Identifying and Analyzing the Spatial Pattern of Foreign Immigrant Settlement in the Rural and Urban Environment of Iran

During the past 40 years, Iran has faced vast important demographic changes. Even though Iran has not experienced permanent stability after the Islamic revolution and constantly has dealt with matters such as war, threats, and sanctions, it has been homeward for refugees from neighboring and non-neighboring countries. These refugees originated from Afghanistan, Iraq, and Pakistan. Except for these three major groups, there are some immigrants from Turkey, Turkmenistan, Armenia, etc. that inhabit in rural and urban settlements in Iran. Moran's I statistic has been applied to determine the spatial pattern of location selection and local visualization of the pattern, Getis-Ord Gi* statistic employed. The results express that in both rural and urban areas, the aliens' location selection pattern is shifting from concentration to dispread. Furthermore, 33 zones in the hotspot have been found in the local survey of the population composition index, for rural areas. We have also observed 54 zones in the hotspot for urban areas.