Migration

Middle Class Baghdadi Amira ended up in Jordan after losing her husband, losing her family assets and losing her security in the city she grew up in. Despite having a privileged destiny in Iraq, she now sells food on the streets of Amman, Jordan.

More than 2 million Iraqis have fled to Syria and Jordan since 2003. In a New York Times article this week journalist Sabrina Tavernise points out that many of those who fled to Jordan were educated middle class Iraqis, who fled to Jordan because of the conflict in Iraq and assumed that their assets would allow them to live somewhat comfortably abroad. With living expenses further reducing their remaining funds, many of these formerly well off individuals are slowly slipping into poverty. Part of the problem is that while early on the Jordanians did allow Iraqi professionals to register and work in their professional associations, the large influx of individuals has saturated the economy of the small Jordanian nation. Similar situations abound in Syria, with most refugees moving into larger centers like Damascus, complete areas of town have become filled with refugees coming from their border with Iraq with no jobs available to sustain their community.

While Jordan and Syria have been doing all possible to assist and give rights to work to incoming Iraqis, with appx.10% of the 2 million Iraqis newly living in Amman just in the last 5 years it is impossible for the two small nations to successfully absorb them into their economy. The international community needs to recognize that the crisis in Iraq despite all positive efforts requires more than aid agencies to help the overwhelming refugee crisis in not only Iraq, but Jordan and Syria as well. While Iraq is one of the worst modern refugee crisis it also is a crisis of the quickly disappearing middle class of a country who are essentially the only ones who could give a real future economy and society to a combined state of Iraq. Iraqi professionals have always been known as some of the most well educated and experienced professionals in the Middle East. Western countries need to address the crisis by taking Iraqis into their own nation to work and live at this point in the crisis. With Iraq in shambles and many considering the crisis being one that was preventable, the only future Iraq has is one that its neighbors and friends abroad can give them outside of an Iraq in turmoil.

For Podcast and Video, please see the New York Times article here.

This week there has finally been some positive media about Iraq and its people. Iraqis cheered the Iraqi national team all around the world this past week when they beat defending champions Saudi Arabia in the Asia Cup of Football with a score of 1-0. Characteristic of the current situation according to unconfirmed sources, all the players on the team no longer lived in Iraq, and a match has not been played on Iraqi soil in nearly 17 years. In addition, there were fears that there might be some violence as during semifinal celebrations 50 fans of the team were killed in attacks in Iraq during street festivities. Despite all the positive and negative developments, the Iraqi national football team did achieve a great victory and is made up of many different cultures and religious affiliations as is the country itself. They are an example of how a positive future is plausible in Iraq despite all of its natural divisions in society. Only few were injured in the celebrations for the final victory of the Asia Cup.

Iraqis achieving victories outside of their country of birth is likely to become the standard in the future as many Iraqis are fleeing and have fled the chaos of their home state. In Cathryn Cluver’s wonderful posting this week on the Oxfam report on Iraq and its refugees we see that more than 2 million Iraqis have fled outside the country, and that inside the nation state the quality of life, education and other essentials have been drastically effected since 2003. For this reason it will be a likely trend that while Iraqis may achieve success outside of their home state, inside of Iraq success may be defined as being able to leave and as a result live outside of their place of birth.

While Iraqis are fleeing in record numbers, the host states that are accepting the refugees have yet to form a balanced approach to accepting refugees from one of the world’s most dangerous places. In a BBC World broadcast of August 2nd the situation in Syria where the brunt of the 2 million Iraqis have fled is discussed in detail in the telecast report. Syria, with a population of appx.18 million have accepted via some sources more than 1 million Iraqi refugees and with Jordan have accepted and are being pushed to accept more refugees. Despite this, the world community outside of Syria and Jordan have accepted very few Iraqi refugees compared to Syria and despite the focus and support they wish to give to Iraq, there has been little concrete action to help the actual people leaving Iraq. At the end of all the above observations, it is clear that a refugee crisis from Iraq had begun from the resulting conflict and that there needs to be a great deal more effort beyond Syria and Jordan in accepting Iraqi refugees…People can be surprised what refugees in conflict can do with some opportunity on an equal field of play.

See: R. Basas’ article The Burden Hardest to Bear for more information on Refugees leaving Iraq to Syria and Jordan

If you are a Palestinian refugee and have family ties to the West Bank, you may be in luck. In an apparent move to bolster the government of Mahmoud Abbas, which has been losing its footing in the Palestinian territories, the Israeli government is allowing “a number” of Palestinian refugees to settle in the West Bank (and the West Bank only - NOT Gaza), under “certain circumstances.” The article in the New York Times which reports this latest development, thus proves what experts have been warning us about over the past few weeks: The refugees stand to become a political pawn in the conflicts that plague the region.

Oxfam has joined the chorus of international relief agencies calling for immediate action against the looming humanitarian crisis in Iraq. According to its latest findings, every third Iraqi is in need of some kind of aid, be it because of food scarcity, insufficient water supplies or proper sanitation. In a report issued today, Oxfam notes that

• Four million Iraqis – 15% - regularly cannot buy enough to eat.
• 70% are without adequate water supplies, compared to 50% in 2003.
• 28% of children are malnourished, compared to 19% before the 2003 invasion.
• 92% of Iraqi children suffer learning problems, mostly due to the climate of fear.
• More than two million people – mostly women and children - have been displaced inside Iraq.
• A further two million Iraqis have become refugees, mainly in Syria and Jordan

Oxfam has called on the Iraqi government to extend its food aid program deeper into the country and demands that the members of the military coalition, i.e. the UK and US enhance their efforts toward easing the humanitarian crisis that exists as a result of the ongoing civil warfare in the country.

International relief and aid organization such as Oxfam have had to withdraw from Iraq over the past few months, given rising security concerns. By the same token, as reported in an article in German news magazine, Der Spiegel, local medical personnel and other highly-skilled experts, including engineers needed to restore water pipelines, etc. are leaving the country in droves. This exodus further exacerbates an already dire situation.

This week’s collection of articles features the apparent failure of an international meeting to address the refugee crisis in Iraq and surrounding countries, and new measures by the Australian federal and state governments to facilitate employment for migrant workers. The positive impact that citizenship can have on integration rounds out this week’s look at the most important stories on the global movement of people.

• Politicians, administrators and experts from Syria, Egypt, the Arab League and United Nations relief organizations, as well as representatives of the United States, the European Union, Turkey, Iran, Russia and Japan attending as observers met in Amman, Jordan this week to discuss how best to address the needs of Iraqi refugees. Attendants expressed frustration at what seems to have been little more than a talking shop, as the New York Times reports. While the focus should have been the development of an economic, security and infrastructural strategy for dealing with the refugees, aid was the central focus of most of the discussions. The conference came just two days after Amnesty International had warned that the Iraqi refugee situation was nearing a breaking point. More than two million Iraqis have now fled the sectarian violence raging in their country and almost two million others are internally displaced. A humanitarian crisis of unforeseen dimensions looms, if immediate action isn’t taken, the organization warns - and conferences like Friday’s meeting in Amman are clearly insufficient to address the pressing situation. Amnesty calls on both the Iraqi government to live up to its promised aid payments but also demands Western governments offer generous resettlement packages. We have covered the tenuous situation of Iraqi refugees in a number of blogs in the past, particularly the reluctance of many EU governments to accept additional displaced Iraqis fleeing the insecure situation in their homeland.
• In a related story in the same paper, US officials have admitted they are not acting fast enough in issuing visas to Iraqi refugees.
• The US State of Georgia has introduced some of the harshest legislation against illegal immigrants in the nation. Its full effect is only now becoming clear. Local police officers and sheriffs have essentially been given the right to decide the deportation of illegal migrants and can run immigration status checks even in routine measures, such as traffic controls. A recent case reported in the LA Times proves just how this new legislation could increase the vulnerability of those that already live without legal protection.
• Newsday columnist Sheryl McCarthy criticizes the exploitation many migrant workers are subject to in lower-than minimum wage jobs in New York and all across the country in her weekend commentary.
• The Australian government looks set to invest into new measures to help businesses provide English language education on the job. The Western Australian newspaper is also reporting that the state labor government will invest AUS $50 million towards a major revamp of the Adult Migrant English Program (AMEP), which is essentially the ticket to legal residence and eventual citizenship in Australia. In related news, a new study by  the University of New England’s (UNE) Centre for Applied Research in Social Sciences has revealed that migrants are better educated, more law-abiding, are generally healthier and less dependent on welfare than the average Australian-born citizen. Now that is some food for thought…
•  The St. Pete Times from Florida offers a glimpse into the difficult situation many migrant families face, when the parents are undocumented migrants but the children are US nationals. What happens to the children, when the parents are jailed or deported? The legal situation is still unclear and decisions generally made on a case-by-case basis.
• And finally an inspiring story from the New York Times on the role citizenship can have on integrating even the oldest of migrants.

On April 17th 2007 the BBC World Service broadcast a story which until recently has received little attention in the media. With the tensions and deaths of soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan and the UN focus on Iran and missing sailors, the consequences of conflict in the region has only recently focused on the resulting refugees leaving Iraq for neighboring countries and overseas.

Today the UN addressed the issue of Iraqi refugees. The UN wanted the two main recipient countries, Syria and Jordan to accept more refugees from Iraq. Approximately two million reside outside Iraq in Syria and Jordan alone, with another 50,000 leaving Iraq each month. With around 4 million Iraqis residing outside their home country worldwide, the strain on Syria and Jordan in not only accepting more refugees, but maintaining the current refugees in good care is likely a burden too hard to bear.

“I hope this conference will galvanise international support to provide them with more protection and assistance and I hope it will mobilise resources in establishing much needed protection space,” Ban Ki-moon – UN Secretary General

The UN urged all countries to accept a number of refugees from Iraq, and for the wealthier countries such as the US and EU to assist financially as well as accepting a number of refugees into their own countries as well. The only solution is international solidarity on the issue, said High Commissioner for Refugees, Antonio Guterres before the conference held today by the UN refugee agency. He claims this as the worst refugee crisis to hit the Middle East since 1948.

Where Iraqis have fled to:

Syria: 1,200,000
Jordan: 750,000
Gulf states: 200,000
Egypt: 100,000
Iran: 54,000
Lebanon: 40,000
Turkey: 10,000
Internally displaced: 1,900,000
Source: UNHCR

For Stories of Individual Iraqi Refugees: BBC News - Iraqi Refugee Stories