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Iraq-Jordan
Iraqi Arabs Flock to Kurdish North for Jobs, Safety
2005-08-11
Interesting story. I don't know if this is because they Kurds have a head start on the Arabs, or if it's the usual combination of too much Olde Tyme Religion and not enough sense makes it impossible for the Arabs to do the same. But I do expect the hard boyz and boom artists will try to follow them.

What I'd expect in a normal, sane world would be for the Arabs working on their constitution to suggest "let's do what they're doing up in Kurdistan so we can be prosperous and peaceful, too." But that's an idea that doesn't seem to occur to them.
Each morning before dawn, hundreds of Arabs from southern Iraq gather near a mosque in this northern Kurdish city hoping to find work on one of scores of construction sites dotting the landscape. What began 18 months ago as a trickle of poor, unemployed young men moving north to find work and escape violence in predominantly Arab areas has now turned into a rapid stream. And it’s no longer just the poor and jobless fleeing. Professionals — including doctors, engineers and teachers — are following them, desperate to escape the chaos tearing cities such as Baghdad, Basra, Baquba and Hilla apart.

“I came here for safety, and for my family,” says Dr. Ali Alwan, 40, an eye specialist who moved from the southern city of Basra to Sulaimaniya in late 2003 and has since encouraged dozens of former colleagues to follow him. “Here it is a wonderful life. The children are in school, my wife is happy and there is good work. I don’t think I will ever return to Basra.” Around 25 eye specialists alone have since taken the same route out of Basra, he says. At the Razgari outpatient clinic in Sulaimaniya, eight of the 13 doctors are Arabs who arrived in the past two years, according to director Khalil Ibrahim Mohammed.

Young trainees, desperately needed in places like Baghdad and Basra where hospitals are understaffed and overworked, are also getting out. At Sulaimaniya’s teaching hospital, 20 of this year’s interns — the majority — are from Basra. “Here things are normal, we are a normal hospital,” says Karzan Sirwan, a Kurdish surgeon at the hospital. “I can understand why they come, and we need them too.” There are sometimes language barriers - most Arabs don’t speak Kurdish — but since all Iraq’s doctors are trained in English, they can communicate with one another, and translators are on hand to help doctors talk to Kurdish patients.

It’s a similar situation at Sulaimaniya’s university, where 40 Arab professors have joined the staff in the past two years, university officials say. While the newly arrived professionals are generally well paid — most medics make around $500 a month or more — the bulk of the labor flowing to Sulaimaniya is unskilled or semi-skilled and barely scrapes a living. There are no hard figures on the total number who have migrated since the war, but an official in Sulaimaniya’s investment office put it in the thousands in Sulaimaniya alone. Hundreds of poor Arab men gather in the center of town each morning waiting to be taken to building sites by contractors. Many are recognizable by their headdress and darker features.

Mohammed Abbas, a 28-year-old Shiite from Baghdad, came to Sulaimaniya two months ago. He works construction when he can find a job, and sells cigarettes otherwise. “There is nothing for me to do in Baghdad,” he says. “At least here I can make $20 a day most days.” He says hundreds from his area of Baghdad have done the same thing to escape. “I send money home to my family and when I have enough I will return to Baghdad and get married,” he says. At night, they sleep in Sulaimaniya’s parks and squares. Those that have construction jobs sleep on site. At night, small fires can be seen burning inside half-built buildings.

Haider Salim Djuluwi, 20, came from Kut, in the southeast of Iraq, two months ago, looking for summer holiday work. He’s now making $10 a day as an unskilled laborer for a new court house. “Friends came before me and said it was good. Twelve of us came together,” he said. “I’m not thinking about a better life, just about making some money and staying safe.”

In Arbil, the capital of the semi-autonomous Kurdish region, there has also been an influx of Arabs. Yacoub, a barber in the main hotel in town, came three months ago from Baghdad. “Too many of my friends were threatened,” he said, referring to barbers who have been killed by militants for cutting hair in western styles or shaving beards. “Here I feel much safer.” The language barrier is a problem, but he has found a house in a Christian village, where most people speak Arabic. “The money is good and the people are friendly,” he says. “I can’t see myself ever going back to Baghdad.”
Posted by:Fred

#8  And a more detailed map showing the smaller fields indicates the central zone will have a dibble or two, maybe enough to sell some...
Posted by: .com   2005-08-11 15:27  

#7  Here ya go, Bobby - nothin' says it all quite like a visual, eh?
Posted by: .com   2005-08-11 15:25  

#6  Actually, I think it's because the Kurds had a head start. The history of the Kurdish enclave is quite rocky, including a civil war between differing factions, before they finally kissed and made up.

Al
Posted by: Frozen Al   2005-08-11 15:15  

#5  Yahoo has an article about the southern Shia wanting their own little oil-rich kingdom out of the constitutional convention. I guess if the Kurds can 'federalize", they can too. Leaving the Sunni boomers in the middle, with no assets.

Better get the Israelis to buid two walls....
Posted by: Bobby   2005-08-11 12:43  

#4  I heard alot of them are hanging out in the parking lot of the Kirkuk Home Depot.
Posted by: Penguin   2005-08-11 10:46  

#3  Next story: Kurds contract with Israelis to build concrete fence.
Posted by: Captain America   2005-08-11 08:59  

#2  What? Leaving the friendly confines of Boomland, Zarq and Tater, Inc.?
Posted by: Captain America   2005-08-11 08:54  

#1  From a purely Western POV, this is not surprising. These people seek peace and sanity and a place to live and raise families without fear and the external controls of tribal Sheikhs or Islamofascist Mullahs - who cares the flavor. The negative is that they will likely do what all immigrants from Islam do: bring their stinking backward brutal barbaric baggage with them and eventually, blindly, try to replicate precisely what they fled from.

From an Arab / Muzzy POV this is quite remarkable. They are acting against both their indoctrination to serve these two external Masters and their fear of retribution, for they know better than we ever will how little is required to be branded apostates or traitors and that this is actually merely a ruse, a canard, by which the power brokers of their society wield their power.

Were all Iraqis daring enough to make the choice, it would certainly simplify things for us and the Iraqi forces - everyone who didn't flee would be either a hopeless tool or mindless jihadi - or their Masters. That defines target-rich.

Sadly, I'm coming to the conclusion that the Kurds are the only significant population group in Iraq worth our efforts, thus far. They should be our first concern and our lasting allies, supported to the hilt. They will do something, great things I'd wager, with their opportunity. It's gratifying, with the above warning kept in mind, to see the bravest non-fools amongst the Arabs grab a clue and emulate them.
Posted by: .com   2005-08-11 06:11  

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