Informing humanitarians worldwide 24/7 — a service provided by UN OCHA

Iraq + 4 more

Iraqi refugees struggle to find work

By Laura Sheahen

"At first, when there were death threats in my neighborhood, we ignored them," says Sanaria Dakaly, an Iraqi woman from the Al-Khosh area of Mosul. Back in 2006, such threats were common enough, and didn't necessarily amount to much. But when things got worse in her war-torn country, no one could take a chance that a threat was a false alarm. "We left after the very first threat [in 2007]," she says.

Iraqi refugee Sanaria Dakaly studies hairdressing at Saint Basil's Center in Beirut, Lebanon. Vocational training classes like these, partially funded by CRS, help destitute Iraqis learn job skills.

Sanaria's husband was a security guard in a museum when he received the threat at work in November 2007. Days later, the couple, along with their three children, fled Iraq for Lebanon.

Though the immediate risk to their lives was over, Sanaria and her family now had to struggle to put food on the table. Like hundreds of thousands of Iraqi refugees living in the Middle East, her husband is not permitted to work in most legal jobs.

No Iraqis Need Apply

An estimated 1.5 million Iraqi refugees are scattered throughout countries like Syria, Jordan, Egypt and Lebanon. Many had good jobs in Iraq and are skilled; a significant percentage are highly educated. Despite this, Iraqis in the Middle East are sinking into dire poverty because they cannot find employment.

Some under-the-table day labor is available: Iraqis can get work in construction, auto repair, cooking and waitressing. Women sometimes clean private households. But most jobs require residency papers or work permits that refugees aren't eligible for.

Since adults over 40 are rarely hired for the kind of manual work available to refugees, Iraqi teens are leaving school to support their parents and siblings. "Iraqi children as young as 12 are working," says Rania Chehab, a social worker with the Caritas Lebanon Migrant Center, a Catholic Relief Services partner. She says some Iraqi refugee teens work long hours in Lebanon's factories, hauling beverage crates or making jewelry boxes for around $2 an hour.

There's a burgeoning child labor problem in Syria, too. "Iraqi children work to help their parents," says a Catholic nun in the Syrian capital of Damascus. "Kids sell vegetables in the market and carry them to customers' houses. Sometimes their parents place them with auto mechanics to learn the trade. The children work late into the night, or work nights, making only a few dollars."

The Impact on Families

Iraqi children are also cleaning hotel rooms, shining shoes and selling gum on the streets. Even when they don't work themselves, their parents' job pressures affect Iraqi children. In those instances where both parents can find jobs, they need the double income and their children may not be supervised.

Family dynamics have shifted because Iraqi men, the traditional heads of households, are sitting at home idle while their wives and children support the family. This has led to an increase in domestic abuse, say social workers. Some men who had successful careers in Iraq cannot become reconciled to their new reality. "A big businessman in Iraq had factories there," says Chehab. The family fled to Lebanon, and the husband cannot work. "He's living in the past. He cannot accept his situation, and he beats his wife."

Iraqi refugee wives come to Caritas secretly for help with rent and medicine, asking the social workers not to tell their husbands they receive charity.

Underemployment is also a problem. Caritas social workers describe how an Iraqi couple, both doctors, worked as janitors in a clinic in Lebanon.

Those lucky enough to find professional or other work face unequal wages. An Iraqi living in Syria says his sister, a pharmacist, is paid $300 per month-$200 less than her Syrian counterparts with the same experience and duties. In factories, too, wages differ.

Worst of all, prostitution is becoming a last resort for Iraqi refugee women, including teenagers. "There are certain streets and bars in capitals like Amman, Damascus and Beirut where you'll find Iraqi girls," says Vivian Manneh, program manager for CRS in the Middle East. "Some are as young as 13 years old."

For college-age Iraqis, education is a fast-retreating dream. "I worked in a yarn factory even though I was supposed to be in high school," says a young Iraqi man named Fouad living in Syria. He did manage to finish high school, but "now I work for a little shop. My future is in the dark."

Hassan Taha, an Iraqi refugee in Syria, says "I would like to go back to Iraq. I had a good job there." But as of October 2008, the violence in his home country made that impossible. "My friends in Mosul say it's even worse."

Helping Iraqis Become Self-Sufficient

Catholic Relief Services is working with partners in the Middle East on self-employment projects for Iraqis. In addition to helping with rent, food and school fees, CRS funds vocational training classes so Iraqi adults can develop home-based or door-to-door businesses. The refugees learn cell phone repair, hairdressing, English, computers, sewing and accounting. They also gain skills they can use to work in kindergartens or auto repair shops that hire refugees.

When she and her family fled to Beirut, her husband was able to work for a while in an aluminum factory, but stopped when he had to have an angioplasty. Now Sanaria must take on the responsibility of supporting her husband and three children. "I want to begin work here in Lebanon," she says.

Sanaria and her Iraqi friend, Leka Yohanna, go to Saint Basil's center in Beirut, where dozens of women take hairdressing and makeup classes each week. "We never had financial problems before," says Leka , whose husband owned a date and nut business in Iraq. The St. Basil's courses, partly funded by CRS, will help Leka support him and her two young children.

The two women are relatively lucky: Both have been told their families will be resettled in the United States. The skills they are learning in CRS-funded courses will transfer to their new home as they search for work in America. "I will use what I have learned here in class," says Leka , "either in Beirut or the United States."

Laura Sheahen is CRS' regional information officer for Europe and the Middle East. She is based in Cairo.