A Nation overwhelmed by mass exodus

Blighted by sectarian violence, insurgency, occupation and corruption, Iraq left no hope for its people to have the least basic right ensured by humanity law, the right to survive. The most accurate description of the current situation in Iraq came from Baker-Hamilton Report “ the situation in Iraq is grave and deteriorating. There is no path that can guarantee success” but the White House and the Iraqi government are still in denial. Two months after the release of the Baker-Hamilton Report, the UNHCR admitted that the mass exodus of Iraqis driven by violence out of Iraq is catastrophic and the hosting countries can no longer cope with and asked the International Community to intervene and provide financial assistance. Despite being considered as the second biggest wave of migration in the Middle East over the last one hundred years (the Palestinian refugees in 1948 represent the first largest wave), it is not the first one in modern Iraqi history.

In modern Iraqi history, the Jewish Community was the first ring in a chain of successive waves of migration and deportation campaigns reluctant to stop sixty years later. Considered as one of the oldest and most thriving and influential communities in Iraq, the Iraqi Jews constituted approximately 30-35% of Baghdad population in the first decade of the twentieth century. Within ten years (1941 – 1951), the Jews of Iraq were forced to leave the land they lived on for nearly three thousand years. Most of their assets were confiscated or frozen and many prominent figures of their community were humiliatingly arrested, detained and executed for false and fabricated accusations of being spies to Israel. In 2007, the Jewish Community in Iraq was reduced to a group of 10-30 people only.

The second wave of migration that played an important role in reshaping the demographic structure of most Iraqi cities, particularly Baghdad, was the internal displacement of tens of thousands of poor farmers and villagers from Southern Iraqi countryside to Baghdad. The majority were Shia Arabs from the tribes scattered in the Southern provinces of Ammara and Nassiriyah. It started in mid thirties of the last century but intensified during the forties and fifties. By that time they represented a significant section of the Baghdadi Community with their tribal traditions and customs and lived in slums on the outskirts of Baghdad. They are referred to, humiliatingly, as “Shargawi”, “Shragwa” or “Shroogie” (Sharg in Iraqi slang language means Sharqh which means East in English, and Shargawi means the one who is originally came from the east). In the first two years after Qasim’s Revolution in 1958, the Government finally paid attention to their plight and built around 10,000 houses, several hospitals and schools and proper sewage system and from that time it was known as Al-Thawra City. In mid eighties, its name was changed to Saddam’s city and it was only changed in 2003 to AlSadr City, which I think will stick with it for the next few generations.

With the significant changes implemented by 1958 Revolution, a third wave migration was in process but on much smaller scale as compared to the previous two ones mentioned above. This time it consisted of remaining members of the monarch family and the close circle of elites surrounded them. Big landowners and others whom the new changes adversely affected their prestigious positions. Not so long after and From 1963 until early seventies, Iraqi Communists fled Iraq and take refugee in Eastern Europe and other countries after a brutal campaign by the Ba’athists who came to power in February 1963. This time Iraq was stripped off its intellectual and educated people who for decades shaped most of the Iraqi cultural and educational scenes. This continued throughout the 70s after the collapse of the Front formed with the Ba’athists and continued until early eighties when the leftist movements in Iraq were almost purged. During the seventies, other groups were also targeted and many had no option left but to flee Iraq, mainly Shia’a Islamists (Al-Da'wa Party members) and found refuge in neighbouring countries mainly Syria and Iran.

If you look at the above five examples, we will be able to classify the motives behind these waves of displacement as follows:
Jews of Iraq – Religious identity.
Internal migration from the South to Baghdad- Economic reasons.
Immediately after the 1958 Revolution- Class identity as it represented the group that had access to most of the financial resources and have links (tribal/ clannish/ Family intermarriages) that augmented their positions in the kingdom era.
The Communists (Political identity)
The Islamists (Politico-Religious-Sectarian)

It is very difficult to find other countries in the ME that experienced such different kinds of migration waves within a short time frame (approximately 40 years). It may share some similarities with the situation in Iran and Egypt but if we compare the population number in these two countries with relevant figures in Iraq we will have a clear idea about the depth of the crack that have been left in the fabric of the Iraqi society. And in early nineties, after two catastrophic wars with Iran (1980-1988) and with the whole world (1991), it was obvious that Iraq (the people and the culture) was vulnerable, fragmented and divided with its sects irrevocably hostile to each other. In order to understand the characteristics of the following waves of mass migration, it is easier to put them in two different categories:

From 1990-2003 (Sanctions on Iraq):
If we were able to identify the main reasons behind the previous displacements, this time it is very difficult and complicated situation where myriad of factors characterised its nature, which can only be, described as Iraqi-labelled mass exodus.
It was much larger than the previous waves.
Involved all sects of the Iraqi Community, Arabs and Kurds (and other ethnic minorities), Muslims and Christians (and other religious minorities), Shia’s and Sunnis.
All economic classes of the society. Poor, middle and affluent classes.
Secular and religious sections.
Illiterate, basic literacy skills, educated and high professions.
And most importantly, their aims were much more different- for most of Iraqis who left Iraq during this period, they wanted to achieve a complete detachment from Iraq and no will to return and desperately trying in all means to gain new identities (particularly from the affluent European countries and America). It was one-way journey for the majority of us. Not merely a physical one but mental, social and psychological).
From 2003-
With the American occupation, toppling of Saddam’s regime, collapse of the state and its frail institutions, the rise of violent political Islamism (the Wahabi-Salafi and the Shia’a versions), the plight cut deep wounds in an already fragmented society. The current mass exodus is almost similar to the 1990s wave but this time it represents the biggest displacement ever in Iraqi history and the first and most fundamental motive behind it was the right to survive and be away from fears of being killed by a roadside bomb, a suicide explosion, death squads, sectarian violence and fire power by trigger-happy American soldiers.

This subject opened the door for many unanswered questions: will this be the end of the Iraqi Mass Exodus? Do we think that in the future we will witness larger waves than the one we see now? What is going to be the fate of millions of Iraqis live now in exile? And if we agree that we expect the worst, what will be the main identities of future displacements? For how long the hollowed and shattered Iraqi personality can handle the Iraqi identity complex?
These questions and many others are buzzing in my head and I am searching desperately for answers.