Shelf Life: The Invisible Iraqis

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Many refugees can’t get work permits, either. In War Without End: The Iraq War in Context (Haymarket, 2008), Michael Schwartz’s superb history of both the war and the Iraqi refugee crisis, he cites a 2007 survey that found only 24 percent of Iraqi families in Syria were earning salaries or wages, which means that most refugees are burning through their savings or making ends meet on the black market. Some men have begun returning to Iraq for brief but dangerous work stints. Education Week (March 5, 2008) reports that just a fraction of their children are going to school. In Syria, fewer than 50,000 school-age Iraqis were enrolled—out of about 300,000—and Jordan attracted only half of the anticipated number when it opened its schools to all Iraqi students in 2008.

“Iraqi children here [in Jordan] dream of being engineers or doctors,” write Mary Ann Zehr and Yasmine Mousa. “After all, Iraq, once home to one of the best education systems in the Middle East, has produced many engineers, scientists, and physicians. But Iraqi children often lack an understanding of how far they’ve fallen behind their peers in school.”

The influx of Iraqis into Syrian cities—some of which have doubled or tripled in population since they began arriving—has strained resources and patience. In a three-part investigative series for the Baltimore Sun (Dec. 28–30, 2008), Matthew Hay Brown notes that water, electricity, and fuel are more scarce, hospitals more crowded, rents two or three times higher. Salaam Marougi, an Iraqi refugee living in a Damascus suburb, told Hay Brown that he understands why Syrians have grown hostile: “We are like guests who have stayed too long.”

Both governments have tightened border controls. Syria now renews visas only for professionals and academics, notes Christopher Watt in an online article for Maisonneuve (Dec. 11, 2008), which means many Iraqis are overstaying their visas and risking deportation. Even formerly friendly Western countries like Sweden, which has taken in more than 40,000 refugees, have begun turning people away. Meanwhile, the Iraqi government did its part to convince Syria and Jordan to tighten restrictions, reports the UK’s Independent (June 15, 2008), as part of an attempt to lure its citizens back home.

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