The recent migratory flow into Italy, mostly from Eastern Europe, North Africa and Asia, has had profound and unpredictable repercussions not only on the new immigrants and their “hosts,” but for older immigrant communities already established in Italy. This paper studies one such community: Iranians in the San Lorenzo Neighborhood of Florence. San Lorenzo has changed profoundly in the last ten years as a result of a perceived migrant “taken over.” Today the Iranians who once interacted with the Florentines as neighbors find themselves within the category of “the migrant,” and have become targets of xenophobia among Italians and tourists alike. My paper is based on interviews conducted with the Iranians of San Lorenzo, Florentine residents, and the newer migrants. I will address the following questions: How and why has the European Union compelled new forms of both immigration and xenophobia? How do the perceptions and self-perceptions of migrant communities compare today to the Iranian one in San Lorenzo as it first developed? How do the Iranians themselves view these recent migrants: do they share or not the xenophobic attitudes of other Italians? Has the convergence, real or imaginary, of old and new immigrants created unities among them, ones with distinct socio-political potential? Or have these classifications instead yielded “nationalisms” in the form of identity politics? Lastly, does the outside gaze that converts the Iranian in Italy from “Iranian merchant,” or even (to tourists) “Italian merchant,” to “migrant” alter the way in which the younger generation of Iranians, or very recent Iranian immigrants, posit themselves?