Yemeni diaspora

Yemeni diaspora
المغتربين اليمنيين
Total population
~7,000,000
Regions with significant populations
 Saudi Arabia1,803,469 (2022 census) [1]
 Egypt700,000
 Israel400,000 (Ancestry)
 India300,000 (Ancestry)
 United States200,000
 United Arab Emirates100,000
 United Kingdom80,000
 Madagascar60,000
 Turkey40,000
 Ethiopia36,000
 Jordan32,000
 Malaysia20,000
 Eritrea18,000
 Somalia12,000
 Canada8,115
 Pakistan65,000
 Djibouti5,000
 Netherlands3,777
 Oman2,500
Languages
Yemeni Arabic, Yemenite Hebrew
Religion
Predominantly Islam Significant minorities of Judaism.
Related ethnic groups
other Arabs, Semites and North-Afroasiates like the Hadharem, Mehris, Saudis
Yemeni Jewish man, year 1914

Yemeni diaspora refers to Yemeni migrants and their descendants who, whether by choice or coercion, emigrated from Yemen and now reside in other countries.

There are 7 million Yemenis living outside Yemen, including 2 million in Saudi Arabia.[2][3] In the United Kingdom there are between 70,000 and 80,000 Yemenis. An estimated 10,000 Yemenis in Birmingham, making about 1% of the city's population. Over 200,000 Yemenis reside in the United States, and around 3,000 live in Italy. Other Yemenis also reside in the United Arab Emirates, Jordan,[4] Qatar, Bahrain and Turkey—as well as Indonesia, Malaysia, Brunei, and the former USSR.

Yemeni merchants and sailors often from the Hadhramaut and Aden regions, due to their historical maritime trading networks, were often influential in spreading Islam to regions in the Indian Ocean, especially the Swahili Coast, Madagascar, Southern India, Sri Lanka, East Timor, Indonesia, and Malaysia. A smaller number of modern-day Indonesians are of Yemeni descent, their original ancestors having left Yemen for the Southeast Asia over four centuries ago; Yemenis also contribute part of the small Muslim community in East Timor.[5] Similarly, many South Indian and Malagasy Muslims trace their ancestry back to Yemeni migrants, contributing to the Yemeni Indian population of roughly 300,000, as well as a population of roughly 60,000 Yemenis in Madagascar.

Due to the conflict in Yemen, many have migrated to the northern coasts of Djibouti, Somalia and Ethiopia. In 2017, Djibouti was home to over 40,000 Yemeni refugees.[6]

Some Yemenis (wealthy/highly-educated, patients with chronic diseases, healthcare workers, athletes, activists, politicians, journalists, deserters, tribal leaders) also migrated to Turkey following the Yemeni Civil War since 2014. There were reports about Yemenis had been affected by/victims of the brutal 2023 Turkey-Syria earthquake in Turkey, both of them were identified as diaspora before/refugees following the 2014 Yemeni Civil War outbreak.[7]

  1. ^ "Saudi Arabia 2022 Census" (PDF). General Authority for Statistics (GASTAT), Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2024-04-28. Retrieved 2024-04-28.
  2. ^ "Yemenis in Saudi Arabia: Less Money to Send Home, More Pressure to Leave". Sana'a Center For Strategic Studies. 2020-09-03. Retrieved 2022-01-04.
  3. ^ "Saudi Arabia: Yemeni Workers at Risk of Mass Forced Returns". Human Rights Watch. 2021-08-31. Retrieved 2022-01-04.
  4. ^ Dalal Salameh; Rebecca Wakim (19 September 2021). "Taking Refuge in Amman: "I Left My Roots in Yemen"". 7iber. Retrieved 2022-01-10.
  5. ^ Yemenis in the UK
  6. ^ Adow, Mohammad (17 November 2017). "Yemenis find refuge in Africa's Djibouti". Al Jazeera. Retrieved 28 October 2019.
  7. ^ Al-Batati, Saeed (7 February 2023). "3 Yemeni families buried under quake rubble in Turkiye". Arab News Pakistan. Retrieved 10 October 2024.