Originally Posted by
mecabq
Thanks for the post -- this is truly amazing. I have been in Jordan much of the last several months, and noticed the rampant discrimination against Iraqis. The rationale runs the gamut from cultural bias to resentment at all of the (presumably ex-regime) Iraqi money driving inflation in Jordan to more legitimate worries about the strain on the infrastructure imposed by poor refugees.
This being the Middle East, it's not surprising that the discrimination is institutionalized.
"Presumably ex-regime" Iraqi money is not all that it is. There's a lot of current regime Iraqi (and American) money coming into Jordan too.
Approximately 15-20% of Jordan's population today is now Iraqi -- and in February 2003 not even 2% of Jordan's population was Iraqi. That kind of demographic shift -- and subshifts I won't go into here -- being accompanied by ugly outcomes shouldn't surprise anyone.
The short of it is that if the US government had a proper facility in Baghdad to issue all sorts of visas then this author's experience wouldn't have happened in the first place.