Kurdish Americans
Kurds in the United States refers to people born in or residing in the United States of Kurdish origin or those considered to be ethnic Kurds.
| Total population | |
|---|---|
| 40,000-100,000 | |
| Regions with significant populations | |
| Urban areas of southern California such as Los Angeles and San Diego, Nashville, Tennessee, and in the upper Midwest, including in Nebraska, Minnesota, and North Dakota | |
| Languages | |
| Kurdish, American English | |
| Religion | |
| Mostly Islam with minorities of Atheism, Zoroastrianism & Agnosticism |
The majority of Kurdish Americans are recent migrants from Turkey, Iran, Iraq and Syria. Most have roots in northern Iraq or northwestern Iran. The Iraqi Kurdish people comprise the largest proportion of ethnic Kurds living in the US.
The first wave of Kurdish immigrants arrived as refugees during the 1970s as a result of the Iraqi–Kurdish conflict. A second wave of Kurdish immigrants arrived in the 1990s fleeing Saddam Hussein's genocidal Anfal Campaign in northern Iraq. The most recent wave of Kurdish immigrants arrived as a result of the 2011 Syrian Civil War and the 2014 Iraqi Civil War, including a number who worked as translators for the U.S. military.
In recent years, the Internet has played a large role in mobilizing the Kurdish movement, uniting diasporic communities of Kurds around the Middle East, South East Asia, European Union, Canada, the US, and Australia.