THE OTHER IRAQI CRISIS Jill Koyama, PhD Anthropologist Educational Policy Studies and Practice

THE CRISIS: ISIS Despite Tikrit Loss, ISIS Still Holds Large Swaths of Iraq Institute for the Study of War http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2014/06/12/world/middleeast/the-iraq-isis-conflict-in-maps-photos-and-video.html?_r=0 Getting ISIS Out of Iraq NYTimes http://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/21/opinion/getting-isis-out-of-iraq.html http://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/21/opinion/getting-isis-out-of-iraq.html ISIL takes body blows in Iraq while affiliates grow elsewhere USA Today http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2015/04/21/isil-isis-taking-body-blows-while-arms-grow-elsewhere/26134545/

DIALOGUE OF DISPLACEMENTS Displacement of Iraqis Displacement of anthropological research Displacement of risk

DISPLACEMENT OF IRAQIS 3.5-5 million displaced due to the Iraq War Majority of those externally displaced fled to Jordan and Syria Since 9/11-2014, nearly 115,000 Iraqis have been admitted to the US 2011-2013, included both a dip in 2011 (9,388, down from 18,000 in 2010) and the highest number of 19,000 in 2013 400 Iraqi refugees resettled in study area (US Refugee Admissions Program, US State Report 2015, UNHRC, refugee resettlement agencies)

50,000 Iraq and Afghan Nationals worked with the US military Special Immigrant Visas (SIV) for Iraqis - Who Were Employed by/on Behalf of the U.S. Government Of 29,500 SIV allotted between 2008 and 2014, only 12, 233 have been awarded 42 resettled in study area, 5 secondary resettlement (US Citizenship and Immigration Services, Iraqi Refugee Project, Resettlement agencies in study)

DISPLACEMENT OF ANTHROPOLOGICAL METHODS: PARTICIPANT OBSERVATION CONUNDRUMS How to study people, things, and ideas on the move, or in action, across geographic and political borders How to think about the field when: Interactions are often not face-to-face Sites not necessarily local Contexts are fluid global assemblages of people, things, and discourses

Studying through (Reinhold) Studying up (Nader) Shuffling around the value we place on participant observation and long-term engagement in one or multiple discrete locations (Marcus) Reconsider displacement: the removal from the familiar need not be best understood and practiced as a matter of physical location To displace is to situate (Haraway; Lave and Wenger) To displace is to question, challenge, and critically engage with norms and deviations that are taken-for-granted

ACTOR NETWORK PERSPECTIVES Emergent assemblage of people, material objects, and discursive ideas (Latour, Callon, Law) Human-non-human symmetry No bounded context or priori site(s) Translation

26 month ethnography (1/2011-5/2013) Aim: to trace and examine the network of services accessed by immigrants and refugees in a WNY city to better understand the relationships between services utilized and educational choices and work opportunities THE STUDY STUDIES

Case Study of an elementary school (Discourse) Refugee women working in the US and the construction of gender (Journal of Refugee Studies Social mobility of refugees in the US (British Journal of Sociology of Education) The relationship between refugees learning English and risk discourses (Policy Futures in Education) Iraqi Refugees and Iraqi Veterans (????)

DISPLACEMENT OF RISK Risk Theory and Sociocultural Inquiry (Douglas, Giddens, Foucault) Some convergence between AN and Foucaults ideas of heterogeneity, contingency, incompleteness that inform risk analysis Emerged in interviews with Iraqi refugees Focus on the cultural enactment of risk Examine notions and discourses of risk as a way in which US construct and maintain cultural boundaries Who to blame, who is risky, who is dangerous

REFUGEES AT-RISK Mental, physical, economic, social, and cultural losses and stresses of violence and war Fear of persecution, abduction, death Eligibility for SIV or refugee status Iraqi citizens who were employed by or on behalf of the U.S. government for one year or more between March 20, 2003 and September 30, 2013, and who have experienced or are experiencing an ongoing serious threat due to that employment (US Department of State) Xenophobia, Racism, Linguicism

REFUGEES AS RISK-TAKERS Mahmoud saved my life. How many times I cant say. Maybe more than I want to count.He was shot, but he didnt fall. He kept up with us until we got cover. (Iraqi army veteran) It is my country.I needed to fight for it even for I might die or my family might be killed.But, there is no more my country. (Iraqi refugee) You cant imagine what these people have seen, have done. They risked it all for us and we arent paying back our debt. The SIV Iraqis are among the bravest I know. (caseworker, refugee resettlement)

REFUGEES AS RISK-TAKERS The Iraqi refugees have overcome so much, risking their lives to help our military stabilize their countryWorking their way up here will seem like cake compared to what theyve already risked and achieved. (director, refugee vocational program) I have lost everything-my wife, my children, my religion, my countryI cant take any risks bigger than ones Ive already takenI might have lost. (Iraqi refugee) To Iraqi refugees during an orientation: Risking your life to get a new life will pay off with a new life and work here. (instructor, refugee resettlement)

REFUGEES AS RISKS TO THE ECONOMY Job stealers Welfare scammers I know lots of people who lost jobs in the recession and lots whove left to find other work, but I see those Iraqis working here.We shouldnt be hiring the enemy in jobs that hard working people need Dont blame me. I didnt hire themThe guy before me did. (HR manager) Listen, I know theyre educated. I see it.how they speak English and act better than usthey could so work, but they wont take entry level positions. Theyd rather just take tax payer money with food stamps, disability, you know. You name it, they take it (business owner)

REFUGEES AS RISKS TO THE ECONOMY? Population stabilizers Entrepreneurs The population of [city name] has steadily decreased the past few decades. All the young leave. If we didnt have the refugees then we couldnt keep businesses goingAnd they work hard (Community leader) Have you eaten the food cooked by Amsah? It is the most delicious stuff ever and shes started a catering business.The Iraqis are changing the west side and bringing new businesses, new food, new culture. (Pastor, west side church)

~ The overall US unemployment rate that year was 7.6%, the Iraqi unemployment rate was 22.6% (up from 40% or so in some previous years). ~The average hourly wage for Iraqis who were working was $9.79 per hour ~60% were on Medicaid or Refugee Medical Assistance; 33.6% not looking for work had poor health or disabilities ~82% were receiving food stamps ~58% were receiving some sort of cash assistance ~36% were getting SSI (Supplemental Security Income) (Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) 2012 Annual Report to Congress)

REFUGEES PUT NATIONAL IDENTITY AT RISK? All of these refugees, especially the ones from the Middle East, threaten our national identity. (OpEd, local newspaper) Americans cant really handle, stand for, having these people here. We went to war with those people and now some of them are my neighbors. I just dont buy it that these Iraqis need to be here. (Community member) They are us. I cant make a division at this point. We stood side by side. We tried to save their countryThey are here to make our country theirs now and we owe them that chance. (Iraqi army veteran)

REFUGEES ENDANGER NATIONAL SECURITY Its hard, harder for us now because of ISIS. So many of us [SIV eligible Iraqis] are being killed and taken and no trace. They are our enemies and they are killing us but Americans dont understand.We are these (touching his own face) looking people. (Refugee) Many resettlement agencies wont accept Iraqis nowTheres too much fear about their reputation. The SIVs are angry and many have become violent, well, mostly with their wives.Theyre frustrated and want to go to college as they were promised the militaryWho can blame themAnd now ISIS and militant factions and Boko Haram and its just getting too much attention to some of our refugee groups like Iraqis. (Director, refugee resettlement)

REFUGEES ENDANGER NATIONAL SECURITY? We are jihadis? Thats why we saved their lives and risked our own. And our families and neighbors...All that so we could come and make war here. (Refugee) I work with them everyday and I can tell you, without a doubt, that Iraqi refugees are not a threat to our security. We dont have any militants here, except that they worked with the US military.Theyre with us, not against us. (Director, refugee resettlement)

CONSTRUCTIONS OF RISKY/AT-RISK IRAQI REFUGEES Enactment of risk served to: provide both a map and an explanation for events that will or have occurred (e.g. Iraqi war and economic recovery) substantiate nationalistic identities, belonging, and American pride (and alternatively, support othering) offer ways to situate Iraqi refugees in contemporary discourses of ISIS and violence in Syria

CLOSING/OPENING THOUGHTS Research Collaborations How might those of us studying refugees and immigrants from the Middle East and North Africa work with Middle East and North African scholars to produce more robust comprehensive research? Educational studies? Policy studies? Migration studies? What resources/information/references/contacts do I have that you might find useful?

REFERENCES TO MY WORK ON REFUGEES Koyama, Jill. Forthcoming 2015. Learning English, Working Hard, and Challenging Risk Discourses. Policy Futures in Education. Special Issue: Social Policy, Risk and Education 13(15). Koyama, Jill. 2014. When Things Come Undone: The Promise of Dissembling Education Policy. Discourse: Studies in the Cultural Politics of Education, 36(4). First published online December 3, 2014, DOI: 10.1080/01596306.2015.977012 Koyama, Jill. 2014. Entangling Gender: Refugee Women Working in the United States. Journal of Refugee Studies. First published online September 30, 2014, DOI: 10.1093/jrs/feu026. Koyama, Jill P. 2013.Resettling Notions of Social Mobility: Situating Refugees as Educable and Employable. British Journal of Sociology of Education 34(5/6):947-965. First published online September 12, 2013, DOI: 10.1080/01425692.2013.816033.

THANK YOU Jill Koyama, PhD [email protected] (520) 626 1862 office

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THE OTHER IRAQI CRISIS Jill Koyama, PhD Anthropologist Educational Policy Studies and Practice