Since 1991 Iraqis are emigrating en masse from their homeland to neighbouring countries and abroad. The fall of Saddam Hussein's regime in 2003 have accelerated the outflow of refugees, mainly due to insecurity and the rise of sectarian violence. Both departure context in Iraq and emigration process in transit and receiving states have lead to the development of religious-based networks. On the one hand, the development of sectarian violence have deeply changed the geography of Baghdad, leading to forms of religious homogeneity of certain neighbourhoods. This context has thus contributed to the reinforcement of a sectarian-based emigration process since 2003. On the second hand, religious networks, as mentioned in previous studies, have already played a key role in the emigration process since 1991 and even before with the economic migration in the 1970's. Based on a fieldwork on the Iraqis in Damascus and a preliminary fieldwork in Stockholm, I will examine the role of religious-based networks, mainly Assyrians and Chaldeans, in the emigration process. The role of previous migration waves since the 1970's will be developed to understand the present migration process.