This coming week when you hear all the hype building around the Iraqi refugee issue—you know, bring more now! Or, if the lobbying campaign makes you feel all warm and fuzzy about helping all those Muslims escape persecution (from each other!) in Iraq. Think about this article from Canada today.
On the corner of Dundas and Chestnut Sts., Ahmed dumps a handful of pennies and quarters on the sidewalk, and begins counting his day’s earnings.
“Asalamu alakum, can you spare some change?” he shyly asks two men as they rush past him and into Masjid Toronto, a downtown mosque.
A former teacher, Ahmed left war-torn Iraq five years ago for Canada. “I came here but couldn’t find a job, couldn’t make money,” he said. “Now I am homeless. I live in a shelter.
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The scant data available paints a troubling picture of a growing community of nearly 300,000 Muslims, which includes a mix of refugees, recent immigrants, and those who settled in Canada decades ago.
The four poorest of all ethno-racial groups, with more than 50 per cent of their members living below Statistics Canada’s low-income cut-off, were Somalis, Afghans, Ethiopians and Bangladeshi populations – all from predominately Muslim countries.
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“It’s not about settlement; it’s about systemic barriers in the system. We are receiving well-educated people. They are … engineers and doctors, but they are still doing dishes, or driving cabs.”
How about if instead of bringing educated Iraqis to live in ghettos in the West to clean motels for a living, we figure out a way to help them rebuild Iraq. Doesn’t that sound like the more humane thing to do? But, of course, then the volags won’t get the clients they need to stay in business and someone will have to admit that maybe Iraq will be O.K. someday.