British Iraqis are people whose heritage is originated from Iraq who were born in or who reside in the United Kingdom. According to a publication by the International Organization for Migration, "the three main ethnicities" within the British Iraqi community are Arabs, Iraqi Kurds and Iraqi Turkmen. However, there are also smaller Christian and Yazidi communities.
History
The UK has had a significant Iraqi population since the late 1940s. Refugees including liberal and radical intellectuals dissatisfied with the monarchist regime moved to the UK at this time. Supporters of the monarchy subsequently fled to the UK after it was overthrown. According to an International Organization for Migration mapping exercise, many settled Iraqi migrants in the UK moved for educational purposes or to seek a better life in the 1950s and 1960s. Some members of religious minorities were also forced to leave Iraq in the 1950s. Other Iraqis migrated to the UK to seek political asylum during the dictatorship of Saddam Hussein, with large number of Kurds and Shi'a Muslims in particular migrating in the 1970s and 1980s, or as a result of the instability that followed the 2003 invasion of Iraq.
Demographics
Population size
The 2001 UK Census recorded 32,236 Iraqi-born residents, and the Office for National Statistics estimates that, as of 2009, this figure had risen to around 65,000. According to estimates by the Iraqi embassy, the Iraqi population in the UK is around 350,000–450,000. At the time of the Iraqi parliamentary election in January 2005, the International Herald Tribune suggested that 250,000 Iraqi exiles were living in the UK, with an estimated 150,000 eligible to vote. The 2011 UK Census recorded 70,426 Iraqi-born residents in England, 2,548 in Wales, 2,246 in Scotland and 75 in Northern Ireland.
According to the International Organization for Migration, the three largest ethnic groups in the British Iraqi community are Arabs, Iraqi Kurds and Iraqi Turkmen. In particular, the Kurds form the most numerous of these ethnic groups. Moreover, they also form the largest Kurdish community in the UK, exceeding the numbers from Turkey and Iran. In the UK, about 65-70% of people originating from Iraq are Kurdish. There are also sizeable numbers of Chaldeans, AssyriansArmenians, Mandeans and other ethnic groups, such as Iraqi Jews, Yezidi, Shabakis and Kawliya. According to the 2011 Census, Iraqi-born England and Wales residents also commonly give their ethnicity as 'any other ethnic group' or Asian.
Population
According to the 2011 Census, Iraqi-born England and Wales residents most commonly give their ethnicity as Arab, Any Other ethnic group and Asian.
