DETROIT

Between 2003 and 2013, 14,166 Iraqi civilians were resettled in Michigan.

SHAMAMTA

Shamamta Hermiz Korkis, a member of the Chaldean minority group, is illiterate. She received her US citizenship in 1997 after passing the immigration test. Her daughter, the writer Weam Namou, translated the questions for her during the test.

EMAN

Eman Jajonie-Daman was born in Baghdad and arrived in the US while she was still a teenager. An attorney, in 2008 she was appointed as a judge for a local courthouse in Michigan. She supports the reform of the American immigration system.

HUSAM ABDULKHALEQ

THE POST-TRAUMATIC STRESS DISORDER
Husam Abdulkhaleq is a psychiatrist with the ACCESS organisation, the largest Arab-American human services nonprofit in the United States. He treats patients simultaneously dealing with post-war trauma, the strenuous experience of exile and culture shock upon arrival in the US. Himself a Palestinian refugee, he takes care of many Iraqis in Sterling Heights and Dearborn, MI.

RONNIE

Ronald Farida is a second-generation member of an Iraqi immigrant family. Now a husband and father, he manages a supermarket chain started by his father. Farida currently employs nearly 300 people in the Detroit suburbs.

HASSAN

Imam Hassan Al-Qazwini is a dual Iraqi-American citizen. Raised in an influential Shiite family, he manages the Islamic Center of America in Dearborn, which is the largest mosque in North America and the oldest Shiite mosque in the US.

ANTHONY

Father Anthony Kathawa is 28 years old. He was born in the US and ordained by the Chaldean Diocese of Michigan. His church welcomes both newcomers and descendants of Iraqi immigrants.

RON SCOTT

WOUNDED MINORITIES
Former Black Panther Ron Scott is now a committed activist in the fight against police violence. He has strong links with Iraqis living in Detroit, especially among the Chaldean minority. Scott believes that Arab-Americans today are facing similar struggles with integration and civil rights as African-Americans before them.

HUSHAM

Imam Husham Al-Husainy, 59 years old, is an aeronautical engineer and a long-running critic of Saddam Hussein’s dictatorship. He preaches at the Kerbala Islamic Center in Dearborn. He was celebrating his 48th birthday when the war broke out on March 19, 2003.