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Thousands of Iraqis helped the US during the decade-long war. They include military interpreters, media translators and guides, journalists, and human rights activists. Thousands of them are still in the pipeline for special visas to immigrate to the United States. More than six years ago Congress passed the Refugee Crisis in Iraq Act to protect the US-affiliated Iraqis and provide them safe passage to the United States. Between October 1, 2006 and November 30, 2012, only 11,000 special immigrant visas (SIVs) were issued to Iraqis who worked for the U.S. government in Iraq, out of a possible 25,000. Drawing on data I collected between 2011 and 2013 in an anthropological study of 27 Iraqi refugees resettled with SIVs and 24 returned American veterans of the Iraq War living in New York, I reveal the bureaucracy associated with obtaining an SIV. I situate the narratives of the refugees and the veterans within contemporary discourses centering on the actions of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) militants to problematize and interrogate the positioning of Middle Eastern refugees as “risks” to the US economy and security.Jill Koyama, PhD, an anthropologist, is Assistant Professor in Educational Policy Studies and Practice (EPSP) at the University of Arizona. Her investigations of policy can be situated in three interrelated, if not integrated, strands of inquiry. They are: the productive social assemblage of policy; the controversies of globalizing educational policy; and the politics and complexities of language policy and immigrant-refugee education. She is an Associate Editor of Anthropology and Education Quarterly and a former Public Voices Thought Leadership Fellow, who has had op-eds published in Al-Jazeera America, The Guardian, CNN, Ms., and the Huffington Post. DR. JILL KOYAMAASSISTANT PROFESSOR, EDUCATIONAL POLICY STUDIES & PRACTICEUNIVERSITY OF ARIZONAMENAS Colloquium SeriesFriday, April 24, 20153pm in Marshall 490 Video of talkPowerPoint presentationClick to return to main Colloquium page