Editing Tehran (section)

===Language and ethnicity===
With its cosmopolitan atmosphere, Tehran is home to diverse ethnic and linguistic groups from all over the country. The present-day dominant language of Tehran is the [[Tehrani accent|Tehrani variety]] of the [[Persian language]], and the majority of people in Tehran identify themselves as [[Persian people|Persians]].<ref name="Mohammad" /><ref name="tabnak"/> However, before, the native language of the Tehran–Ray region was not Persian, which is linguistically Southwest Iranian and originates in [[Fars province|Fars]], but a now extinct [[Western Iranian languages|Northwestern Iranian language]].<ref>{{cite encyclopedia |title=Central Dialects |author-last=Windfuhr |author-first=Gernot L. |author-link=Gernot Windfuhr |encyclopedia=[[Encyclopædia Iranica]] |editor-last=Yarshater |editor-first=Ehsan |editor-link=Ehsan Yarshater |year=1991 |publisher=Routledge |location=London and New York |pages=242–252 |url=http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/central-dialects |access-date=23 August 2013 |volume=5 |archive-date=5 September 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130905072810/http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/central-dialects |url-status=live }}</ref>

[[Iranian Azerbaijanis|Iranian Azeris]] form the second-largest ethnic group of the city, comprising about 10-15% <ref name="Iran-Azeris">{{cite news |url=http://lcweb2.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?frd/cstdy:@field(DOCID+ir0052) |title=Iran-Azeris |publisher=[[Library of Congress Country Studies]] |date=December 1987 |access-date=13 August 2013 |archive-date=25 January 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200125044513/http://lcweb2.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?frd%2Fcstdy%3A%40field%28DOCID+ir0052%29 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="Country Study Guide-Azerbaijanis">{{cite news |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0KOSUrLPC6IC&pg=PA152 |title=Country Study Guide-Azerbaijanis |year=2005 |publisher=STRATEGIC INFORMATION AND DEVELOPMENTS-USA |isbn=9780739714768 |access-date=13 August 2013 |archive-date=4 September 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150904062040/https://books.google.com/books?id=0KOSUrLPC6IC&pg=PA152 |url-status=live }}</ref> of the total population, while ethnic [[Mazanderani people|Mazanderanis]] are the third-largest, comprising about 5% of the total population.<ref>{{Cite news |url=http://www.irna.ir/fa/News/82021017/ |title=یک و نیم میلیون مازندرانی پایتخت نشین شدند |publisher=[[Islamic Republic News Agency|IRNA]] |date=3 April 2016 |language=fa |access-date=30 April 2017 |archive-date=20 August 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170820072730/http://www.irna.ir/fa/News/82021017 |url-status=live }}</ref> Tehran's other ethnic communities include [[Kurds]], [[Iranian Armenians|Armenians]], [[Iranian Georgians|Georgians]], [[Bakhtiari people|Bakhtyaris]], [[Talysh people|Talysh]], [[Baloch people|Baloch]], [[Assyrians in Iran|Assyrians]], [[Arabs]], [[Iranian Jews|Jews]], and [[Circassians in Iran|Circassians]].

According to a 2010 census conducted by the Sociology Department of the [[University of Tehran]], in many districts of Tehran across various socio-economic classes in proportion to population sizes of each district and socio-economic class, 63% of the people were born in Tehran, 98% knew Persian, 75% identified themselves as ethnic Persian, and 13% had some degree of proficiency in a European language.<ref name="tabnak">{{Cite web |url=http://www.tabnak.ir/fa/news/133668 |title=چنددرصد تهرانی‌ها در تهران به دنیا آمده‌اند؟ |website=tabnak.ir |language=fa |date=3 November 2010 |access-date=18 December 2010 |archive-date=27 February 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120227033705/http://www.tabnak.ir/fa/news/133668 |url-status=live }}</ref>

Tehran saw a drastic change in its ethnic-social composition in the early 1980s. After the political, social, and economic consequences of the [[1979 Revolution]] and the years that followed, a number of Iranian citizens, mostly Tehranis, left Iran. The majority of [[Iranian diaspora|Iranian emigrations]] have left for the [[Iranian Americans|United States]], [[Iranians in Germany|Germany]], [[Swedish Iranians|Sweden]], and [[Iranian Canadians|Canada]].

With the start of the [[Iran–Iraq War]] (1980–1988), the second wave of inhabitants fled the city, especially during the Iraqi air offensives on the capital. With most major powers backing Iraq at the time, economic isolation gave yet more reason for many inhabitants to leave the city (and the country). Having left all they had and having struggled to adapt to a new country and build a life, most of them never came back when the war was over. During the war, Tehran also received a great number of migrants from the west and the southwest of the country bordering [[Iraq]].

The unstable situation and the war in neighbouring [[Afghanistan]] and Iraq prompted a rush of refugees into the country who arrived in millions, with Tehran being a magnet for many seeking work, who subsequently helped the city to recover from war wounds, working for a far lower pay than local construction workers. Many of these refugees are being repatriated with the assistance of the [[United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees|UNHCR]], but there are still sizable groups of Afghan and Iraqi refugees in Tehran who are reluctant to leave, being pessimistic about the situation in their own countries. Afghan refugees are mostly [[Dari language|Dari]]-speaking [[Tajiks|Tajik]] and [[Hazara people|Hazara]], speaking a variety of Persian, and Iraqi refugees are mainly [[Mesopotamian Arabic]]-speakers who are often of Iranian and Persian ethnic heritage.