This paper will examine how the development of Iranian Khuzistan affected the Iranian Arab community with regard to identity formation and socioeconomic mobility. In particular it will focus on how the Khuzistan Development Program, one of the Iranian government’s regional development schemes, affected the Arabs between the late 1950s and the Iranian Revolution. My preliminary research has demonstrated that the program had a profound effect on Iranian Arab identity and social mobility. David E. Lilienthal, architect of the Tennessee Valley Authority, established the Development and Resources Corporation (D&R) in 1955. D&R, a consulting firm, focused on drawing up plans for and implementing public works projects, similar to those of the TVA, in the developing world. Shortly after the company’s creation, Iran signed a contract with D&R to develop Khuzistan. The resulting plan, the Khuzistan Development Program (KDP), sought to build dams, power plants, roads, electrical grids, factories, and communication networks in the province. Lilienthal and the Shah believed the effort would green the Khuzistani desert, destroy the vestiges of feudalism, and curb the power of regional elites by providing the people of the region with what Lilienthal called “a better life.” Although many elements of the KDP never came to fruition, and others were unsuccessful, the program’s impact on the region and its people was substantial. Although historians have examined Iran’s non-Persian ethnic groups, they have focused primarily on the Azeris and the Kurds. A few anthropologists have examined the Iranian Arabs during the Pahlavi era, yet the historical scholarship on the Arabs remains lacking. Thusly, this study aims to help fill this conspicuous gap in the historiography of 20th century Iran. This paper will utilize the David E. Lilienthal Papers and the Development and Resources Corporation Records, both of which are located at Princeton University. These two collections not only include the technical plans for the various projects of the KDP, but also provincial employment and salary statistics, interviews with Khuzistani farmers and laborers, and reports on tribal structures, urbanization trends, and assessments of socioeconomic mobility. Other sources utilized will include reports compiled by Iranian government ministries and agencies (e.g. the Plan Organization, the Planning and Budget Organization); World Bank assessments; diaries and letters written by Iranian officials (e.g. the Shah, Abolhassan Ebtehaj, Manoucher Eqbal) and D&R board members and their associates (e.g. Gordon Clapp, the Lazard brothers, and Henry Luce); and firsthand accounts from Iranian Arabs.