MELISSA BLOCK, host:
From NPR News, this is ALL THINGS CONSIDERED. I'm Melissa Block.
MICHELE NORRIS, host:
And I'm Michele Norris.
Violence may be down in Iraq, but life is still dangerous for Iraqis, especially those who have worked with U.S. forces or with American media and humanitarian organizations. In 2008, thousands of them began applying for visas to the U.S. under a special State Department program. But that was before the economic meltdown. Now, some of the applicants are having second thoughts, as Quil Lawrence reports from Baghdad.
QUIL LAWRENCE: On any given morning, a long line of Iraqi families forms outside the U.S. base in the center of Baghdad where visa interviews are conducted.
(Soundbite of metal gate)
LAWRENCE: At the end waits a chain-linked gate guarded by private security contractors, followed by rigorous body searches and various metal-detecting machines. Then finally interviews, cross-referenced with letters of recommendation and more interviews on subsequent visits.
Most Iraqis consider the ordeal worth the prize, a visa to the United States. About 17,000 Iraqis won visas in 2009. But lately, there are some doubts, fed by a small but surprising number of Iraqis returning from the States. Abu Haidar(ph) worked as a driver for NPR in Baghdad for several years. His trip to America was a shock.
Mr. ABU HAIDAR (Driver): (Through translator) When I arrived in America, there was no work, especially for someone without a degree and with no English. Such people can't make it in America.
LAWRENCE: Abu Haidar may be a worst-case example. The visa program settled him in Houston, Texas, and everything went wrong from the start. Food, lodging and transportation were too expensive, and his salary as a cleaner at a hotel was too low. And Abu Haidar had arrived in the U.S. with some pretty harsh stereotypes about some of the people living there.
Mr. HAIDAR: (Through translator) There are Mexicans living there. So I felt scared to go out. I worry about my son and daughter. My son almost went crazy � he's used to coming home at midnight, but there, he had to be in by 8, just like a prison.
LAWRENCE: Somehow, the unknown dangers in America scared Abu Haidar more than the car bombs still exploding back in Iraq. Besides the racial stereotypes, Abu Haidar's son also protested that sweeping floors was a shameful job for a 47-year-old man. After just two months, Abu Haidar called it quits.
Mr. HAIDAR: (Foreign language spoken)
LAWRENCE: I'm not going to tell anyone else what to do, says Abu Haidar, but for himself, he is happy to be back in Iraq. Stories like this have set off an earnest debate among the visa candidates. The International Organization for Migration, IOM, has put out a small guidebook for Iraqis outlining the challenges. Sami al-Hilali recently got the call that he had been awarded a visa, and he turned it down.
Mr. SAMI AL-HILALI: I want go to America because my daughter and my son could study English. But IOM, they all give me book. It's tough.
LAWRENCE: Hilali says he has worked hard all his life and dreamed of opening a restaurant in America. But he is not sure that he and his wife are ready to start from scratch during the American economic crisis. He worries about the cost of health care for him and his wife.
Mr. AL-HILALI: America is better, but different economy. There is crisis economy in America.
LAWRENCE: Hilali knows the dangers of staying in Iraq intimately. He lost a leg during the Iran-Iraq war and worked through most of the sectarian violence. He thinks all of the time about what might happen to his family if he were killed by a bomb. But that reminds him that here in Iraq he has got the support of friends, family and tribal relations - something America can't offer. It might be a great opportunity, says Hilali, for a younger family.
(Soundbite of laughter)
LAWRENCE: Husam(ph) and Yasmin(ph), not their real names, are just such a family. Their eight-month-old boy keeps grabbing the microphone. The entire family has just had a final interview before they head off to a new life in North Carolina.
Mr. HUSAM: (Foreign language spoken)
LAWRENCE: Of course, life in America is going to be better, says Husam. He adds that he doesn't think Iraq will be stable for another decade. Looking at their daughters, five and six years old, Yasmin says it's worth whatever hardships they might face.
Ms. YASMIN: (Foreign language spoken)
LAWRENCE: Things will be difficult at the beginning, but we have to endure it for the sake of our children, Yasmin says. She adds, I'll go to America with my eyes closed, but gradually my eyes will open and I'll learn how to live there.
Quil Lawrence, NPR News, Baghdad.