Utah seeks more dollars to help Iraqi refugees

Funding » The state’s newcomers are struggling after sacrifices.

By Julia Lyon — The Salt Lake Tribune
Salt Lake TribunePosted:04/04/2009 11:00:00 AM MDT

As more Iraqi refugees return to the Middle East disillusioned about America and defeated by unemployment, many of those who remain in Utah are increasingly angry. Recognizing their sacrifices and the growing dilemma, the state refugee office is fighting for additional federal funds to alleviate their painful transition.

“We started this war,” said Gerald Brown, director of the Utah Refugee Services Office. “These people are a direct result of federal policy.”

Ahmed Ahmad, left, and his friend Faisal Fathiel visited the University of Utah Friday looking for ideas on jobs. Both are Iraqi refugees who were resettled in Utah. Ahmad’s entire family went back to the Middle East because his father couldn’t find a job in his field in Utah. (Al Hartmann / The Salt Lake Tribune)

More than 300 Iraqi refugees are expected to arrive in Utah in 2009, pushing the state’s community beyond 500. Many have been tortured, threatened or lost members of their family — often due to their association with Americans. They have acted as interpreters, assisted with security and watched their country unwind in chaos after the U.S. invasion.

At the request of the state refugee office, Mara Rabin, medical director at Utah Health and Human Rights Project, recently summarized her concerns in writing. She urged changes large and small — from increasing mental health services to ensuring an appropriate welcome and expression of thanks to arriving refugees who helped the U.S.

It’s what she’s tried to do as she’s heard their stories. “I have now said, ‘Thank you for what you have done,’ ” she said. “I’m sorry you had to leave your homes.”

The Iraqis are a unique group: Often highly educated professionals, they left behind middle-class lifestyles and assumed they would re-create their lives here. Instead, they have arrived at one of the bleakest economic times in the past century, leaving many unemployed for months. The jobs they can find often make little or no use of their skills and degrees.

Most new arrivals do not have a network of family or friends already in Utah, which is not the case in areas with established Iraqi communities, such as Detroit.

“I do have a staff that does their best to try to do everything [refugees] need,” said Tawfik Alazem, director of U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants in Dearborn, Mich. But “at the end of the day, there is a sister or a brother or a father or somebody that is giving them advice, support.”

To help create a softer landing in Utah, the state hopes to secure federal funds to hire staff at nonprofits for additional counseling and orientation.

“We’re not asking them to pay for everything,” Brown said. “But with this group, with the problems that it has, I think they should be obligated to give us additional resources.”

The state has already agreed to pay for one additional support person at a nonprofit. Brown wants to find someone who speaks Arabic and ideally has a counseling background.

As a therapist at Valley Mental Health, Debi Clark has spoken with some Iraqis who don’t feel it is “appropriate” to enjoy life, in the wake of what they have suffered and as relatives struggle abroad. Depression is common; post-traumatic stress disorder issues may take years to resolve.

“They really, really want to be heard,” said Clark, who hears a lot of anger about former President George W. Bush.

She would like to see more money for mental health treatment, noting that public insurance programs — such as Medicaid or the state’s Primary Care Network — may limit or not cover mental health services.

Not treating the Iraqis’ mental health issues may lead to more anger, Rabin wrote in her comments to the state. She believes it’s likely that Sulejman Talovic, a teenage Bosnian refugee who shot and killed five shoppers at Trolley Square in 2007, had untreated mental health problems.

While her e-mail referenced the tragedy with “think Trolley Square,” she explained she is not predicting violence, but trying to get help for Iraqis. “I’m not going to say something is going to happen,” she said. “The more we do to support people, the more people will thrive.”

Clark, the Valley Mental Health therapist, said she’s never heard Iraqis say they want to hurt anyone.

“They’re more afraid of Americans than anything else,” she said. “Because they think Americans don’t like them. They think many Americans think they’re all terrorists.”

Though resettlement officials acknowledge Iraqis’ unusual circumstances — for one, their trauma is recent — all refugees could use more support, said Patrick Poulin, the International Rescue Committee resettlement director.

” That’s the direction we’re moving,” he said. The state recently arranged for a boost in federal dollars to dramatically increase the number of caseworkers at resettlement agencies, giving families support over a longer period of time and from someone who speaks their language.

Brown, the state refugee office director, also hopes to connect Americans who served in Iraq with some of the Iraqi newcomers.

Col. Robert Dunton, the commander of Camp Williams, a National Guard training base south of Salt Lake City, believes Utah soldiers and their families would be willing to help. He remains grateful to interpreters who sacrificed to aid Americans.

“We have a moral obligation,” Dunton said. “Without them, we would have been running around blindly in that country. … We would never have accomplished any of our missions.”

One of his unit’s interpreters was nearly killed after gunmen shot him eight times in retribution for his work with the U.S., Dunton said. He lost a leg but wore a red University of Utah sweatshirt in Iran while he recovered.

One consequence of not helping Iraqis, officials add, is that they may continue to leave.

Ahmed Ahmad, 26, used to be surrounded by family: his mother, father and sister came to Utah with him last year. Now he lives alone in Salt Lake City.

His family went to Syria last month after his father spent 10 months futilely looking for work in his field. The periodontist, who was an academic in Baghdad, quickly got a job teaching at a university.

Ahmad, a structural engineer, hopes to attend a master’s program at the University of Utah.

Though he has friends in Utah, he concedes he feels “sad, lonely, and I hoped my family would stay here.”

jlyon@sltrib.com

Help the refugees

Do you want to help refugees? Volunteers and donations are always needed.

Utah Refugee Services Offices » Amy Wylie, volunteer coordinator: 801-526-9775, awylie@utah.gov

Asian Association of Utah » aau-slc.org, 801-412-0577

Catholic Community Services » www.ccsutah.org, 801-977-9119

International Rescue Committee » www.theirc.org/slc, 801-328-1091

Comments

Tell them to go back to Iraq and build THEIR country. Running away to the US won’t solve anything. They deserve nothing if they don’t work for it. Getting government money is not the answer. Let them work through the prejudice like the Irish, Catholics, Chinese and so many others did and do it without government welfare. Better they go back where they came from if they can’t hack it here.

wow brigham1, what is the color of the sky in your world?
   
we blew the f**king s**t out of their country, there are 2 million refugees total, mostly living in poverty on the various borders of iraq, children being sold into prostitution so the families can eat.
   
they live in squalor. heaven forbid that a few of them might want to make the trip to the country that “liberated them” to make a great life for themselves after they heard how great america is.
   
you are a dick. they didn’t ask for this, their dictator and our dictaster bush brought this upon them, as well as the morons like you that supported and continue to support it.

Why can’t the IRC with it’s tax-exempt status raise the additional funds necessary for refugee resettlement in Utah? The public, via the federal government, already contributes a substantial amount.