POPULATION REDISTRIBUTION IN IRAN: THE CASE OF KERMANSHAH CITY

Since 1979, when the new government came to power in Iran, there have been fundamental structural changes in Iranian society. The focus of this essay is on the pronounced redistribution of population, which has taken place largely as a result of the new Iranian government's policy favoring rural-urban migration. The government's justification for the redistribution has been that there is a need for the deprived lower classes in rural areas to receive a better deal within Iranian society. Mr. A. Khosrosphahi, government official in the area of Housing and Urban Development has publicly stated on many occasions that migrants who wish to live in the Tehran metropolitan area will be provided with housing facilities, including parcels of urban land and housing loans. This has caused a mass migration of rural settlers to the cities. In order to examine different aspects of how this redistribution has occurred, it will be useful to study in detail what has taken place in one city affected by the changes. The city of Kermanshah will be considered here as such a case study.