From One War to Another Iraqi Emigration to Jordan

Abstract

Jordan has been a particularly interesting location to observe the trends, patterns and dynamics of long-term emigration from Iraq over the last period of Baathist rule. Between the 1991 Gulf War and the fall of Saddam Hussein, circulation between Iraq and all its other neighbours officially stopped periodically, whereas the flow of people, goods and capital never ceased across the border with Jordan, which remained Iraq's primary economic partner. The Jordanian authorities granted Iraqis almost unconditional entry; they allowed Iraqi international businessmen and cross border traders to skirt the embargo by using Amman as a base, tolerated the presence of the Iraqi intelligence services, and even admitted Iraqi opponents as long as they were not active politically. While airports in Iraq were closed due to the embargo, Jordan was the gateway to the outside worldÑnot only for the Iraqi business and political elite who were travelling internationally, but also for the hundreds of thousands of Iraqi exiles who left the Middle East over that period.