Displacements of Kurds had already been happening within the Ottoman Empire, on the pretext of suppressing Kurdish rebellions, over the period of its domination of the northern Fertile Crescent and the adjacent areas of the Zagros and Taurus Mountains.

[1] In Iraq, suppression of Kurdish aspirations for autonomy and independence have descended into armed conflict since the 1919 Mahmud Barzanji revolt.

Displacement of people became most severe during the Iraqi-Kurdish conflict and the parallel Arabization programs of the Ba'athist regime,[2] which looked to cleanse Iraqi Kurdistan of its Kurdish majority.

Iran alone provided asylum for 1,400,000 Iraqi refugees, mostly Kurds, who had been uprooted as a result of the Persian Gulf War (1990–91) and the subsequent rebellions.

[7] Following the 1991 uprising of the Iraqi people against Saddam Hussein, many Kurds were forced to flee the country to become refugees in bordering regions of Iran and Turkey.

The earliest immigrants were Kurds from Turkey, who settled in Germany, Austria, the Benelux countries, Great Britain, Switzerland and France during the 1960s.

Successive periods of political and social turmoil in the region during the 1980s and 1990s brought new waves of Kurdish refugees, mostly from Iran and Iraq under Saddam Hussein, came to Europe.

[19] In recent years, many Kurdish asylum seekers from both Iran and Iraq have settled in the United Kingdom (especially in the town of Dewsbury and in some northern areas of London), which has sometimes caused media controversy over their right to remain.

Most of the newly arriving Kurdish Jews were initially housed in Israeli transition camps known as Maabarot, which were later incorporated into development towns.

[38][39] Today, the Kurdish Jewish community in Israel is estimated at 150,000-200,000 strong and continues to play a significant role in Israeli society, particularly in areas such as culture, politics, and business.