Iraqis’ new home

Stockholm

Sweden is taking in more Iraqi refugees than any other country in Europe. Last year, 8,951 Iraqis applied for asylum in Sweden, nearly as many as in the entire rest of the E.U. “We give Iraqis residence permits to an extent that isn’t done in the rest of Europe,” said Krister Isaksson of the Swedish Migration Board. Sweden doesn’t require immigrants to be fluent in its native language, as the other European countries do. There are now more than 80,000 Iraqis in Sweden, making them the largest immigrant group after Finns. Most Iraqi refugees settle closer to home, in the Middle East. The U.N. refugee agency estimates that as many as 1 million displaced Iraqis currently live in Syria. An estimated 700,000 are in Jordan, 80,000 in Egypt, and 40,000 in Lebanon.

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