We’ve written innumerable posts on this topic before but thought it was worth mentioning again, especially as we are always welcoming new readers. This conversation with Iraqi Ambassador Sumaida’ie occurred in December so I don’t know why it is being published here in March. The message is still applicable, perhaps even more so as the Obama Administration seems unable to turn the prospects for our economy around and unemployment rises.
THE NATIONAL Council on U.S.-Arab Relations (NCUSAR) hosted a “Conversation with Iraqi Ambassador Samir Shakir M. Sumaida’ie” on Dec. 16, 2008 at the Ronald Reagan Building in Washington, DC. NCUSAR director Dr. John Duke Anthony introduced the ambassador who, prior to his Washington, DC appointment in April 2006, had served as Iraq’s permanent Representative to the U.N. since July 2004.
Return and help rebuild Iraq.
Turning to the subject of Iraqi refugees, Ambassador Sumaida’ie said that 2.2 million refugees have poured into Syria and Jordan. In contrast, he noted, in 2008 the U.S. took in only 12,000 Iraqi refugees. The previous week, he had lunch with Iraqi refugees who feel they have been abandoned to their fate in the U.S., and that the established Iraqi American community has left them to their own devices and given them little support. Highly qualified Iraqis must retake exams in order to practice medicine or other professions in this country. Sumaida’ie said he encourages displaced Iraqis to go back home and take part in the rebuilding of Iraq. “A lot of educated people have fled. We need them the most,” he concluded.
We have extensive coverage in our Iraqi refugee category of the situation facing Iraqi displaced people, many of whom are unhappy and not afraid to say so (note some met with the ambassador to complain) as they are unemployed and struggling in the US.