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Resettled Iraqi refugees have hopes dashed

www.jacksonville.com
Posted on Monday December 7, 2009

When it comes down to it, Haitham Saleem doesn’t really want to be here, doesn’t want his life to be like this.

He’s glad to be safe, happy to no longer be in the war zone of Iraq. But the middle-aged refugee had expected more than simply safety: He had expected the makings of a whole new life.

Back home in Iraq, he had a home and a business, money and friends. Now, he needs help to afford a house, after moving out of a shabby apartment he hated. He used to have employers; now he works part time delivering dry cleaning, making just a few bucks an hour.

“There is not any help,” he said. “Not any.”

Like much of the burgeoning Iraqi population in Jacksonville, Saleem fled his homeland because he was afraid for his life, afraid of being kidnapped or killed. He’s safer here but said the angst of his new life takes its own sort of toll…

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