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Iraq's Immobilization of Kurdish Families from Iran - Ethical, Legal, and Multi-Layered Identity Questions
Abstract
Since 2003, an influx of IDPs from the south of Iraq to the Kurdistan region has as described in the World Bank report "imposed substantial strains on the social sector". The economic crisis, sociocultural problems, unemployment rate, and security issues turned the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), which was once known as "safe haven" into a difficult place for not only the Kurdish population but also for the refugees and displaced who fled to the Kurdistan region before 2003. This interdisciplinary study uses semi-structured in-depth interviews with 20 families to substantiate the dimension of quantitative research queries regarding the politically displaced Kurds from Iran and their forcible immobilization in Iraq from 1978 to 2021. Drawing on Kerilyn Schewel's approach to studying immobility; Ibrahim Sirkeci's model of the environment of human insecurity; and Antonina Koskowska's theory of identity valence this study analyzes the complex legal and social situation of this group as immobile stateless refugees who must negotiate between multiple layers of their identity. Additionally, the paper poses a question connected to the ethical dimension for UN and international public opinion on recognizing stateless immobile refugees and addressing their concerns. This study argues that Iraq immobilized the Kurds who escaped Iran which led to ethical and legal gaps regarding their current situation. Consequently, Kurdish refugees from Iran must negotiate between various layers of their identity during everyday life. It is also argued that the Iraqi government has played a double-edged sword game with the Kurds, on the one hand forcibly deporting over 600,000 Faili Kurds to Iran, while on the other hand opening the door for politically displaced Kurds from Iran but holding them in camps without citizenship. In addition, the study indicates that their inhuman status has detrimental effects on families and causes marital dissolution within this group.
Discipline
Anthropology
International Relations/Affairs
Political Science
Sociology
Geographic Area
Iran
Iraq
Kurdistan
Sub Area
None