Christopher Coen
Melissa Sogard
nancylee1
An Iraqi mother has finally found refugee in the bay area, and must now deal with problems faced by poor Americans. She has a job lined up, but can’t enroll her children in school without a permanent residence. She can’t get an apartment, however, without having a job. A story at NBC Bay Area explains her predicament:
On the ninth anniversary of the U.S. invasion of Iraq, an Iraqi mother is desperately eager for her American dream to begin in Santa Clara.
Taghreed Alazzawi worked in Baghdad’s Green Zone as an interpreter for the Texas-based contractor KBR. That work is something she says put a target on her head.
In 2008, she arrived in Santa Clara as a refugee. In the years since, she became a legal resident with a green card, and returned to Iraq for her two sons who were abandoned by their father.
Now, she and her 11- and 12-year-old boys are staying in a $50-a-night motel room — they sleep on the bed, she sleeps on the floor — because she hasn’t found a permanent home.
“If you want to rent an apartment, they want to see check stubs. Being unemployed right now, no, this is going to be almost impossible finding an apartment,” said Alazzawi.
Alazzawi has a job lined up, but can’t work until the children are enrolled in school and they have a permanent residence… Read more here
