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Originally Posted by KenJackson
How many Iraqi friends do you have?
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Hmmm...
Not quite sure, to be honest, and I guess it might also depend on one's definition of "friend". Mine's rather narrower than most I think. Anyway, there are about 11 families I regularly/semi-regularly socialise with, of which I'd call maybe 11-12 friends (by my definition). Most of the rest I'd term acquaintances and they'd run, at a guess, into the 60s. Some are infants and toddlers, so call it somewhere between 40 and 50 without them. That does not, by the way, include my Kurdish friends/acquaintances, many of whom would have a somewhat different view for obvious reasons.
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How long has it been since they were in Iraq?
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How long since they've been back is highly variable. Some have not been back for years and may never go (the old and infirm), some are there right now and most are somewhere inbetween. Most try to go every 2 years, since most have family left there. Generally they report that little or nothing has changed for the better when they return.
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Do they find living in Norway preferable to their home country? Why?
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As to the first: yes, to a man (or woman). Of course, they'd prefer more or less anywhere to Iraq, not just Norway.
As to the second: because they don't get killed here, because there is 24/7 electricity and water supply, because their kids can go to school, safely, because there are jobs to be had, that sort of stuff. It's somewhere to live in other words, rather than just exist. And because there is, generally, nothing left of their homes in Iraq - they've pretty much all been leveled by the coalition forces.