Sodertalje, Sweden - March 18, 2018 (CGTN - No access Chinese mainland)
1. Various of Iraqis at church
2. SOUNDBITE (English) Kara Mendez, Iraqi refugee:
"(Because of) ISIS, the sectarian thinking, that has just increased terrorists and corruption. So all these things, it wasn't this way. It wasn't this bad."
3. Various of Iraqis at dinner
4. Mendez, Jenny Orahim, refugee, at table
5. SOUNDBITE (English) Jenny Orahim, Iraqi Refugee (starting with shot 4):
"I have adopted a lot of Swedish you know, maybe behavior, norms, the way of thinking. It's very clear when I talk to my grandmother. Because she’s old. She came here really old, she's not well-integrated."
6. Jan Samri, Assyrian Cafe owner, preparing food
7. Food ready to be served
8. SOUNDBITE (Swedish,with English interpretation) Jan Samri, owner, Assyrian Cafe:
"This is what's home to us. And that is why we are investing in developing and doing this in Sweden."
9. Various of street views
10. Various of Marco Adam, Iraqi asylum seeker, working, preparing food
11. SOUNDBITE (Assyrian, with English interpretation) Marco Adam, Iraqi asylum seeker (ending with shot 12):
"I'm afraid to return and I never want to return. If I return, I will not get one more opportunity to leave and return here. I don’t want to ever go back there because I have lived and suffered there. I never knew if I would live or die."
12. Woman pushing baby stroller; woman, children walking

Nearly 100,000 Iraqi refugees have fled to Sweden since the year 2000, according to the UN refugee agency. At the height of the post-invasion exodus, the European country was receiving almost half of all Iraqi asylum applications.

The Swedish town of Sodertalje, unheard of before the 2003 invasion of Iraq, has taken in the largest number of Iraqi refugees.

The local Assyrian Christian cathedral was built for a rapidly expanding congregation that fled here in the wake of the conflict.

Kara Mendez is one of those refugees who has set up home here after her family fled Iraq in 2000. She visits her home country annually, and she says today’s Iraq is worse than she remembered.

"(Because of) ISIS, the sectarian thinking, that has just increased terrorists and corruption. So all these things, it wasn't this way. It wasn't this bad," she said.

Through fifteen years of chaos, the children of Iraq have become parents abroad. The younger generation here call themselves Assryian Swedes and many of them are well-versed in life in their Scandinavian home.

"I have adopted a lot of Swedish you know, maybe behavior, norms, the way of thinking. It's very clear when I talk to my grandmother. Because she’s old. She came here really old, she's not well-integrated," said Jenny Orahim, another of the Iraqi Refugees.

Such segregation has led to issues in some other parts of Sweden but less so in Sodertalje. Jan Samri is one of a string of high street business-owners that feel very much part of the community.

"This is what's home to us. And that is why we are investing in, developing and doing this in Sweden,” said Samri, who runs an Assyrian cafe.

It has been fifteen years since the Iraq war began and it’s hard to find anyone who considers ever returning. But some of those who are among the latest batch of arrivals may sadly have no choice.

Marco Adam left Kirkuk, a governorate north of Baghdad, in 2015. He is now waiting on a final appeal against deportation, and is nervous about having to go back should his appeal fail.

"I'm afraid to return and I never want to return. If I return, I will not get one more opportunity to leave and return here. I don't want to ever go back there because I have lived and suffered there. I never knew if I would live or die," he said.