Migration Reshapes Iraq’s Sectarian Landscape

[rodeodance]

Source: nytimes




September 19, 2007
Migration Reshapes Iraq’s Sectarian Landscape
By JAMES GLANZ and ALISSA J. RUBIN

BAGHDAD, Sept. 18 — A vast internal migration is radically reshaping Iraq’s ethnic and sectarian landscape, according to new data collected by thousands of relief workers, but displacement in the most populous and mixed areas is surprisingly complex, suggesting that partitioning the country into semiautonomous Sunni, Shiite and Kurdish enclaves would not be easy.

The migration data, which are expected to be released this week by the Iraqi Red Crescent Organization but were given in advance to The New York Times, indicate that in Baghdad alone there are now nearly 170,000 families, accounting for almost a million people, that have fled their homes in search of security, shelter, water, electricity, functioning schools or jobs to support their families.

The figures show that many families move twice, three times or more, first fleeing immediate danger and then making more considered calculations based on the availability of city services or schools for their children. Finding neighbors of their own sect is just one of those considerations.

Over all, the patterns suggest that despite the ethnic and sectarian animosity that has gripped the country, at least some Iraqis would rather continue to live in mixed communities.

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/19/world/middleeast/19displaced.html?_r=1&th=&adxnnl=1&oref=slogin&emc=th&adxnnlx=1190206059-eUymPamW/LT9pTOrMNDx7g&pagewanted=print