Iraqi Family Escapes War, Faces Homelessness in the U.S...

[Virginia Dare]

You know Dick Cheney is right, the Iraqis are coming. This is just the leading edge of the coming wave of refugees that will be arriving here in droves to escape the destruction we have wrought. If you read the article, this family was actually doing pretty well before the U.S. arrived. Now they're struggling to stay afloat, but from the sounds of it, just feeling lucky to be alive.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/01/11/AR2007011101905.html

In her two decades helping the homeless, Gayle Sanders has heard many stories of ruin and grief. Yet nothing quite prepared her for the Othmans.

The Othmans -- a father, mother and two small children -- had escaped the exploding markets and corpse-strewn streets of Baghdad. The arrival of a visa, requested 13 years ago and all but forgotten, let them leave the carnage and go to the United States last spring. But when they got in the country, they faced a new problem: trying to survive in expensive Northern Virginia.

In Baghdad, Maher Othman trained in computers and accounting, but, as Iraq's economy deteriorated, he could only find work as a driver. He leaned heavily on his extended family.

In Virginia, with his halting English, the best job Othman could find was cleaning lavatories at Dulles International Airport, making $1,200 a month. The monthly rent for their basement apartment in Alexandria was $1,000. Gasoline prices were 10 times what they paid in Baghdad.

-snip- please read, it's a heartwrenching story
:cry:

[SoCalDem]

1. They need to learn English ASAP and get themselves to a less expensive place

I know they are where they are , and it costs money to move, but they have come this far, so they need to make another move.

It won;t be easy, but they are still better off here than where they were..

There are a lot of Iraqis already here, and hopefully they will do some networking and get themselves on track

[NJCher]

2. we should spend billions to help them

An article in the editorials forum the other day said that for what the U.S. has spent on this war, we could have given each Iraqi $18 grand. So why not give this family roughly 75 grand to get a new start? Stop the war immediately and put the funds into something constructive.

After all, the U.S. has pretty much spread depleted uranium all over their country, so what are they to do?



Cher

[Virginia Dare]

3. If we did that...

we'd cut out the middleman, aka KBR/Halliburton and the corporations wouldn't get their profits. We can't have that, can we?? :grr:

This just pisses me off to no end, the freepers are always crowing about how everybody in the world wants to come to the U.S. because it's so damned better than every place else. These people were doing FINE in Iraq. They had a good life, and they were happy. Now, they have nothing. Why and for what?????