{"id":271,"date":"2013-04-29T17:37:01","date_gmt":"2013-04-29T17:37:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/faculty.wagner.edu\/lori-weintrob\/?p=271"},"modified":"2019-04-03T15:51:09","modified_gmt":"2019-04-03T15:51:09","slug":"pakistani-immigration-in-a-changing-america-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/faculty.wagner.edu\/lori-weintrob\/pakistani-immigration-in-a-changing-america-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Pakistani Immigration In A Changing America"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: center;\">The Pakistani community is an immigrant group that has largely experienced great social and economic mobility in the United States while also maintaining transnational ties to their homeland.\u00a0 That spirit of mobility and transnationalism, however, was greatly impacted by the events of September 11, 2001.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">By Sarah Cappiello, Wagner College &#8217;16<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>Interview with Dr. Salman Zafar<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"960\" height=\"540\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/23dYvMkXXzQ?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">For my project, I had the privilege of meeting and interviewing Dr. Salman Zafar, an active member of the Staten Island community as well as a Pakistani immigrant with a fascinating story to tell.\u00a0 Throughout our time together he stressed to me, over and over again, the critical importance of education in his life and how it can be used to make a difference in the world.\u00a0 Education was the whole reason why he and his wife chose to uproot their lives in Pakistan and make the transition to life in New York City.<\/p>\n<p>Through his words, he spreads a message of hope that through understanding, education, and mutual respect, people will come to better understand each other despite their differences.\u00a0 Everyone, but in particular young people, must arm themselves with knowledge to combat ignorance and hate in this world.\u00a0 The younger generations, as Dr. Zafar said, are the future and that is why he enjoys speaking with them.\u00a0 He encourages them to step outside their comfort zone, to visit mosques, to get to know the Pakistani community and learn more about their culture and their faith.\u00a0 As he said many times throughout the interview: \u201cUnless you see, you will not know.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>History and Development of Pakistan<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The nation of Pakistan is itself only a few decades old, having been formally declared its own country recently\u00a0on August 14,\u00a01947.\u00a0 Despite Pakistan\u2019s relatively novice status as a nation, however, the history of human habitation in that region dates back thousands of years.\u00a0 Modern-day Pakistan can actually trace its roots all the way back to the Indus Valley Civilization, where the technologically advanced cities of Harappa and Mohenjo-Daro were built.\u00a0 Over the next few centuries, the area would be repeatedly invaded, conquered, and placed under empirical rule.\u00a0 It was the Achaemenid Empire for nearly 200 years, then came under Greek control under Alexander the Great, then was absorbed into the Mauryan Empire, which conquered most of South Asia\u00a0 The Mughal Empire was one of the last dynasties to rule the Pakistani region before the British seized control of it in 1857.\u00a0 Through the British East India Company, Great Britain had been asserting great power all over the world.\u00a0 Their empire was so vast, in fact, that it was said the sun never set in the British Empire.\u00a0 Before asserting their control over the Pakistan region, Britain had heavily involved itself\u00a0in India and China, two major South Asian countries.\u00a0 This meant that Pakistan was frequently caught up in matters involving both nations.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>Quick Facts About Pakistan<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>\n<div style=\"text-align: left;\">Received independence from Great Britian on August 14, 1947<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<li>Largest city: Karachi<\/li>\n<li>Official languages: English and Urdu<\/li>\n<li>Sixth most populous country in the world (180,440,005 as of 2012)<\/li>\n<li>Second most populous Muslim-majority country<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>Immigration and Mobility<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Pakistani immigration to the United States, in large percentages to New York City, began largely towards the end of the twentieth century.\u00a0 The 1970s and 1980s, in particular, were big years for Middle Eastern and South Asian immigration, including Pakistani.\u00a0 Dr. Zafar and his wife came to New York in 1981 and settled on Staten Island shortly thereafter.\u00a0 He, along with several other members of the Pakistani community on Staten Island, were all in agreement that education and economic opportunities were the main driving forces that prompted many to leave their homeland and take the risk of coming to the US.\u00a0 Higher education was extremely important to Dr. Zafar\u2019s father, who received his Ph.D. in Indiana, and so it became important for Dr. Zafar as well.\u00a0 He studied in Pakistan and finished medical school in Lahore, then came to New York and did his residency and rotations in the United States.\u00a0 His wife, too, is in the medical field and works in the hematology\/oncology unit of Staten Island University Hospital.\u00a0 Their entire motivation for emigration from Pakistan was the pursuit of higher education and higher level jobs.\u00a0 Their motivation to come to New York, according to Dr. Zafar, was the fact that it is a city of immigrants.\u00a0 \u201cI could have gone to the Midwest like my father, but New York is a city of immigrants.\u201d\u00a0 He felt his family wouldn\u2019t feel like such outsiders if they were in a city where such a large percentage of the population was foreign-born. While Dr. Zafar feels his immigration story is a little different than most, due mainly to his father\u2019s previous ties to the US before his immigration, he does confirm that education and economic mobility were being sought by most Pakistani immigrants coming in the late twentieth century.\u00a0 And it is true that those coming to this country during that time found social and economic mobility.\u00a0 Like Dr. Zafar, a great number of Pakistani immigrants before 2000 were professionals with a great deal of undergraduate and graduate level degrees.\u00a0They assimilated with general ease into American society and even incorporated some of their culture into America\u2019s Western culture.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>Impact of 9\/11<\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">Unfortunately, the heinous terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, which killed more than 3,000 people in New York City, brought a halt to the mobility and transnational relations Pakistani immigrants had always been able to enjoy.\u00a0 While Americans now know that the attacks were planned and carried out by the extremist group Al-Qaeda, suspicion at the time of the attacks fell on anyone thought to resemble the terrorists in any way.\u00a0This included the Pakistani community, despite the fact that they had nothing to do with the 9\/11 attacks.<\/p>\n<p>Socially, Pakistani-Americans, along with any other immigrant groups regarded as \u201cterrorists,\u201d were stigmatized by society.\u00a0 Whereas before the September 11<sup>th<\/sup> attacks no one ever bothered to ask someone\u2019s ethnic or religious background, after 9\/11 any Muslim or person of Middle Eastern or South Asian descent became suspect. Economically, Pakistani-Americans were hit hard as well by the changing climate in New York and the United States.\u00a0 Not long after the attack on the World Trade Center, reports of labor-market discrimination and xenophobic attitudes toward Muslim and Arab men began to explode.\u00a0 Furthermore, it seems the wage disparity that grew for Arab American men between 2000 and 2002 came about not from a change in the structure of wages or in any observable way beyond ethnicity.\u00a0 While Pakistani-Americans, even the non-professionals who had followed family members and worked lower-paying jobs, had once enjoyed as much economic freedom as anyone else, they were targeted and discriminated against in exorbitant amounts after September 2001.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>Concluding Remarks<\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">Overall, the Pakistani community is a group that has faced tremendous challenges, but has also received tremendous opportunities as well.\u00a0 As Dr. Salman Zafar will tell you, the opportunities in the United States are like no other.\u00a0 And while he has been part of a group that has faced heavy and unjust discrimination in light of the September 11 terrorist attacks, he doesn\u2019t blame anyone for their misguided judgments.\u00a0Becoming better educated and learning to ignore the media is what he recommends.\u00a0 Our generation is the future and it is through us that later generations will learn either to love or to hate their neighbors.\u00a0 By educating ourselves on the history and culture of those who are different than us, we are paving the way for a brighter chapter in American history.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>Bibliography<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Bakalian, Anny and Mehdi Bozorgmehr. \u201cMuslim American Mobilization.\u201d <i>Diaspora: A Journal of Transnational Studies<\/i> 14, no. 1 (2005): 7-43. <a href=\"http:\/\/muse.jhu.edu\/\">http:\/\/muse.jhu.edu\/<\/a>. (Accessed February 25, 2013). Bommakanti, Kartik. \u201cThe Use of Force\u2014Stability and Instability: India, Pakistan, and China.\u201d <i>India Review<\/i>; Jul-Sep 2012, Vol. 11 Issue 3, p161-190, 30p. (Accessed March 9, 2013). Cristillo, Dr. Louis. \u201cReligiosity, Education and Civic Belonging: Muslim Youth in New York City Public Schools.\u201d Presented at the Muslim Youth in NYC Public Schools Conference, Teachers College, Columbia University, April 30, 2008, 13. Davila, Alberto and Marie T. Mora. \u201cChanges in the earnings of Arab men in the US between 2000 and 2002.\u201d <i>Journal of Population Economics<\/i>; Nov 2005, Vol. 18 Issue 4, p587-601, 15p. (Accessed March 9, 2013). Interview with Dr. Salman Zafar conducted by author, April 5, 2013. Szczepanski, Kallie. \u201cPakistan: Facts and History.\u201d <i>Asian History<\/i>. <a href=\"http:\/\/asianhistory.about.com\/od\/pakistan\/p\/PakistanProf.htm\">http:\/\/asianhistory.about.com\/od\/pakistan\/p\/PakistanProf.htm<\/a>. (Accessed April 10, 2013). Turnlin, Karen C. \u201cSuspect First: How Terrorism Policy Is Reshaping Immigration Policy.\u201d <i>California Law Review<\/i> 92. 4 (2004), [1173-1239], <a href=\"http:\/\/www.jstor.org\/stable\/3481320\">http:\/\/www.jstor.org\/stable\/3481320<\/a>. (Accessed March 3, 2013).<\/p>\n<div>\n<div>\u00a0 \u00a0<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Pakistani community is an immigrant group that has largely experienced great social and economic mobility in the United States while also maintaining transnational ties to their homeland.\u00a0 That spirit of mobility and transnationalism, however, was greatly impacted by the events of September 11, 2001. By Sarah Cappiello, Wagner College &#8217;16 Interview with Dr. Salman [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":70,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17,23],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-271","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-immigrant-nyc","category-middle-eastern-immigration","et-bg-layout-dark","et-white-bg"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/faculty.wagner.edu\/lori-weintrob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/271","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/faculty.wagner.edu\/lori-weintrob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/faculty.wagner.edu\/lori-weintrob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/faculty.wagner.edu\/lori-weintrob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/70"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/faculty.wagner.edu\/lori-weintrob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=271"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/faculty.wagner.edu\/lori-weintrob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/271\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/faculty.wagner.edu\/lori-weintrob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=271"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/faculty.wagner.edu\/lori-weintrob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=271"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/faculty.wagner.edu\/lori-weintrob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=271"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}