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Ethnic groups in the Middle East areethnolinguistic groupings in the "transcontinental" region that is commonly ageopolitical term designating the intercontinental region comprisingWest Asia (includingCyprus) without theSouth Caucasus,[1] and also comprising Egypt inNorth Africa. TheMiddle East has historically been a crossroad of different cultures andlanguages.[2] Since the 1960s, the changes in political and economic factors (especially the enormousoil wealth in the region and conflicts) have significantly altered the ethnic composition of groups in the region. While some ethnic groups have been present in the region for millennia, others have arrived fairly recently throughimmigration. The largest ethnic groups in the region areArabs,Turks,Persians,Kurds, andAzerbaijanis[3] but there are dozens of other ethnic groups that have hundreds of thousands, and sometimes millions of members.
Otherindigenous,religious, orminorityethnic groups include:Antiochians,Armenians,Assyrians,Arameans in theQalamoun Mountains,[4][5][6][7][8][9]Baloch,Copts,Druze,Gilaks,Greeks (includingCypriots andPontians),Jews,Kawliya,Laz,Lurs,Mandaeans,Maronites,Mazanderanis,Mhallami,Nawar,Samaritans,Shabaks,Talysh,Tats,Yazidis andZazas.
Diaspora ethnic groups living in the region include:Albanians,Bengalis,Britons,Bosniaks,Chinese,Circassians,Crimean Tatars,Filipinos,French people,Georgians,Indians,Indonesians,Italians,Malays,Malayali,Pakistanis,Pashtuns,Punjabis,Romanians,Romani,Serbs,Sikhs,Sindhis,Somalis,Sri Lankans,Turkmens, andsub-Saharan Africans.
Because of the low population of many of theArab States of the Persian Gulf and the demand for labor created by the large discoveries of oil in these countries there has been a steady stream of immigration to the region (mainly from South Asia). Ethnic groups which comprise the largest portions of this immigration includeAfghans,Albanians,Armenians,Bengalis,Bosniaks,Britons,Chinese,Filipinos,Greeks,Indians,Indonesians,Italians,Malays,Nepalis,Pakistanis,Punjabis,Sikhs,Sindhis,Somalis,Sri Lankans, andSub-Saharan Africans. Many of these people are denied certain political and legal rights in the countries in which they live and frequently face mistreatment by the native-born citizens of the host countries.
السريان في معلولا وجبعدين ولا يزال الأهلون فيها يتكلمون (The Syriacs in Maaloula and Jubb'adin still speak their language.…)
Jubaadinis are very proud of their language and their Aramean identity and they have no trouble at all balancing their religious and ethnic identities.…
