Jordan’s
Iraqi Social Revolution Is Politically-Loaded
By Dr Marwan Asmar
17 November, 2007
Countercurrents.org
They
are working as chemists, some taxi drivers, you see them everywhere
moving in Amman, and old Bedouin women selling chewing gum and cheap
cigarettes. Young chic women with the latest fashions and tight fittings
saunter in the capital’s malls while young men try their hand
to utter accents to make themselves acceptable to the locals and old
people especially in mosques and churches.
What is happening today in
Jordan is nothing less than a quite social revolution, unprecedented
in dimensions but no less than the catastrophes of 1948 and 1967 when
Israel moved into carving up Palestinian territories and created waves
upon waves of refugees who came to settle in Jordan.
Iraqis are every where. Although
their presence in the streets, commercial areas and residential districts
of Amman have been more noticeable since 2005 and today, many started
coming to such countries like Jordan and Syria after the 1990/91 debacle
of Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait and the subsequent US-imposed UN
sanctions on the country.
The 1990s saw a slow but
consistent population movement of Iraqi urban dwellers, artists, intellectuals
and businessmen easing out of the country into the different towns and
cities of Jordan. They came with their culture, styles of food, intellect
and dirt-cheap paintings.
The whole thing got out of hand in 2003 when renewed influxes of large
citizens started to leave Iraq as a result of the American pressure
and eventual war that removed Saddam Hussein from power and occupied
the country. These included the professional classes, the self-made
millionaires and established businessmen.
With daily violence and mayhem
becoming a function of the tribulations that followed, Iraqis, poor,
rich and young, old, relatives began to scurry out of the country in
search of security and a welcoming hand. The Iraq of Saddam or the Baath
was now unable to protect them despite the fact that many said it was
ruthless and despotic. But many lamented it provided us with security.
Official statistics in 2004,
show Jordan had accumulated up to 500,000 Iraqis on its soil, however,
the figures talked about in 2005, 2006 and today is up to 1.5 million
Iraqis have settled in the country, some on the income they brought
with them, but many as well straddled in the Kingdom’s tight labor
markets as best as they can.
Added to this seriousness,
their presence in the country started to contribute to high inflation,
spiraling prices, and sky-rocketing rent increases which strained the
locals who in the interest of Arabism and good neighborliness kept their
dissatisfaction to themselves and only grumbled under the collar.
Experts suggest the Jordan
government has been very lenient with Iraqis because many came into
the country with lots of money and investments, something that was thought
would make the economy in a better shape for the future.
But still the demographics
are changing, new accents are being heard and a new and quite social
revolution instituted underlined by the fact that where ever you go
in the Kingdom, especially in Amman, Irbid and Zarqa, you see the sprouting
of different Iraqi communities from social stratums and professions
that are plentiful.
The mostly single migration
of mostly men huddling 10-to-a-room have changed today into family migration
and kinship migration. They are bearing Iraq no longer, and for the
rich are buying flats and villas. For the poor and lower middle class
they make do with rented accommodation.
The government in Jordan has recognized this fact, and that’s
why last September, it allowed up to 50,000 Iraqi pupils in its public
schools. This maybe be seen as one of a first of a series of long-term
planning putting an end to speculations that the Iraqi move into Jordan
is temporary and are here to stay, and many don’t wish to go back
to their country.
The situation is still in
a fluid stage as many observers tend to argue that many professional
Iraqis and those with degrees use Jordan as an initial staging post
for Europe. They are here to go abroad, Europe, maybe America, Canada
and Australia.
While this may have been
the case in the 1990s, the nature of the Iraqi migration in the last
few years has been at such a scale that global immigration authorities
are increasingly feeling the pressure to deal with the vast flow especially
because of the security situation and the new complicated procedures
following 11 September. Because of the threat of global terrorism the
above states in particular have tightened their immigration policies.
That means Iraqis could very
well end up in the country which that may well be very likely judging
from the numerous posh Iraqi restaurants that opened up in the last
few years. But they are here to stay in a country that is already under
financial constraints and pressures of its own as its own local population—estimated
at 5 million—is growing rapidly and eating its own limited social
services.
Policy-makers, officials
and independent observers to say it mildly are putting a brave face,
saying the Kingdom has always been in the forefront of tough challenges,
and this latest brunt is just one of a series with everything working
out at the end.
Of course everyone is banking
on a better Iraq in the future and see the “spillage” as
temporary where Iraqis would in the end go back to Iraq and re-establish
themselves among their kin and folk.
But sociologists and social
planners may not so sure. The social revolution in the country has been
building up for the last 17 years, today the Iraqi communities in Jordan
have started to build roots, and it would be difficult for—apart
from the fact they may not personally want to—to go back their
traditional home place which they have been alienated from, firstly
by the former Baathist regime of Saddam Hussein and the subsequent Iraqi
governments in the wake of the American occupation of the country.
So the bet is on. Iraqis
will stay in Jordan because it may not be a bad idea to add another
force in the social and economic polity of the Kingdom as it further
fragments the social structure and adds to greater and more effective
manipulation by outside powers of the regional system.
Internal fragmentation would
add to the imposition of policies from outside the region regarding
the status of the Palestinian issue in Jordan and further knock down
the peace process which has been on life-support for at least the last
seven years, since the start of the Intifada since the year 2000.
Jordan’s Iraqi communities
are certainly no time-bombs, they are changing the social structure,
and whether we like it or not are bringing the old ideas of pan-Arab
nationalism based on one people back into the Jordanian street.
But these are changing times
where economic globalization is over-riding politics and political identity
and were economic conditions and well-being is placing identity and
affiliation.
Added to that is the overall international picture and danger that lies
in manipulating the Iraqi presence to suit other purposes for much bigger
international goals dictated to by callous powers like the United States
in the interests of imposing its own regional security pact, system
and peace view. Finally, the question that has to be asked is who is
really in the driving-seat out there, and planning the strings?
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