Iranian New Zealanders
ethnic group
Iranian New Zealanders (Persian: نیوزیلندیهای ایرانی), informally known as Persian Kiwis, are New Zealanders of Iranian national background or descent who are expatriates or permanent immigrants, and their descendants. The 2006 census found that 2,895 New Zealanders were born in Iran, although the figure of Iranian New Zealanders will be higher than this as many of them are born in another country.
Migration history
Most Iranian New Zealanders came to New Zealand after the Iranian Revolution of 1979. The community expanded in the early 1980s and 1990s during the Iran–Iraq War and its aftermath. However, most Iranian emigrants since 2010 are professionals who revived their residence permit through emigration programs.
Demography
Around half of Iranians in New Zealand are Muslim, but those of Christian background are also present. Among Iranian migrants there are also Baháʼís who had been persecuted for their religion in Iran. From 1987 to 1989, 142 Baháʼís arrived in New Zealand as refugees
Notable Iranian New Zealanders
Rasoul Amani, New Zealand wrestler who represented New Zealand in Graeco-Roman wrestling at the 2000 Summer Olympics
Nazanin "Naz" Khanjani, a contestant in Season 2 of The Bachelor NZ (aired on TV3), a reality dating show. She was born in Tehran (the capital of Iran), and moved to New Zealand at the age of 4.
Golriz Ghahraman, New Zealand politician, member of the Green Party of Aotearoa New Zealand, elected in 2017 member of parliament in the House of representatives in the 52nd New Zealand Parliament.
This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Iranian New Zealanders” as ethnic group. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.
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The subject matters to the general reference register because the source frames it as ethnic group. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.
Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 11, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q6067315. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 2006, 1979, 2010 and 1987.
Overview language is designed for orientation and should not be treated as a substitute for the evidence cited beneath it. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
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This entry incorporates text from “Iranian New Zealanders” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.