Iranian Emigres Drawn to California by Education, Weather, Professor Karim Says

PUBLIC RADIO INTERNATIONAL -- Persis Karim, director of the Center for Iranian Diaspora Studies at San Francisco State University, says California attracted thousands of Iranians because they had ties to the state. “Iran sent many students abroad in the ’60s and the ’70s. And California was the epicenter, because we had the Higher Education Act [of 1965], which made college education more affordable at that time, including for foreign students,” she says, adding that California’s mild weather appealed to Iranians, too.