The reverse migration of Assyrian youth to Northern Iraq

Shafaq News/ Many young Assyrians from diaspora are making decision to leave the freedom and comfortable life in the west and are heading to northern Iraq, to help needy Assyrians in the ancestral land

Susan Younan is a young Assyrian whose parents in the early 1980s, fled the discrimination and ill treatment in Iraq and lived in Athens, Greece, in hope of settling in the west.

Suzan was born in Greece. Her family consisting of her father, mother and two sisters were granted permanent visa to Canada. The family lived in Canada for almost eight years. They wanted to be closer to relatives and friends, so they moved to the USA to live there for good.

Suzan grew up in a patriotic family. That's where she inherited the interest and love to her nation from.

On her first visit to the homeland to celebrate Akito festival, Suzan fell in in love with her ancestral land and the Assyrians in northern Iraq. To her, the Kha B’Nisan festival (Assyrian new year) was an eye opener and most wonderful experience in her life. A bond was born with the land. Since then, Suzan was visiting the homeland in every year.

The idea of having young Assyrians born in the diaspora, to visit the homeland, made Suzan with the help of other Assyrian youth, to establish the GISHRU organization.

In this interview, Susan talks about her experience since she decided to work and live in Duhok in northern Iraq and her involvement with different international NGO, to help the needy Assyrians and non-Assyrians in aid and resettlement.