Assyrian Refugees in Australia - Case Study Example

Report for Case Study Name Institution Table of Contents Introduction 3 Discussion 4 Conclusion 10 Recommendations 12 References 13 Introduction Iraq experienced high levels of sectarian violence between 2003 and 2011, with the violence declining by the end of 2011. The war resulted from the United States invasion of Iraq, in 2003. The violence was mainly between the Sunni and Shi’a communities. Iraq is divided into several ethnic groups, which include, Shi’a comprising of 45 to 55% of the Iraq population, the Sunni, which are 30% percent of the population, Kurdish, which is 15% of the population, Assyrian and Turkoma, which are 1% and 2% respectively (Tripp, 2002). The Assyrians are mostly Christians and indigenous and are among the most successful groups in Iraq, in terms of prestigious fields of Medicine and Business, Sports and Arts and the Military (Tripp, 2002). The war in Iraq, between 2003 and 2010, led to many people being displaced, and the number of refugees in the outside countries was estimated to be 16% of the population, which were about 4.7 million people (Tripp, 2002). During the United States invasion, the Assyrians had gained the hope of regaining their sovereignty. This was, however, not the case because they became the major targets, which reduced their numbers even more (Tripp, 2002). According to Iraqi’s local organizations, the number of Assyrians believed to flee the country during the United States invasion between 2003 and end of 2010, was around 150,000 (Tripp, 2002). Many of these Assyrian refugees fled to Australia, which is one of the number one countries in receiving asylum seekers and refugees. This case study involves an Assyrian Iraq family, Kazim (42), Sahar (38) and their child Salima (15), who fled from Iraq in 2010. The significance of this case study is to find out the reasons that led the family to flee, why they sought asylum in Australia and the challenges they faced, while in Australia. Discussion Kazim, Sahar and their daughter Salima, fled from Iraq, due to various reasons. The first reason was the massive attacks on the Iraq cities, mostly targeting the Assyrian churches in late 2009 and early 2010. Others were unemployment and poverty, breakdown of education systems, humanitarian crisis, for example, lack of clean drinking water, sanitation and food, and finally, lack of basic healthcare in hospitals (Chanaa, 2007). Since the war began, in 2003, many Assyrians had fled from the country, and the Kazim family must have been among the few Assyrian Iraqis, who faced the deteriorating situations within the country before they fled to Australia in 2010. They struggled for adequate food, shelter and other basic services in the Internally Displaced people’s Camps, based mainly in the Kurdish region. There were limited water resources, decreasing the quality of drinking water, and this led to high mortality rates in Iraq (O’Leary, 2002). They faced eviction threats and due to burning up of residential houses, many Assyrians remained without shelter and had to be housed in the Internally Displaced People’s shelters. The threats and discrimination were targeted primarily on the Assyrian groups. They did not only face religious intolerance but other kinds of hardships. Majority of the Internally Displaced People had to rent houses, which was very expensive. According to reports from the social affairs committee, Assyrian people were not given job opportunities in the Kurdish Regional Government area having migrated from Baghdad, Kirkuk, and Mosul (O’Leary, 2002). Some of the reasons why they were not given job opportunities were language barriers between the Kurdish Regional Government area residents and the immigrants (O’Leary, 2002). The Internally Displaced People felt they were under pressure since they were facing a lot of discrimination and could not access many life opportunities (Zanger, 2002). This led them to migrate to other countries, for example, Australia and Syria. The Kazim family must have faced the same challenges because they were Assyrian. They were qualified doctors, but the frequent threats made it impossible for them to work in Iraq. They also faced the language barrier challenges, including the discrimination given to all Assyrians. Furthermore, they had a 15-year-old daughter they had to protect from all the insecurities and inhumane conditions. This, therefore, could have been one of the major reasons, why they fled Iraq. Even after the war subsided, there was the upsurge of deadly attacks against the Assyrian community, which began in the end of 2009. Over 20, Assyrian Christians were assassinated during the bombings targeted to their churches (Zanger, 2002). This could be another reason why Kazim, Sahar and their daughter opted to flee the country. The rise of violence again, led to lack of security and protection for the Iraqis, particularly the Assyrians. According to reports by Zanger (2002), minority groups in Iraq, including Assyrians, felt vulnerable to verbal harassment and physical abuse during the violence. More than half of the respondents in the survey claimed that they felt unsafe to visit their places of worship (Zanger, 2002). During these times, the Kazim family, being Assyrian and Christians, must have faced the physical and verbal abuses just as the rest of the minority groups. Furthermore, their churches were targeted within Iraq, and most of them were cleared in the cities of Al-Basrah and Baghdad. During the 2010 attack on the churches and Christian populations, over 58 worshippers died; while most of those who survived were taken hostage by the Sunni group (Zanger, 2002). However, although most of the harassments and hardships reported by the Assyrian Christians were similar to the hardships faced by all other Iraqis during the violence, they felt apprehensive about the increasing presence of the Islamic groups. Most of the Islamic warring groups were intolerant of the non-Islamic groups, and they were always armed. They used their weapons on the non-Islamic groups, and therefore, it became apparent the Christians were the main targets. According to Refugees International (RI), about a half of refugees from Iraq registered in other countries such as Syria and Australia, were Christians, although the population of Christians in Iraq at the time was only 5% (Chanaa, 2007). In another statement, the World Evangelical Alliance Religious Liberty Commission, stated that when communities started identifying themselves in term of religious affiliations, the Assyrian community was almost endangered because they realized that they were marginalized, exposed and despised (Chanaa, 2007). Iraq was being ruled under Islamic laws that did not offer equal opportunities for the Christians, and therefore, they did not recognize them. They lacked clan networks, security and ideologies of retaliating. The attacks on the Assyrians religious sites were primarily to suppress and intimidate the Christian religion and force them out of the country. All the above named insecurity reasons must have applied to the Kazim family, making them some of the main reasons why they fled. Kazim’s family fled from Iraq to Australia by the use of a boat, which must have been very challenging for them. Majority of refugees and asylum seekers, who seek refuge in Australia, arrive using the unauthorized method of boats (Chanaa, 2007). They are in most cases forced to flee using this manner because it is impossible for them to acquire the necessary travel documents or even find opportunities to travel, through authorized channels. Kazim’s family due to deteriorating conditions in Iraq used this method because they lacked time to arrange for proper travelling channels. This method of fleeing is mostly dangerous and costly because the refugees can be exploited by smugglers. Out of 14,215 asylum seekers who arrived by boat between 2006 and 2011 in Australia, 11,491 applied for asylum (Crock, Saul & Dastyari, 2006). Between 2010 and 2011, 5,175 refugees who had arrived by boat were granted asylum and 2,696 were offered protective visas (Crock, Saul & Dastyari, 2006). Refugees who travel by boat however, face many challenges on the way. Some of these include the risk of being smuggled and exploited, whereby the smugglers charge an amount between $3,800 to $40,000 per person, with the people smuggling business estimated to be worth $10 billion (Crock, Saul & Dastyari, 2006). When refugees arrive in Australia, they are put in detention for some time to make sure that they are available all the time (Crock, Saul & Dastyari, 2006). In the event that their asylum applications are rejected, they are then removed from the country. Asylum seekers, however, prefer this country because it offers protection against people smugglers, by giving harsh penalties to the arrested smugglers. After detention, some of the refugees who had applied for asylum are given permanent residence. According to Crock, Saul and Dastyari (2006), 89.6 percent of people seeking asylum in Australia in 2010 and 2011 were found to be refugees. Most refugees flee to Australia because according to United Nations Refugee Convention, Australia is one of the countries, which recognize that refugees can lawfully enter a country, with the purpose of seeking asylum. This makes one of the most preferable countries seek asylum by refugees. According to Crock, Saul and Dastyari (2006) Australia received 8,742 refugees in 2008 after the United States of America which received 60,191 and Canada with 10, 804. Australia offers protection visas to a big number of asylum seekers, which makes it one of the most preferred asylums seeking country. Kazim and his family must have considered the possibility of being granted asylum in Australia before they fled there. This must have been the reason why they chose the country over others. The family, however, faced some challenges while in Australia. Kazim and Sahar could not get employment because their qualifications were not recognized there. They, therefore, had to take further studies in Australia. Their level of education was not up to standard, according to the education system in Australia. They did English studies but did not pass their tests. They faced difficulties adapting to English, although they were fluent in speaking it. Kazim and his wife Sahar could not be doctors in Australia and had to find other kinds of jobs. Many Assyrians given refuge in Australia faced the same problems. Although it is quite impossible to know the number of Assyrians in Australia, they are estimated to be more than 45,000 in Fairfield city (Amos, 2010). The Assyrians had low levels of English language and this led to social isolation, from the Australian communities (Amos, 2010). They also had to deal with being isolated from their families in Iraq and their tribes. They faced discrimination from the Australian nationals because they perceived of them as being competition for the few available jobs and little social welfare services (Amos, 2010). They could not communicate with the Australian residents clearly, and even accessing medical care was hard. Unemployment being the major concern, they were unable to offer proper housing for their families while most of them have huge debts upon arrival, to sponsors who enabled them to relocate to Australia (Amos, 2010). Most of the refugees supported themselves temporarily using their personal savings and help for their families living abroad (Amos, 2010). Some of them were lucky enough to find employment. For example, Kazim and Sahar found jobs as physiology tutor and anatomy demonstrator respectively. Despite the employment, the couple is still facing financial problems due to their minimal earnings. This is because the cost of living in Australia is high and since they do not have any assets, they are not eligible for a loan. Competition for jobs with the locals in Australia was one of the reasons why they failed to get proper jobs to sustain them financially. The Assyrians offered permanent residence in Australia mostly suffer from mental trauma from the violence impacted on them, especially the children. This is the situation being faced by Kazim and his family, while in Melbourne. After the family had settled permanently in Melbourne, Salima was enrolled in a local government school, and after six months, she has started being rebellious. Her attitude has changed, and her performance has been failing. This could be because of the posttraumatic depression many of the children, who experience war, go through. According to a survey done on children aged between 3 and 15 years, children under ten years believe that everyone is good because of the examples shown by their parents and, therefore, they do not comprehend why other people would want to murder others (Haughian). Children above ten years on the contrary, have the perception that war happens due to conflicts between countries (Haughian). This shows that children are affected by war because they do not understand the real causes, when it will end and if it might happen again (Haughian). They show symptoms of depression and post trauma depression because they are aware of their lack of power, to control the situation (Haughian). The children are left in a state of shock and anxiety due to the acute, frightening, catastrophic, hazardous and dangerous experiences faced during the war (Haughian). They react to the experiences in unique ways, according to individuals. For example, Salima’s way of coping with her experiences is to be rebellious, by refusing to attend church and controlling her parents. Additional effects of war may be withdrawal reactions, flashbacks, destructive behaviors and lack of concentration mostly in their studies (Hick, 2001). This could be the reason why Salima’s academic performance is failing daily. Another reason could be that she experienced many dangerous attacks targeted at schools while in Iraq, and she could be relating the experiences with her schooling in Australia, therefore, bringing her performance down. The final reason could be because even when they arrive to Australia, they experienced torture when they were detained, and their human rights were violated (Rouhani, 2011). Salima, therefore, may be feeling that she is not safe in Australia and continue to live with fear. Assyrian families living in Australia live with depression and anxiety and lack counselors who can attend to them (Rouhani, 2011). This is mainly because there are very few Assyrian counselors in Australia therefore, making it hard for them to attend to every Assyrian family (Rouhani, 2011). The Assyrian families do not get efficient counseling services from the Australian psychologists, mainly due to the language barrier. The families also feel that the counselors would not understand their predicaments, having not faced them, therefore, would not be competent enough in assisting them. Lack of a competent psychologist, is another issue worrying the Kazim family because their daughter needs assistance. Conclusion Kazim’s family case study, who are Assyrians from Iraq, had revealed some major issues in relation to the history of the Assyrians and the challenges they faced during the United States of America’s invasion in 2003 until the end of violence in 2010, when they fled to Australia (Carver, 2002). The first issue, points at the discrimination they faced as a minority group in Iraq. According to the study findings, Assyrians are mostly Christians and indigenous, with an estimated number of about 1 million remaining in Iraq (Puddington, 2011). They were mostly highly educated and had prestigious professions, but were offered few employment opportunities. An example is Kazim and his wife Sahar who were both doctors, but were unable to work in their country, due to discrimination and threats that were targeted to the ethnic groups. Many of them fled from the country between 2003 and 2011 with the number rising to more than 150,000 (Chanaa, 2007). The second issue is that they traveled by boat to seek asylum to other countries, with the most preferred country being Australia. Some of the reasons why Assyrians fled to Australia were lack of insecurity in their IDP camps, which were mostly situated in Kurdish region (Sookhdeo, 2007). Other reasons were lack of basic health care, for example, good sanitation, clean drinking water, poverty and unemployment (Margesson, Sharp & Bruno, 2008). While travelling by boat, they faced the dangers of being smuggled and exploited, but Kazim, his wife Sahar and his daughter Salima, reached their destination successfully. They had to be detained for some time and later offered permanent residence in Australia. The purpose of detention was to make sure the immigrants who were in Australia temporarily and illegally, could be located whenever the need arose (Crock, Saul & Dastyari, 2006). The study revealed that between 2010 and 2011, 5,175 refugees who had arrived by boat were granted asylum and 2,696 were offered protective visas (Crock, Saul & Dastyari, 2006). Kazim family, however, faced some challenges during their stay in Australia. For example, they lacked employment for some time, due to poor academic qualification, they were financially unstable because they had no assets and their daughter started being rebellious after six months. The above mentioned are some of the challenges all Assyrians living in Australia faced, due to social isolation caused by the language barrier and discrimination by Australian citizens (Margesson, Sharp, & Bruno, 2008). Recommendations Programs should be implemented in the war torn countries, for example, in Iraq to help the citizens in dealing with issues related to war and violence (Bowen, 2010). Organizations, for example, UNICEF have given promises that they would offer psychological intervention, for example, trauma counseling, education, life skills, self-esteem building programs, non-violence and resolution programs (Oliver, Grant & Kaye, 2010). Most of these programs should be targeted to the children, to help them cope with post war trauma. UNICEF should therefore, be offered enough monetary support so that its humanitarian aid can be improved to help the vulnerable children and Women. More humanitarian programs should be implemented that can deal with emergencies effectively. United Nations (UN) should initiate such programs that would save the life and death situations, reducing the loss of lives (Murthy & Lakshminarayana, 2006). Furthermore, there should be long-term plans to resolve issues, for example, insecurity, lack of basic health care, housing problems and lack of sufficient and quality drinking water. If these issues are acted upon, mortality rates caused by cholera outbreaks will be reduced. There should also be enough water resources, to avoid further conflicts in Iraq. Furthermore, policies should be enacted that protect the minority groups, for example, the Assyrian Christians (Murthy & Lakshminarayana, 2006). Assyrians refugees in other countries should be offered free English courses so that their social lives conditions are improved. This will help them to get jobs in their host countries and support their families. It will also help them to communicate freely with medical practitioners; hence, their channels of accessing medical care from medical doctors and psychologists will be enhanced (Murthy & Lakshminarayana, 2006). References Amos, D. (2010). Eclipse of the Sunnis: power, exile, and upheaval in the Middle East. ReadHowYouWant. Com. Bowen Jr, S. W. (2010). Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction. SPECIAL INSPECTOR GENERAL FOR IRAQ RECONSTRUCTION ARLINGTON VA. Carver, N. (2002). Is Iraq/Kurdistan a State such that it can be Said to Operate State Systems and thereby Offer Protection to its ‘Citizens’?. International Journal of Refugee Law, 14(1), 57-84. Chanaa, J. (2007). Research Guide: Iraq. Crock, M., Saul, B., & Dastyari, A. (2006). Future seekers II: Refugees and irregular migration in Australia. Annandale, NSW: Federation Press. Haughian, P. The Psychological Costs of War: Risk, Resilience and Rehabilitation in Iraqi Children. Hick, S. (2001). The political economy of war-affected children. The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, 575(1), 106-121. Margesson, R., Sharp, J. M., & Bruno, A. (2008, August). Iraqi Refugees and Internally Displaced Persons: A Deepening Humanitarian Crisis?. LIBRARY OF CONGRESS WASHINGTON DC CONGRESSIONAL RESEARCH SERVICE. Murthy, R. S., & Lakshminarayana, R. (2006). Mental health consequences of war: a brief review of research findings. World Psychiatry, 5(1), 25. O’Leary, C. A. (2002). The Kurds of Iraq: recent history, future prospects. Middle East Review of International Affairs, 6(4), 17-29. Oliker, O., Grant, A. K., & Kaye, D. D. (2010). The Impact of US Military Drawdown in Iraq on Displaced and Other Vulnerable Populations: Analysis and Recommendations. RAND Corporation. Puddington, A. (2011). Freedom in the world 2011: The authoritarian challenge to democracy. Freedom in the world: The authoritarian challenge to democracy. The selected data from Selected data from Freedom House's annual survey of political rights and civil liberties Freedom House. Rouhani, S. (2011). Refugee healthcare in British Columbia: health status and barriers for government assisted refugees in accessing healthcare. Sookhdeo, P. (2007). IRAQ BRIEFING. Tripp, C. (2002). A history of Iraq. Cambridge University Press. Zanger, M. (2002). Refugees in their own country. Middle East Report, 32(1; ISSU 222), 40-43. Read More