Posted on 04/09/2008 8:04:37 PM PDT by forkinsocket
SODERTALJE, Sweden -- Behind the wheel of his old Ford Escort, Oshin Merzoian puttered happily along snowy streets. Back home in Baghdad, he said, he always drove at crazy speeds to avoid killers and kidnappers.
But here in "Little Baghdad," as this city that has accepted roughly as many Iraqi refugees as the entire United States is called, Merzoian is enjoying the luxuries of living in peace. He doesn't strap on a gun for protection, and he notes that Swedish police worry more about seat belts than roadside bombs.
"Even if they remake Iraq from gold and diamonds, I wouldn't go back," said Merzoian, 31, a computer programmer who said he arrived last year after a 10-day trip hidden in a smuggler's truck with his wife and two young children.
Sweden, which has one of the world's most welcoming refugee policies, has become the new home of 40,000 Iraqis since the war began in 2003. Last year alone, more than 18,000 Iraqi refugees came to Sweden. According to the State Department, the United States has taken in roughly 6,000 Iraqis in programs for refugees and translators.
Sweden's largess dates to World War II, when it was harshly criticized for remaining neutral while its neighbors suffered. But now Swedish officials say they are shouldering too much of the refugee burden and are urgently calling on other countries to do more.
"People are saying: 'Stop it! It's too much,' " said Sodertalje Mayor Anders Lago, who is to testify before the U.S. Congress on Thursday. "We are a small town in a small country. We didn't start the war. It was the United States and Great Britain. They must now take the responsibility for the refugees."
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
“Sweden, which has one of the world’s most welcoming refugee policies, has become the new home of 40,000 Iraqis since the war began in 2003. Last year alone, more than 18,000 Iraqi refugees came to Sweden. According to the State Department, the United States has taken in roughly 6,000 Iraqis in programs for refugees and translators.”
That’s an amazing number of refugees for a country the size of Sweden.
But if the US were accepting tens of thousands of refugees from Iraq, most Americans would eventually ask the very logical question of why, if we are at all succeeding in Iraq, why is it necessary that we take in any refugees? An answer that, anyone who worked with the Americans is in danger, does not reassure anyone about the security situation.
Stories of 400,000 displaced Iraqi Christians, and stories such as this don’t add up to great improvements in the security in Iraq. Even one of the first pro-American Iraqi bloggers immigrated to Canada.
Or maybe many Iraqis are just using the conflict as an excuse to seek asylum in a more prosperous nation, rather than doing the hard work to improve their own.
Now wheres da white wimmen?
German refugees like Albert Einstein and Frtiz Lang didn’t bother to back “home” either.
Some know that it would take a lifetime to change what’s wrong “at home”.
Even the colonists had left Europe for better prospects and eventually to establish a new system of governance.
And the Spanish Inquisition?
Your examples in no way relate to Iraq. Those nations did not have the world’s most powerful military as an occupying and liberating force, with hundreds of billions being spent to rebuild and modernize the nation. Iraqis are leaving a nation where we are investing vast treasure and lives, but they don’t see fit to stick around and help out.
And the original European settlers to America did not come to an established nation which they became a part of. They started from scratch.
I enjoy a good Sweden-bash myself, but these days Absolut is actually owned by the French beverage firm Pernod Ricard.
...or seeking ‘asylum’ to spread Islam in the host country...
Week with cousins Mar 2007 in this quiet city.
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