Iraq War has Refugees Pouring into Jordan

The U.S. occupation of Iraq has caused many Iraqis to flee the country, with many refugees going to neighboring Jordan. Although exact numbers are not available, some estimates of the number of Iraqi refugees in Jordan are as high as 800,000. The true significance of that figure becomes clearer when one considers Jordan's small population of just about 6 million prior to the influx of Iraqis and the fact that Amman's population has risen by an astronomical thirty percent in the past three years-largely due to the Iraqi immigration.

Generally speaking, Jordanians are more than happy to accept their "Iraqi brethren" and have "no problem in sharing their daily bread with them." However, as this article from the BBC discusses, the current situation in Jordan is not so simple. Most of the Iraqi's entering Jordanians are relatively wealthy individuals, having accumulated considerable capital prior to the invasion. This sudden increase in the number of people of substantial means has had very negative effects for the Jordanian economy, particularly for consumers. Now, Jordanians are forced to compete with upper-class Iraqis for apartments and land, which are more expensive due to the sudden increase in demand. Now, many Jordanians "are beginning to sense a kind of patronizing arrogance among some Iraqis due to their financial status." These growing negative feelings are, of course, intensified by the fact that the addition of so many Iraqis to the Jordanian population is having a real and noticeable effect on the purchasing power of native Jordanians.

Fortunately, these economic effects seem to be the only way that the refugees are harming Jordan. As of now, there has been no real reason to believe that the Iraqi immigrants represent a direct threat to Jordanian security. A final problem, which at this point is still largely unrealized, is the potential ethnic/religious conflict that could arise from the drastic increase in Jordan's Shii population, as is briefly mentioned in this article. At this point, however, religious conflict has not presented Jordanians with a major problem, and the issue at the core of the debate remains economic in nature. Currently, Jordanians are torn between their obligation to their neighbors and their understanding of the fact that, the more Iraqis Jordan admits, the more it will cost to live in Jordan.