Photos: Iraqi refugees find U.S. life not what they expected

Mouna Shalchi, right, on the night of her school show. Her kindergarten class danced to country music.  (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times)

Lana Shalchi was born 2 months premature in Jordan. She is finally getting treatment for developmental delays.  (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times)

Anwer Shalchi shows Lana pictures from Iraq while his wife, Avan, works in the kitchen.  (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times)

Mouna Shalchi bounces on her bed in Folsom, Calif. She has shown resilience in adapting to her new life, now being able to talk to her schoolmates where at first she didn’t know the language enough to communicate.  (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times)

Shifa, left, and daughter Ann used to travel through Baghdad’s best neighborhoods in a polished BMW. In their new home of Portland, Ore., they have learned to ride the bus.  (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times)

Ann, left, and her mother, Shifa, shop for food in their new home of Portland, Ore. They take two buses to reach the nearest market and pay with food stamps.  (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times)

Shifa in her Portland, Ore., apartment. As a lawyer in Iraq she was proud to be able to help her country and her daughter. “Now I can’t help anyone,” she says, “not my country, my daughter or myself.” She was told that no U.S. firms would recognize her legal degree or two decades of experience.  (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times)

Shifa shows off a pendant featuring the word “Allah,” written in Arabic.  (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times)

Ann, 25, with two stuffed dolls she brought along from Jordan. She had hoped parlay her master’s degree in computer science into an information technology job here, but now she and her mother -- a lawyer with two decades’ experience in Iraq -- say they would take any jobs.  (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times)