For Iraqi refugees that is the question. I’ve read at least 20 stories about unhappy Iraqi refugees in 15 states, but this one is probably the most wrenching.
The subject of this story is a well-educated and formerly prosperous Iraqi family resettled in Oakland, CA. From Oakland North, it begins:
When I knocked on the door of an apartment building in East Oakland, a woman’s voice nervously asked who I was. The voice belonged to a 45-year-old woman who wishes to be identified only as S. Mohamad because she fears prosecution [Editor: persecution?] in her native Iraq; she is a former radiologist who came here as a refugee three months ago along with her husband and their three children. She hid behind the door because she was without a headscarf; Muslim women usually wear one to cover their hair when they are around anyone but family or other women.
The family which apparently had been doing well in Jordan was resettled to California because of availability of cheap housing (is that because people are leaving CA in droves?). But, as we learned yesterday, California has no jobs.
Mohamad, her husband and children left everything behind and at first found refuge in Jordan. They lived in Amman for two and half years before applying to the United Nations refugee program to obtain legal papers and avoid deportation. They were accepted into the program and granted refuge in the United States. The International Rescue Committee (IRC), a nonprofit group that works with the U.S. State Department to help refugees resettle in the United States, relocated Mohammad’s family to East Oakland because of its affordable rental houses.
The number of Iraqis coming to the US will increase. The Presidential determination for 2009 is 17,000, but NGO’s are pushing for up to 100,000 this year (see yesterday’s post here). I’m puzzled by this next quote from the article about where the Iraqis are resettled. The State Department knows exactly where they are resettled. But, within three months or so refugees are free to move wherever they want and are not tracked, so I suppose that is what is being referred to here. One downside of not tracking is that any refugee who began treatment for TB can readily fall through the cracks, but I’m digressing.
There were 13,000 Iraqi refugees admitted to the United States in 2008, according to the State Department’s resettlement program, and the IRC says it expects that number to increase to 17,000 this year. The records do not break down the number of refugees in each state because the State Department stopped tracking them more than a decade ago. “I think they stopped tracking the refugees in the States because it costs a lot of money to do the job,” said Don Climent, the regional director of the IRC’s office in San Francisco.
Then this was a shocker. The family was safe in Jordan but they feel the same insecurity in Oakland as they did in Baghdad!
There is the also the problem of security. Many Iraqi refugees feel shocked and frustrated when they realize that they have to deal with security-part of the reason they had run away from home-again. Mohamad’s 21-year-old son made his own security, buying pepper spray and a knife to protect his life. “I only felt safe in Jordan and all I did is to focus on my study,” he said. “But here, I found the United States similar to Baghdad. I changed my old nice clothes into saggy ones to blend in. I avoided passing any young men group standing in a corner of the street. I tried to put my wallet, phone and my ID in different places in my clothes. I have to struggle to stay safe in Oakland.”
The article goes on to tell more of the travails this family is experiencing including the biggest of all—joblessness.
My eyes are dry of tears,” his mother said as she considered her family’s situation. “I cannot see well because I cried so hard. I just wish I could go back home but I could not. I have no family left there, my house is rented and I can not just ask the residents to leave because I will have to go through the court and that means many papers and time and money. It is not safe yet for us to go back and I’m torn between longing to go back and my children’s safety and future. “
We are alone, we struggle by ourselves.
“We did not leave our country for fun-all my concern was my children’s safety and their future,” she continued. “We struggle to learn the American system here by ourselves and it is very hard. How am I supposed to learn all this and get a job in a month? Why [did the] U.S. bring big numbers [of refugees here] if they are not ready to host them? I do not have any relatives in the United States like some have to rely on. I cannot go home now. I sold everything I have in Jordan, and I can not go back to Baghdad because we will be targeted.”
She broke into tears.
Why Mrs. Mohamad? You were brought here as political footballs. You were used by the likes of Refugees International which wanted to score political points in Washington against the Bush Administration. And, you were brought here to keep these resettlement agencies like the IRC in business.
I’m getting tired of repeating it and Judy has written often on it as well, but for families like this one, all efforts should have been made jointly with the UNHCR, the government of Jordan, our government and the new Iraqi government to keep these people safe in the region. Obviously they were doing fine in Jordan and funding should have been found to keep them comfortable and safe there until they could go back to Iraq and be part of re-building the new country. Instead Iraq will continue to see a brain drain as educated people like the Mohamad’s rot in Oakland on welfare.
Learn more about Iraqi refugees in our special category here.