2,499 (3.0%)
- Troy, Michigan: 2,047 (2.5%)
- Detroit, Michigan 113,000
- Oak Park, Michigan 1,864 (6.3%)
- Madison Heights, Michigan: 1,428 (4.6%)
- Orchard Lake Village, Michigan: 241 (10.9%)
- 22,671 in California
- 15,685 in Illinois
- Chicago, Illinois: 7,121 (0.2%)
- Niles, Illinois: 3,410 (3.3%)
- Maine Park, Illinois: 1,035 (0.8%)
- 34,484 in Michigan
- Syriac language: 46,932[48]
Europe
Belgium
Assyrians in Belgium came mostly as refugees from the Turkish towns of Midyat and Mardin in Tur Abdin, most of them belong to the Syrian Orthodox Church, some to the Chaldean Catholic Church. Their three main settlements are in Brussels (municipalities of Saint-Josse-ten-Noode - where they've got their only elected municipal councilman, the Christian Democrat Ibrahim Erkan, originally from Turkey -, Brussels and Etterbeek), Liège and in Mechelen. Since the October 8, 2006 municipal elections they've got two more councilmen, in Etterbeek, the Liberal Sandrine Es (whose family came from Turkey) and the Christian Democrat Ibrahim Hanna (originally from Syria's Khabur region). The Christian Democrat candidate in Mechelen, Melikan Kucam, was not elected. The Flemish writer August Thiry wrote the book Mechelen aan de Tigris (Mechelen on Tigris) about the Assyrian/Syriac refugees from the village of Hassana in SE Turkey, district of Silopi. Melikan Kucam was one of them. On October 14, 2012 municipal elections, Melikan was elected in Mechelen as member of the Flemisch Nationalists N-VA.
France
There are believed to be some 20,000, mainly concentrated in the northern French suburbs of Sarcelles, where several thousands Chaldean Catholics live, and also in Gonesse and Villiers-le-Bel. They are drawn from the same few villages in what is now south-east Turkey.[49][50]
Germany
The number of Assyrians/Syriacs in Germany is estimated at around 100,000 people.[51] Most of the Assyrian/Syriac immigrants and their descendants in Germany live in the following places like in Munich, Wiesbaden, Paderborn, Essen, Bietigheim-Bissingen, Ahlen, Göppingen, Köln, Hamburg, Berlin, Augsburg and Gütersloh.
Being oppressed and persecuted throughout the 20th century for their religion, many arrived from Turkey seeking a better life. The first large wave arrived in the 1960s and 1970s as part of the German economic plan of "Gastarbeiter"; as Germany was seeking immigrant workers (largely from Turkey), many Assyrians/Syriacs saw an opportunity for freedom and success and applied for visas. Assyrians started working in restaurants or as construction workers for companies and many began running their own shops. The first Assyrian/Syriac immigrants in Germany started organizing themselves by forming culture clubs and building churches. The second wave came in the 1980s 1990s as refugees from the Turkish-PKK conflict in the region of Turkish Kurdistan in which they lived.
Greece
The first migrants of Assyrian stock in Greece came in 1934, and settled in the areas of Makronisos (today uninhabited), Keratsini (Pireus), Egaleo and Kalamata.[52] Today, the vast majority of Assyrians live in Peristeri, a suburb of Athens, and they number about 2,000.[53] There are five Assyrian Christian marriages recorded at St. Pauls Anglican Church in Athens in 1924-25 (the transcripts can be viewed on St. Pauls Anglican Church website), thus indicating the beginning of the appearance of refugees at that time. The absence of further marriages at St. Pauls possibly indicates the arrival of a Nestorian clergyman in Athens shortly after 1925.
Netherlands
The first Assyrians came to the Netherlands in the 1970s; most of them belonged to the West Syrian Rite from Turkey. Today the number of Assyrians is estimated to be between 25,000 and 35,000 and they mainly live in the east of the country, in the province of Overijssel, in such cities as Enschede, Hengelo, Almelo and Borne.
Sweden
In the latter part of the 1970s, about 12,000 Assyrians/Syriacs from Turkey, Iran, Iraq and Syria immigrated to Sweden. They considered themselves persecuted for religious reasons but were never acknowledged as refugees. Those who had already lived in Sweden for a longer period were finally granted residence permit for humanitarian reasons.[54]
As with other Northern European countries, there is a dividing line in Sweden between the Assyrian speaking Christians. They are mostly members of the Syriac Orthodox Church, but its important to note that not all Syriac Orthodox members identify with being Syriacs only, as the majority of those who call themselves Assyrians are Syriac Orthodox as well.[55]
Södertälje in Sweden is often seen as the unofficial Assyrian capital of Europe due to the city's high percentage of Assyrians. The international TV-channels Suryoyo Sat and Suroyo TV are also based in Södertälje.
Between 2005 and 2006, there was an Assyrian/Syriac minister in the Swedish government, Ibrahim Baylan.
Switzerland
Assyrians in Switzerland came mostly as refugees from the towns of Midyat, Mardin and Beth-Zabday (Idil) in Tur Abdin, most of them are Syriac Orthodox (about 1,600 Families). The seat of the Syriac Orthodox bishop of the Swiss and Austrian diocese is in the St. Avgin (Eugene) Monastery in Arth, near Lucerne, where a big part of the Assyrian community lives. They also live in the east of the country in the Canton of St. Gallen (Wil-Area) and in Baden about 20 km from Zurich. A big part of the Assyrians in Switzerland also live in the Italian part of Switzerland in the Canton of Ticino, mostly in Lugano and Locarno.
United Kingdom
Pacific
Australia
- 2006 census: 20,931 who spoke Syriac[56]
- 12,595 in New South Wales
- 8,177 in Victoria (Australia)
- 15,000 originally from Iraq and 5,000 originally from Iran and Syria.
- 27% are Chaldean Catholic
- 2009 Census: 24,950
- 9,000 followers of the Assyrian Church of the East
- 12,000 followers of the Chaldean Catholic Church
- 3,000 followers of the Syriac Orthodox Church
- 45.9% Catholic, 49.0 Orthodox[57]
- 74.3% Catholic, 24.0% Orthodox
- 2010 Census: 33,505 Assyrians (Different Churches)
- Language; Syriac spoken by 24,900
- Religious sects
- Assyrian Church of the East: 12,000
- Chaldean Catholic Church: 14,000
- Syriac Orthodox Church: 5,000
- Ancient Church of the East: 2,000
New Zealand
- 1991 census: 315[58]
- 1996 census: 807[58]
- 2001 Census: 1,176[58]
- 465 in Auckland Region
- 690 in Wellington Region
- "Unemployment rates highest for Somalis (37.2 percent) and Assyrians (40.0 percent)."
- "The particular ethnic groups with the highest proportions affiliated to a Christian denomination were Assyrian (99.0 percent) and Filipino (95.1 percent)."
- English spoken: 774, no English: 348; Number of Languages Spoken: 1: 225, 2: 405, 3: 423, 4: 63, 5: 3
- 2006 census: 1,683[26]
Homeland Statistics
Syria
- United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) on October 2005 reported that out of the 700,000 Iraqis who took refuge in Syria between October 2003 and March 2005, 36% were "Iraqi Christians."[citation needed]
See also
References
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Bibliography
- Eden Naby, "Les Assyriens d'Union soviétique," Cahiers du Monde russe, 16/3-4. 1975
- Eden Naby, The Iranian Frontier Nationalities: The Kurds, the Assyrians, the Baluch and the Turkmens, in: McCagg and Silver (eds) Soviet Asian Ethnic Frontiers, New York, Pergamon Press, 1979
- Iraklii Chikhladze and Giga Chikhladze, The Yezidi Kurds and Assyrians of Georgia. The Problem of Diasporas and Integration into Contemporary Society, Journal of the Central Asia & the Caucasus (3 /21, 2003)
- Anna Saghabalian, Assyrians in Armenia, RFE/RL Armenian Service, Armenia Report, Thursday 13 August 1998
- Onnik Krikorian, The Assyrian Community in Armenia, The Armenian Weekly
- Assyrians in Armenia</dl>
Further reading
- Talia, Peter. Assyrians in the West. Chicago: Nineveh Printing Co. [199-]. 106 p. Without ISBN
- ↑ "The Chaldean Assyrian Syriac People of Iraq: An Ethnic Identity Problem: by Shak Hanish http://www.syriacstudies.com/2013/02/04/the-chaldean-assyrian-syriac-people-of-iraq-an-ethnic-identity-problem-shak-hanish/
- ↑ Jacobson, Rodolfo (2001). Codeswitching Worldwide II. Walter de Gruyter. p. 159. ISBN 978-3-11-016768-9.
- ↑ CIA-The World Factbook. "Country Comparison:Population". Archived from the original on 28 October 2009. Retrieved 2009-10-27.
- ↑ [1], CIA World Factbook
- ↑ Christians in Iraq GlobalSecurity.org total estimated to be some 500,000 after the Iraq war
- ↑ 6.00 6.01 6.02 6.03 6.04 6.05 6.06 6.07 6.08 6.09 6.10 6.11 6.12 6.13 6.14 6.15 6.16 6.17 6.18 6.19 6.20 6.21 6.22 Brief History of Assyrians, AINA.org
- ↑ http://worldpopulationreview.com/countries/syria-population/
- ↑ Assyrians Face Escalating Abuses in "New Iraq", Lisa Söderlindh, Inter Press Service higher estimates include some 300,000 Assyrian refugees from Iraq
- ↑ 2000 Census USA
- ↑ American Community Survey, U.S. Census Bureau. Many Assyrians might be simply identified as Iraqis, Iranian, Syrians, Turks, or Lebanese
- ↑ 11.0 11.1 11.2 atour.com
- ↑ Demographics of Sweden, Swedish Language Council "Sweden has also one of the largest exile communities of Assyrian and Syriac Christians (also known as Chaldeans) with a population of around 100,000."
- ↑ Thrown to the Lions, Doug Bandow, The America Spectator
- ↑ Jordan Should Legally Recognize Displaced Iraqis As Refugees, AINA.org. Assyrian and Chaldean Christians Flee Iraq to Neighboring Jordan, ASSIST News Service
- ↑ 70,000 Syriac Christians according to REMID (of which 55,000 Syriac Orthodox).
- ↑ [2], SIL Ethnologue "Assyrian Neo-Aramaic 15,000 in Iran (1994). Ethnic population: 80,000 (1994)" See also Christianity in Iran.
- ↑ Languages of Lebanon, Ethnologue "Immigrant languages: Assyrian Neo-Aramaic (1,000), Chaldean Neo-Aramaic (18,000), Turoyo (18,000)."
- ↑ [3], SIL Ethnologue "Turoyo [tru] 3,000 in Turkey (1994 Hezy Mutzafi). Ethnic population: 50,000 to 70,000 (1994). Hértevin [hrt] 1,000 (1999 H. Mutzafi). Originally Siirt Province. They have left their villages, most emigrating to the West, but some may still be in Turkey." See also Christianity in Turkey.
- ↑ 19.0 19.1 2002 census
- ↑ Ancestry (full classification list) Australian Bureau of Statistics
- ↑ [4][5] More than two thirds of Iraqis in Australia (80,000) are Christians
- ↑ "Ethnic Origin (247), Single and Multiple Ethnic Origin Responses (3) and Sex (3) for the Population of Canada,". Statistics Canada. 2006. Retrieved 2010-06-17.
- ↑ http://www.radiovaticana.org/en1/articolo.asp?c=494962
- ↑ 24.0 24.1 24.2 Eurominority - Assyrians in Georgia
- ↑ 25.0 25.1 2011 Armenian Census - De Jure Population (Urban, Rural) by Age and Ethnicity
- ↑ 26.0 26.1 New Zealand 2006 census
- ↑ [6], UNPO estimates
- ↑ SIL Ethnologue estimate for the "ethnic population" associated with Assyrian Neo-Aramaic. [7]
- ↑ 29.0 29.1 Assyrians, Center for Russian Studies, NUPI - Norwegian Institute of International Affairs
- ↑ Mastyugina, Tatiana; Perepelkin, Lev; Naumkin, Vitaliĭ Vi︠a︡cheslavovich; Zvi︠a︡gelʹskai︠a︡, Irina Donovna (1996). An Ethnic History of Russia Pre-revolutionary Times to the Present. Greenwood Publishing Group. p. 83. ISBN 978-0-313-29315-3.
- ↑ Youri Bromlei et al., Processus ethniques en U.R.S.S., Editions du Progrès, 1977
- ↑ 32.0 32.1 32.2 Eden Naby, "Les Assyriens d'Union soviétique," Cahiers du Monde russe, 16/3-4. 1975
- ↑ A. Chatelet (Supérieur de la mission catholique de Téhéran), Question assyro-chaldéenne, Quartier général - Bureau de la Marine, Constantinople, 31 août 1919
- ↑ 34.0 34.1 An Ethnohistorical Dictionary of the Russian and Soviet Empires, By James Stuart Olson, Lee Brigance Pappas, Nicholas Charles
- ↑ 35.0 35.1 35.2 Eden Naby 1975
- ↑ Annuaire démographique des Nations-Unies 1983, Département des affaires économiques et sociales internationales, New York, 1985
- ↑ Armenian Helsinki Committee - Reflections over Annual Report on International Religious Freedom: Armenia
- ↑ 2001 Armenian Census - De Jure Population (Urban, Rural) by Age and Ethnicity
- ↑ All-Ukraine population census 2001
- ↑ Assyrian cultural center in Kazakhstan
- ↑ 41.0 41.1 Albert H. Hourani, Minorities in the Arab World, London: Oxford University Press, 1947
- ↑ 42.0 42.1 Kenneth C. Bruss, Lebanon - Area and population, Encyclopaedia Britannica, 1963
- ↑ [8]
- ↑ [9]
- ↑ U.S. Bureau of the Census - Selected Characteristics for Persons of Assyrian Ancestry: 1990
- ↑ U.S. Bureau of the Census, Language Spoken at Home for the Foreign-Born Population 5 Years and Over: 1980 and 1990, Internet Release date: March 9, 1999
- ↑ US Census, QT-P13. Ancestry: 2000
- ↑ U.S. Census 2000, Language Spoken at Home for the Foreign-Born Population 5 Years and Over: 1980 to 2000
- ↑ http://www.aina.org/brief.html
- ↑ Gaunt, David, "Cultural diversity, Multilingualism and Ethnic minorities in Sweden - Identity conflicts among Oriental Christian in Sweden", s.10.
- ↑ "Diskussion zum Thema 'Aaramäische Christen' im Kapitelshaus" Borkener Zeitung (German) (archived link, 8 October 2011)
- ↑ Zinda Magazine - May 10, 1999 - The Assyrian Union of Greece
- ↑ Ethnologue report for Greece
- ↑ Swedish Minister for Development Co-operation, Migration and Asylum Policy, Migration 2002, June 2002
- ↑ Dan Lundberg, Christians from the Middle East, A virtual Assyria
- ↑ http://www.swsahs.nsw.gov.au/areaser/Startts/services/comm-assyrian.asp
- ↑ 2054.0 Australian Census Analytic Program: Australians' Ancestries (2001 (Corrigendum))
- ↑ 58.0 58.1 58.2 Statistics New Zealand - 2001 Census of Population and Dwellings - Ethnic Groups