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Workers countrywide head to formerly impoverished
Kurdish region
SULEIMANIYAH, Iraq:
A crowd of Arab laborers gathers in front of the
main mosque in the northern Iraqi city of
Suleimaniyah at 6.30 every morning, hoping to pick
up work for the day.
Once an area teetering on the brink of poverty, an
influx of foreign companies and increasing regional
investment means Iraq's Kurdish region is attracting
workers from across the country.
Mosul native Faisal Omar arrived in Suleimaniyah in
mid-November: "I came here to look for work because
wages are much better than in Mosul or even Baghdad.
Here I can earn around 15,000 Iraqi dinars ($10) a
day.
"I'm paying 2,000 dinars a night for a hotel room,
the rest I can save and send to my family. There are
14 of us, so we need the money."
Mustafa Akil finished high school in Baghdad last
year, but despite getting good grades he had to drop
out to support his family, so he too moved north to
find work.
"I've been in Suleimaniyah for eight months. I've
got a staff contract with a company rather than
getting paid by the day and I'm earning more than I
would have done in Baghdad. I spend around 8,000
dinars daily on food, 3,000 on my hotel room and the
rest I send back to my parents."
As well as the chance to earn more money, security
is a major factor in drawing workers to Kurdish
cities.
"Suleimaniyah is a safe place compared with the rest
of the country," said Faisal Omar.
"That's why you can even find Arabs from the capital
coming here to look for work."
Nasir Abid Omar, an ethnic Kurd, lived in Baghdad
all his life but moved north as soon as the security
problems started.
"I swear to God, if they paid me a million dinars a
month to stay and work in Baghdad, I wouldn't accept
it," he said.
Abid Omar has been working as a waiter in
Suleimaniyah's Abu Sanaa hotel for the past four
months, earning a monthly salary of 100,000, about
$70.
Omar's family lives in Mosul, where he visits them
every few weeks.
"It's not perfect. I worked in a shoe factory in
Baghdad and earned more than I do now. But at least
we're safe here," he said.
The stable security situation has led a number of
foreign companies to set up in the region, offering
job seekers an alternative to the public sector or
unskilled manual labor for the first time in years.
While government jobs may have traditionally been
people's first choice because of the cachet they
carry here, a significant number of graduates are
now tempted by the higher wages offered in the
private sector.
The combination of strong private and public sectors
has led to a manpower shortage in an area which used
to suffer from high unemployment.
"Before the fall of Saddam's regime, there was high
unemployment because the government was basically
the only employer," explained Mahdi Shera, media
manager for the Investment Support Board.
"Now they are actually having to compete with the
private sector for employees."
The increased availability of white-collar jobs has
had a knock-on effect on employment opportunities
all the way down the chain.
Tawfik Mahmoud, who owns the Matbakh restaurant in
Suleimaniyah, says he is now being forced to hire
younger and younger employees.
"School leavers and new graduates are all going to
work for the government or big companies, so there's
a real labor shortage everywhere else. I'm hiring
people who haven't even finished high school and
having to pay them 200,000 dinars ($135) a month."
Taxi driver Youssef Noureddine says he has found he
can support his family by working as his own boss:
"I don't need to work for the government because I'm
earning around 20,000 dinars per day, which is
enough to look after my family."
Overall stability and the growing job opportunities
are even attracting expatriate Kurds back to the
area.
Saman Hajji Nori moved back to Suleimaniyah last
year, after spending 12 years in Germany. Seven
months ago, he opened his own business and he now
has six employees.
"I like the fact that I am now providing jobs for
people here. I want to give as many young people an
opportunity as possible, and it doesn't matter to me
whether they're Kurd or Arab," he said.
He says the city's change of fortune since the time
he left is visible: "The place is cleaner and it is
much more active, both culturally and commercially."
But Nori warned that greater steps must be taken to
create long-term rather than ephemeral employment.
"We have opportunities at the moment because of the
boom in trade and construction businesses, but what
we need in Iraq is more factories so that people
will be guaranteed jobs in the future."
http://www.dailystar.com.lb
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