Chattanooga to resettle Iraqi refugees

As early as October, Chattanooga may be the new home to more than a dozen Iraqi refugees being resettled in the United States.

“We are looking forward to working with them,” said Marina Peshterianu, office coordinator for Bridge Refugee and Sponsorship Services in Chattanooga.

“Knowing that the U.S. has always been an active participant in world refugee resettlement programs, I knew we would help misplaced people (after the war in Iraq started),” she said, “and I was looking forward to do it here in our community because I think we can be a perfect match. We can offer so much for these people.”

About four families, with a total of about 19 members, will arrive to Chattanooga in the next couple of months, although Mrs. Peshterianu is expecting the number of families to increase.

Among the refugees, some are engineers, doctors and teachers, she said, and most are fluent in English or somewhat speak the language. They have been living in Iraq, Lebanon and Jordan, she said.

Milly Rawlings, a Lookout Mountain resident whose son, Army Capt. Nate Rawlings, is currently in Baghdad, said Chattanooga has been a welcoming community for refugees in the past and hopes it’s not different with Iraqis.

“Some of them are relocating because of the threat of personal harm to themselves and their families,” she said. “Many have helped Americans in the war effort in Iraq. I think it’s the least we can do when people are helping the American military, to reach out to these folks and help them resettle here.”

Among the families being resettled here are Muslims as well as Mandeans, one of the most ancient, independent religions practiced in some areas of Iraq and Iran whose believers aren’t considered in the countries’ constitutions and face social persecution, especially in Iraq.

So far in fiscal year 2008, which ends on Sept. 30, the United States has admitted close to 2,000 Iraqis, giving priority to those affiliated with the U.S. government and religious minorities, the Department of Homeland Security Web site states. Earlier this year, the U.S. government established a goal of resettling 12,000 Iraqi refugees for fiscal year 2008.

This is the first group of Iraqis being resettled in Chattanooga since the Bridge Refugee and Sponsorship Office opened in 1996, but there had been a couple resettled prior to that year, former Office Coordinator Anne Curtis has said.

The Bridge Refugee and Sponsorship Services office in Knoxville has helped resettle about 40 Iraqis in the Knoxville area since last year, Executive Director Marilyn Bresnan said.

Successful in their home country, many of these refugees must start over in the United States, she said.

“They are very well educated,” she said. “For them it has been difficult because they’ve left behind big homes and good jobs and to have to start employment at an entry level because of the language barrier has been a difficult issue for them.”

The number of refugees now living in the Middle East and North Africa regions has increased as a result of the volatile situation in Iraq. According to the United Nations Refugee Agency, Jordan and Syria host some 2 million Iraqis.

Inside Iraq, the number of displaced people — those who’ve left their homes but still live in the country — rose from 1.8 million at the start of 2007 to close to 2.4 million by the end of 2007, according to the U.N. report “2007 Global Trends: Refugees, Asylum-seekers, Returnees, Internally Displaced and Stateless Persons.”