Resettlement Story: "An Iraqi family comes to America"

The BBC has reported on an Iraqi family of which the father was an interpreter for the American and Iraqi armies. Haithem, the interpreter, and his family decided to apply for a US visa in light of an attempt on his life. However, life can be difficult in the US:

And $6 an hour at a burger bar isn't enough for the $600 a month rent for their apartment, which they will soon have to start paying. So he thinks he has only one realistic but appalling alternative - to go back to Baghdad as a well-paid interpreter for a firm of US contractors.

This story sounds all too familiar as some resettled Iraqis find minimal job prospects in the US and have little option but to return to Iraq where they can continue work with the US, but again fear for their lives. The lack of a support system for resettled Iraqis in the US directly leads to some Iraqis returning to Iraq and effectively nullifies the point of relocating.

News roundup: 3/12/2008

The Boston Globe ran an editorial on Monday criticizing the cessation of Iraqi visa processing and also noting the efforts of TLP partner Upwardly Global:

"... Unfortunately, federal officials have stopped processing these visas, citing snags over such logistics as how visa applicants can prove that they face a threat in Iraq as a result of working for the United States. But the risk is gruesomely evident, and this bureaucratic hang-up should be cleared quickly to get Iraqis out of harm's way...

... a San Francisco nonprofit called Upwardly Global helps them connect to American jobs. This is essentially a translation project, explaining in American terms what an immigrant's foreign experience is and how it can benefit domestic companies. It provides this support for Iraqis across the United States during a weekly conference call, covering resume writing, networking, and the option of moving to places with more job opportunities. The nonprofit is also organizing an employment "boot camp" that it hopes to hold in the coming weeks in Washington.

...[M]aking a place here for thousands of Iraqis who helped the US government would repay a debt of gratitude."

Even Bush Administration officials have been conceding on the record that the crisis is "deepening":

Ambassador Lawrence Foley said a prime concern is worsening poverty among those who sought shelter inside Iraq as well as in Syria, Jordan, Lebanon, Egypt and Turkey. "The most critical problem is increasing impoverishment," said Foley, senior coordinator for Iraqi refugee issues at the State Department. Iraqis who live in foreign countries but do not possess residency permits are often forbidden to work, and so the longer they stay, the more likely they are to spend and deplete any remaining family resources, he said.

A new blog is up on blogspot in which an Iraqi currently employed as a translator describes his day to day life. The subheading of the blog poignantly describes his existence: "Traitors in our peoples view, Spies in american view, we are stuck in the middle!, who are we????????"

Alertnet runs a self-explanatory piece "Iraqi refugees see little hope of returning home."

Meanwhile, Sweden, formerly a haven for Iraqi refugees, is beginning to close its doors.

On a brighter note, the Washington Examiner reports on an Iraqi family peacefully settling in to the suburbs of the District of Columbia.

Resettlement Stories: Employment Hardships

NPR recently reported on the hardships many resettled Iraqis face in the US, not least of which is securing employment.

Bahjat was hoping his experience — and engineering degree — would make him valuable here, maybe let him help the U.S. with its war on terrorism. Instead, after five months of cold-calling on stores and trawling job-search sites, he has received just one job offer, from a local hotel.

"I don't blame them if they don't respect my degree and my experience, but at the same time they should know that I served this country," he says. "Me and my family, my brother and my sister, we served this country more than many Americans did."

The article mentions a nonprofit organization named, Upwardly Global, that helps immigrants secure employment. Upwardly Global is partnered with The List Project as it has committed to helping all the Iraqis The List Project has resettled.

Bahjat's frustrations are typical of many Iraqi refugees, says Jane Leu, executive director of the nonprofit group Upwardly Global. The State Department asked the group to help out, essentially admitting that there is not much the government can do for these Iraqis.

Resettlement Stories: 2/12/08

TIME Magazine recently had an exceptional article, well worth reading in its entirety, on the trials and tribulations of an Iraqi woman resettled to Phoenix:

The $450-a-month unit picked out for them had a busted air conditioner and cockroaches. It was sweltering inside. Faeza was distraught, and the manager of the building was nice enough to let her spend the weekend in the dressed-up unit used to lure new renters… A few days after she arrived in the U.S., she ran into two Iraqi Americans from the local Chaldean Catholic Church, who were in the IRC office to meet Iraqi Christian refugees. When they saw Faeza, who is Muslim, they immediately offered to help… "When I see Khattab, this let me to stay here," she says in her broken English. "O.K., this is for [her 7 year old son] Khattab. This is the future for Khattab."

Other, shorter stories appeared in local papers about Iraqis being resettled in New Hampshire, Providence, Boston and Idaho.

News: Resettling an Iraqi Translator

The Yakima Herald has a great story about an Army Captain who helped resettle his Iraqi translator and his family:

Gence not only paid for the family's airfare from Jordan to Seattle and pressured immigration officers to speed up the visa application process, but also spent many hours helping the family find social services and a home in their new community.
Hoping to make their transition easier, Gence also linked Mohammed's family with residents throughout the Yakima Valley, including Dwight Miller, who met the family for the first time two weeks ago.
Miller and his 14-year-old son, George, helped to move the Iraqi family into their new home -- an apartment Gence helped snag through a Yakima organization that assists low-income families. The Millers worked alongside the family to unload furniture, including a kitchen table, chairs and new couches, from a U-Haul truck Gence drove from Seattle. Gence said all the furniture was donated by his friends. Others donated money and gift cards.

While relocating Iraqi allies who are in danger is a huge part of ameliorating their plight, many who have relocated may find the adjustment to a new country difficult. That is why Gence's efforts, and those of generous people like him, are so important in helping Iraqi refugees not only relocate, but resettle and adjust to a new life.

Struggles don't end with resettlement

While the efforts like the List Project to get Iraqi allies through the red tape and into the country are important, those that do make it through often face difficult times. In a story in the Washington Post today, Omar Fekeiki describes life for 34 of the 1600 refugees that were accepted in the US last year. After being resettled in Tuscon ("This is not America that I've seen in the movies," said Bushra Abdulatif, 32, who arrived with her husband and two sons. "I want lots of mountains and snow." ), many Iraqis are finding life here difficult, if not as dangerous, as before:

Like the Cuban, Vietnamese, Laotian and Sudanese refugees before them, some
of the Iraqis are going through a difficult adjustment period, feeling
disoriented, alone and even abandoned by the social service agency that is
supposed to serve them. They do acknowledge that, whatever their travails, they
would not trade them for the difficulties of life in Iraq itself.

According to the article, the State Department has asked local non profits to ease the transition, but the organizations can only offer three months of rent, and little to no help finding jobs or other means of support.

Read the whole article here: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/11/07/AR2007110702658_2.html?sid=ST2007110702820

News: Marine opens home to Iraqi who saved his life

This powerful story from the Marine Corps Times illustrates a couple of essential points: 1) America's Iraqi allies have been indispensable in Iraq and its military men and women know it, and 2) the process of making a new life for those same Iraqi allies can be positively grueling.

Peering through the window of a white SUV parked next to an Iraqi armory, Lt. Col. Michael Zacchea watched intently as the plot to murder him and the seven other U.S. military advisers to the Iraqi army’s 5th Motorized Rifle Battalion got underway. One insurgent and four Iraqi soldiers jumped into a white Nissan pickup truck piled high with rocket-propelled grenades, AK47s, night-vision goggles, ammunition and body armor, all freshly stolen from the battalion’s armory. The plan was to ambush the two Marines and six soldiers sleeping in their bunks next to their Iraqi counterparts and then escape in the ensuing chaos.

Tipped off to the plot a few days earlier, Zacchea called on his most trusted interpreter to help root out the Iraqi turncoats and set a trap to catch the assassins in the act. More than two years later, the interpreter who helped foil the plot and save Zacchea’s life now lives with the Marine officer and his wife in their modest suburban Connecticut home amid other New York City commuters and a world away from the sectarian violence enveloping Iraq...

Be sure to read the complete article.

News Roundup, 11/3/2007

Some news stories from the past week on the refugee crisis which you may not have seen:

"Prominent Iraqi oud player Naseer Shamma says he plans a fundraising campaign next month that he hopes will raise millions of dollars to help Iraqi refugees in countries such as Syria and Jordan." - Reuters Africa (Read here)

"New Hampshire Prepares for Iraqis' Arrival" - New Hampshire Public Radio (Listen to the broadcast)

"From Baghdad to Ohio, a refugee family settles in" - Reuters (Read here)

"Band on the run", the chronicle of an Iraqi rock band trapped in unwelcoming Turkey - Reuters (Read here)

And finally, "Heartbreaking kids of a humanitarian crisis", an Seattle-based journalist explores a refugee camp in Syria and sums it up in one headline... - Seattle PI (Read here)

News Roundup: 10/24/07

Among desperate Iraqi refugees, prostitution a growing problem (From the International Herald Tribune): ...the problem is growing as thousands of Iraqis flee their homeland. Most troubling to some human rights groups is the possibility that ever-younger girls may turn to, or be pulled into, the sex trade, desperate to support families barely getting by...

Iraq refugees headed for Twin Falls, ID (From the Times-News): They fled their homeland because they helped the United States... A family of four Iraqis will arrive in Twin Falls from Jordan in the near future, but their exact arrival date is unknown... "It's like the army says, hurry up and wait," [College of Southern Idaho Refugee Service Center Director Ron Black] said.

Fire ravages UN refugee agency warehouses in Syria (UN News Centre): This story has been up for a few days, but is worth drawing attention to...

Resettlement Stories: 10/20/07

Iraq Refugees Expected to Make Their Way to Idaho - Watch this local news segment from Boise's CBS News 2 about the State's new incoming residents.

Translator Flees Iraq to Settle in Ithaca - "ITHACA — For a man who was forced to flee his homeland — losing almost all his worldly possessions and life savings in the process — Dhia Abed Waheed is surprisingly genial. A native Iraqi and former translator for the U.S. Army, Dhia is here now and is looking for work"...

Iraqi Refugees Move to Ohio - "CLEVELAND Khwater Nayef has two college degrees and was a school principal in Iraq. Her next job will likely be washing dishes or cleaning hotel rooms. She and her three children are among the first Iraq war refugees to settle in Ohio. As she tries to start over, she constantly thinks about the husband she left behind. "I miss him," she said, not knowing if he is already dead"...

News: Iraqi Interpreters Grateful for U.S. Troops' Support

"Abood al-Khafajee and his family settled in Brooklyn, N.Y., in June. They had to leave Iraq after al-Khafajee, who had worked as an interpreter for the U.S. Marines, was threatened with death.

Back in Iraq, he was warned that Americans hate Muslims. But in Brooklyn, he found friendly neighbors. What he failed to find were other Iraqis. He is one of the few allowed to resettle in the United States. And he doesn't quite believe it yet."

Listen to the complete story on NPR.

News: Iraqi Refugees Find Sanctuary in Bay Area

"FREMONT, Calif., Oct. 16, 2007 (KGO) - Refugees from Iraq are now settling in the Bay Area... Local relief agencies are ready to help. Hana Toma, her mother and sisters are adjusting to her new home in Fremont."

Watch the story from KGO-TV, ABC 7 News in the Bay Area.