refugee narratives:
The setting is the southern Swedish coastal city of Malmo, up to 25 per cent of whose population is Muslim. In the past year, Sweden has received 20,000 Iraqi refugees -- the highest number in any industrialised country. The US, by contrast, has promised to receive 7,000 in addition to the current 2,000 residing in its territory. Sweden which is reputed for its relatively liberal policy towards refugees and asylum-seekers, has called for other European countries to take their share. It remains unclear, however, just how far the EU will respond, or whether the refugees will bear the brunt of even tighter border controls.
(...) For those Iraqis who manage to enter Sweden, the immediate sense of safety and relief is overwhelming. "On one level, I feel lucky that I have found safety at last," says Bassem, an Iraqi economist from Baghdad who has been living in Malmo for five months. "The situation in Baghdad was terrible, insurmountable, when I left. I knew I would not survive if I remained there, particularly as the educated classes are among the most heavily targeted by the occupation and those Iraqis who are supporting it."
(...) this euphoria is soon replaced by a sense of dislocation and sadness. "I find it incredibly difficult not to be working. I am a professional. Now, I am being told that until my papers come through, I cannot work. I do not live a dignified life; and I know that I never will, unless the occupation ends and I can return to Iraq -- which is my home after all," said Bassem.
(...) I am happy to be here; I am happy to be learning a new language, and to be safe from the constant worry of being arrested, jailed or killed by the Israelis," he said. "On the other hand, it is painful for me to think that what I thought might just be an exciting journey to safety and dignity has also essentially turned into exile."
(...) "Maybe if Palestine were free, I would still choose to live here, which is, after all, where I have grown up. But I would be a free person, and it would be a consequence of a free choice. As things stand, however, the fact that I am a refugee kills me inside."