Iraqi international migration: potentials for the postwar period

This article aims to fill a gap in the current literature on migration and conflict. Utilizing the conceptual framework of an "environment of insecurity," Iraqi migration trends are analyzed and projections are made for future migration patterns. An attempt is made to make sense of Iraq's demographic data in relation to the broader context of internal and external conflicts that Iraq has been involved in over the past two decades. In light of previous findings on post-conflict Turkish migration patterns involving the Kurds, it is argued that similar migration patterns will likely surface in postwar Iraq due to similarities in respective post-conflict environments. The potential impact on international migration resulting from a worsening pattern of ethnic conflict between and among Shiites, Sunnis, Arabs, Kurds and Turkmen in Iraq is explored