| Page 2 of 3 < > |
Iraqi Refugees Find Sweden's Doors Closing
TOOLBOX
   Resize
COMMENT
 Discussion Policy
 CLOSE
Comments that include profanity or personal attacks or other inappropriate comments or material will be removed from the site. Additionally, entries that are unsigned or contain "signatures" by someone other than the actual author will be removed. Finally, we will take steps to block users who violate any of our posting standards, terms of use or privacy policies or any other policies governing this site. Please review the full rules governing commentaries and discussions. You are fully responsible for the content that you post.
Who's Blogging  |
The world has a "moral obligation" to help these people, Billstrom said. If the United States accepted as many people per capita as Sweden, a nation of 9 million, he said, it would have taken in 500,000 refugees.
In Sodertalje, lines for jobs and housing are long. The minister said he has heard that children do their homework in the stairwells of apartment buildings because some Iraqis are living 20 to an apartment.
"These are conditions Sweden left behind in the 1940s, and we don't want them to return," he said.
The government has started closing the gates. Last year it granted asylum to 76 percent of Iraqis who arrived seeking refugee status, but that is down to 25 percent this year. While Iraqis were routinely granted asylum because of general violence and turmoil in their home country, applicants are now asked to prove that they would face a specific threat if they returned.
Concerned that sizable segregated communities are forming, officials are planning incentives to encourage Iraqis to settle more evenly across the country.
Higher-skilled and better-educated Iraqis, including many doctors and professors, have had success at learning Swedish and landing good jobs. Some goldsmiths, such as Walid Jarjis, have set up the same businesses they had back home. But many others say that it takes years to learn Swedish and that without it, they are unable to get decent jobs.
The rhythm of daily life in this small city, where the streets are largely empty by early evening, is jarring for newcomers. Iraq is a nighttime society; as Jarjis said, it can be hard to get used to the fact that Swedes "are on their second dream" by 10 p.m.
With help from police fines, Iraqis have adopted the local custom of not honking in residential neighborhoods. But many said pickled herring for breakfast remains a hard sell. It is easy for adults to cling to the native language and traditions and live in a separate world; they can speak Arabic at stores that sell familiar food from home and at growing churches packed with Iraqis.
Many people interviewed had tried unsuccessfully to get into the United States, including Helen Eshow, 42, a former translator for the U.S. Army. She said she needed to leave Iraq because her association with the U.S. military made her fear for her life. Moving to the United States would have been easier than resettling in Sweden, she said, but American officials told her visas were limited.
Now many Swedes believe this city has reached its limit.
"We can't solve the problems of the world here," said Torbjorn Jonsson, 47, project manager for a pharmaceutical company. "It is very odd being the only country with a flag out saying, 'Come here!' " he said. "If we welcome people, we must be able to support them. We need everyone to be a first-class citizen, with the same rights, same possibilities for jobs, the same housing -- or we will have problems."
In a converted school a couple of miles from the picturesque lake in the city center, 15 men huddled around a table at a social club for Iraqis. Nearly all wore bulky winter coats, unaccustomed to the Swedish winter, their first. Thirteen of them have been waiting for months to find out whether they will be granted residency, and their fear is rising that they arrived too late.
