By SOFIA BARBARANI
LONDON—An economic boom in Iraq’s autonomous Kurdistan Region is attracting many of the families who fled during the rule of Saddam Hussein.
Jobs, wealth and business opportunities in the Kurdistan Region have increased, according to the latest data from the Kurdish Board of Investment. Where there was violence and widespread disillusion 20 years ago, there is now stability and hope.
While foreign investors waltz in and out of the Kurdish enclave, and the international community begins to see the benefits of befriending the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), there is a group of young men and women who are moving to the region for more personal reasons as well as the booming economy: the returning Kurdish diaspora.
“They have different reasons for their return, and many have found themselves in different circumstances once they started living in Kurdistan after such long breaks” said Bahar Baser, a post-doctoral fellow who has been researching the Kurdish diaspora for the past six years.
Baser explained that some returnees have connections to political parties, and have been given government jobs, while those who do not belong to such elites often face more difficulties, and do not always find suitable work.
“I also met people who explained their motivations through a patriotic discourse. Although they had a very good education in Europe, they came back and settled for even lower ranking jobs because they wanted to contribute to Kurdistan’s development,” explained Baser.
Shwan Fatah, a civil servant in the Department of Foreign Relations, is a prime example of this: “As cliche as it sounds, I came back because I wanted to contribute,” he said.
Fatah, 31, was educated in two top universities: University of Toronto and the University of London’s School of Oriental and African Studies. Despite his excellent academic background and high salary potential elsewhere, he made his way to the uncertainty of Kurdistan, where he had last set foot at the age of seven.
“A lot of people come back to make a difference. They are smart people, and could have found a job abroad,” he said.
In the 1980s, the ongoing genocidal campaign waged by Saddam against the Kurds saw a wave of families escape the country in an attempt to save themselves from a likely death.
Following the end of the Second Gulf War and the implementation of the United Nations Security Council Resolution 688, which secured Kurdistan as a safe haven, Kurdish returnees began to make their way back, in hopes of resettling in their homeland.
This moment of calm was broken by a civil war between Kurdistan’s two leading political parties, the Kurdistan Democratic Party and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan. The war lasted from 1994 until 1997, and saw yet another period of mass migration. The two parties have since then shared power, in a relatively peaceful agreement reached in 1998.
Since Saddam’s fall in 2003, Iraq’s Kurdish region has seen a steady increase in foreign investment. The international community has become aware of the region’s large oil reserves and untapped business opportunities, and is opening its eyes to the often disregarded landlocked region.
Young film director Beri Shalmashi is one of those people. Shalmashi and her family moved to the Netherlands in 1986, she then returned to her homeland in 2012: “In the Netherlands I could work for whoever I wanted to. In Kurdistan, I feel like I am ten years back in time. I’ve had to earn everything from scratch,” she said.
Meer Rashid, a young Kurdish journalist who was born and raised in Kurdistan, agreed that the state could benefit from the skills acquired by returnees: “A lot of these people are passionate about the region and want to dedicate their Western-acquired skills in the service of their homeland.”
Rashid also touched on a topic that is often hushed: the nepotism and favoritism that exists in the region.
“In a lot of cases, the returning Kurds get special treatment because they have been involved in one way or another in the struggle against Saddam and had to flee. Other times because they might be more educated, better looking, or richer,” he said.
While many young returnees do get better treatment because of their academic background and Western upbringing, there are also the unlucky few: “They have a hard time readjusting to Kurdistan” explained Rashid.
According to Fatah, there has been a decrease in favoritism: “The ones that came back with the ‘I’m better than you attitude’ didn’t do so well, a lot of them left. Now a lot of people are coming back and are having to work their way up the ladder, which is good.”
When the influx of returnees began, many young Kurds were able to get away with a lot because they spoke English. A lot of the time, employers did not check their degrees; today, the system is more rigid. Employers are more likely to base the person’s employability on their skills and academic achievements, and not on their Western background or family ties.
Not only is the reformed system somewhat fairer, as it increasingly shuns preferential attitudes, it also abates the inevitable tensions between the returning diaspora Kurds and the locals.
“There is competition between the locals and the returnees” explained Baser.
“Educated young people from the diaspora were returning and taking up good posts, especially government-related ones, as well as high-level positions in private companies. This was a concern for the locals,” she added.
Many returning Kurds are aware of this problem: “The locals have a feeling of entitlement to what they believe is theirs. That’s why when I came back, I came back with a low profile,” said Fatah.
“If you’re not happy here, then the Kurds will tell you to go back to where you came from. There is no sense of ‘please stay’. It’s important for all Kurds from abroad to come back and understand that they’re not going to do themselves any favors if they act as if they’re better than everyone else who has lived here,” he added.
Culturally, there is a sharp difference between the diaspora Kurds and the locals.
“The divide exists. It exists because Kurds living abroad have had extremely different experiences from those living in Kurdistan during the decisive period of 1991-2006. Kurdistan was extremely isolated from the rest of the world in the post Gulf War era,” said Rashid.
Much of the Kurdish youth understands that the divide is only natural, given the diverse backgrounds and often limited communication - a lot of young diaspora Kurds do not speak fluent Kurdish, while many Kurds do not speak fluent English.
“They may not find a common ground for conversation beyond the patriotic. This is not necessarily a detrimental divide, rather, if acknowledged, it can bring diversity and importance to the ‘Kurdish question’” explained Rashid.
The KRG’s High Representative to the UK, Bayan Sami Rahman, mirrored Rashid’s take on the topic.
She explained that tensions between returnees and locals do exist, and are inevitable: “It is normal to think ‘you’ve had it cushy, you’ve been abroad while we’ve lived the hardship’. But I think that growing up in exile has its own hardship, it is a different source of displacement. Living in exile is not a normal state to live in,” said Rahman.
“There are many successful examples of Kurds going back to the private sector or the government where they’ve been able to contribute and fit back into their society,” Rahman added.
The influx of returnees is not set to end any time soon. According to Baser, they could double once there is the possibility of independence.
While they have contributed in many ways to the redevelopment of Kurdistan, it is important to mitigate the potential clashes between what are essentially two different cultures; the diaspora Kurd and the local Kurd.
“I don’t only feel different from the Kurds who have grown up in Kurdistan, I am different. I am both Dutch and Kurdish. They are Kurdish”, concluded Shalmashi.
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