The lived experience of laboring in Iraq (1940-1979)

The purpose of this article is to explain the labor phenomenon of Iranians in Iraq based on lived experience. The main issue is to achieve the laboring reality of Iranian nomads in Iraq based on their lived experience. The current research seeks to answer the question that the collective labor phenomenon was based on what rules and methods? Most of the research data were collected using semi-structured interviews and partly from the National Archives of Documents. The method of data analysis is phenomenology. The findings of the research show that during the Pahlavi period, about 10,000 Iranian workers - a majority of the Kurdish tribes of Ilam - were continuously engaged in labor and porters in Iraq (Basra and Baghdad). The most important factors of workers' migration were poverty, unemployment and World War II. Laboring was a cooperative work based on an organization called "Jokeh". Each Jokeh consisted of one headman, two loaders, two rowers, 8 to 16 porters, and 3 to 5 substitute members. Also, the entry of workers into political-social movements was one of the consequences of the labor phenomenon in Iraq. In the documentary narrative, the phenomenon of Iranian laboring and porters in Iraq is considered a source of shame for the Pahlavi government. In the narration of the lived experience of laboring and porting, based on the requirements of that time, it evoked zeal and physical strength.