Senior fellow discusses refugees

The international community has an obligation to help with the growing Iraqi refugee problem, Kelsey Noonan '08, a former senior fellow who studied international relations, said in a presentation of her fieldwork on Friday at the Haldeman Center. The lecture, "Running Out of Options: Solutions to the Iraqi Refugee Crisis," was based on the results of Noonan's year-long research on Iraqi refugee communities in Jordan and Syria. "The sheer enormity [of the refugee problem] strains even the generous hospitality of neighboring countries," she said. "Therefore, it's incumbent on us to find a viable solution." Noonan said the international community has considered several solutions to the refugee crisis, including integrating the displaced populations into neighboring countries, helping them immigrate to Western nations or aiding in their return to Iraq. Noonan found most Iraqi refugees would prefer to be resettled in Western countries. "Ninety-one percent of those surveyed said that it was their most preferred outcome," she told the audience. Many of the Iraqis Noonan interviewed failed to understand that many members of the international community are hesitant to open their borders to refugees, she said. She recalled an Iraqi woman who had declined an offer of resettlement in the United States because she was waiting for a better offer from Australia. American organizations trying to help Iraqi refugees have faced difficulties because the Iraqi refugees are much more educated than typical refugee groups, Noonan said. "Agencies that are used to resettling farmers are now resettling doctors and other individuals with college degrees who aren't going to want to work in menial jobs," she said. Iraqis are even less likely to favor repatriation, Noonan said. Of the Iraqis surveyed, 63 percent said that they do not intend to return to Iraq in the future, citing a lack of educational and employment opportunities, as well as a housing shortage. "Many of the houses that were occupied by refugees before they fled are now occupied by other people who have been displaced internally," Noonan said. It is unlikely that all of the refugees will be resettled or repatriated, Noonan said, so the international community must also consider local integration as an option. "Local integration is a durable solution in contrast to the temporary protection they're receiving now," she said. If host countries fail to make necessities like health care, education, and jobs readily available to the refugees, there could be dangerous consequences for the host country and for the larger international community, she explained. Refugees in the past have militarized when governments failed to provide them with the basic goods and services needed for survival, Noonan said. "It's very important that we don't let the Iraqi crisis reach this same level," she said. "It has the potential to have equally destabilizing results." Noonan's study included two surveys and responses from a total of 543 households, or 2,169 individuals. The first survey was funded by Mercy Corps, a non-governmental organization, and focused on the refugees' access to basic services. The other survey was funded by the Dartmouth Senior Fellowship, which is endowed by the Kaminsky Family Fund, and evaluated the refugees' decision-making process.