Archives » Thursday, April 10, 2008
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Larry Kaplow
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Apr 10, 2008 04:04 PM
While the rate of Iraqis fleeing their homes has been lower in the last
several months than before, it still looks like only the biggest
risk-takers or those with the shortest journeys are ready to bet on a
return. They face tough conditions in their old homes--including poor
services and low employment, but many say they feel safe.
A new report from the Switzerland-based International Organization for
Migration (www.iom-iraq.net/idp.html), perhaps the best record-keepers
of these things, says they have counted about 80,000 Iraqis (13,030
families multiplied by their standard six per family for 78,180
individuals) who have returned to their original neighborhoods from
around Iraq or abroad. The report notes that these figures are likely
the "majority" of those who have returned, but there's no comprehensive
registry of these movements. So the real figure could be more than
150,000 – a sizable amount but just a fraction of the more than 3
million who have fled their homes or country since 2003. The bulk of
the movement since 2003 came in 2006 with the escalation in sectarian
killing.
The group interviewed 900 returning families. It's not a fully
representative sampling of all returnees and there are some puzzling
trends. For example, the number of returns for March, 2007, is much
higher than any month before or after. But it looks like those coming
back are probably the most fearless--they stuck it out longer in their
homes and returned sooner. Here are some of the hints the survey offers
about those braving a return to Iraq:
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