Leave your feedback Share Copy URL https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/iraqi-refugees-discover-security-comes-at-a-price Email Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Pinterest Tumblr Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Transcript Nearly 32,000 Iraqi refugees have come to the United States over the past three years to escape violence and political uncertainty. But as Jeffrey Kaye reports, more refugees are learning that personal safety often comes at the cost of economic security. Read the Full Transcript Notice: Transcripts are machine and human generated and lightly edited for accuracy. They may contain errors. JIM LEHRER: Now: the growing numbers of Iraqi refugees arriving in the United States. Special correspondent Jeffrey Kaye reports from California. JEFFREY KAYE: For Hanan Tamimi, the simple joy of baking pastries with her daughter and then with her husband, Amir, sharing them with neighbors in El Cajon, California, seems a world apart from the life the couple knew in Baghdad. Amir was a journalist and a public affairs officer with the U.S. Embassy in Iraq. Because of his association with the U.S. government, he faced threats, then violence.AMIR TAMIMI, Iraqi refugee: They hit me with a big sword. It cut my abdomen from up to down. And the same week when I was lying in the hospital, my son, also, they stop him and they try to kidnap him on the way from Baghdad to Fallujah. JEFFREY KAYE: The family fled to Egypt, where they lived for three years, waiting to come to the U.S. The Tamimis have lived here in El Cajon, where they have relatives, for nine months. They are among nearly 32,000 Iraqi refugees to have arrived in the U.S., mostly in California and Michigan, over the past three years. The influx compares to only hundreds who were allowed to come in the three previous years.More Iraqis have come to El Cajon, near San Diego, than any other city. With signs in Arabic and familiar products on store shelves, Main Street offers a taste of home.Unlike the Tamimis, who are Muslims, most of the new arrivals are Chaldean Catholics, an Iraqi minority that faces persecution in their home country. And while they now feel safe in the United States, some fear that, if their faces are shown on TV, relatives back home may face reprisals. IRAQI REFUGEE: You cannot live as a Christian there. It's difficult. We have always to be worried, to be careful. JEFFREY KAYE: Like other refugees, Rita and Juasim — they gave just their first names — are thankful to have found sanctuary, even if economic security appears elusive. IRAQI REFUGEE: You know, living here is expensive. And, especially, we don't have a job. So, all the time, being — it's a little bit hard or difficult.