Changing Trends in Pakistani Migration

by Zeba Khan

The precise number of Pakistani ex-patriots is impossible to calculate, any official number would fail to include the number of Pakistanis illegally living abroad, but the number of legal Pakistanis registered with Overseas Pakistani Foundation alone is four million. Since the sixties, vast numbers of Pakistanis were migrating to the US and UK for work and repatriation, but, Bashir Aabid, General Manager of the OPF said, that trend is due to change. "Previously, Pakistanis who went abroad found the atmosphere congenial and friendly, but now the situation has changed due to recent political events, and to say the least, it's really not congenial at all."

Aside from the grim number of hate-crimes in the USA, a testament to the changing trend is the visa line in the front of the US Embassy in Islamabad- it's gone. Where people once queued for blocks to consult with an immigrations officer, they are staying at home and shaking their fists in a roughly western direction.

"That's not really a surprise," Aabid said, "When even non-Muslim intellectuals like Noam Chomsky call the US a rogue state, and even nomadic Hindus in the Rajistan desert are protesting the situation, it's obvious that any Pakistani that was once pro-American will turn against it. You just cannot touch upon religion without touching upon these emotions, and now Pakistanis feel that there's just no point, no reason to go to places like the US or UK."

People other than Noam Chomsky, Rajistani Hindus, and formerly pro-American Pakistanis are feeling the same way. "It's one thing if a man does something wrong and you punish him, but that's not the case with what America is doing. One man may have done something wrong, but instead of punishing him they're punishing a whole country of people who have committed no crime," Riaz Mubarak, a professional driver said. "There may be Muslims in America right now, but I wouldn't go even if you paid me."

Muhammad Ghauri, a cloth merchant, dismissed America and its allies with a wave of his hand. "They think we're all fundamentalists, and their media makes us look like evil men. They don't like us, and I see no point in going there when people like me are so hated. Here I at least have dignity, over there I would have nothing."

Siraj Khan, a cab driver who returned from the US after the WTC bombing said he refuses to go back until he can be treated with dignity. "When I was in the airport a woman asked me where I was going. I told her I was heading to Pakistan. Her mouth dropped open, she took two steps back and didn't speak to me after that."

"Once I had an elderly woman in my cab, and when she got in she said "Thank God I have an American driver today"." (Siraj Khan has the light skin and features of his Pasthun ancestors.) "I turned around in my seat and faced her. I said lady I'm no American, I'm Pakistani She looked at my face and started crying. She threatened to jump out of the moving cab if I didn't stop and let her off right where she was. It was humiliating. My advice to any Pakistani who's foolish enough to thing about the US is to stay home and keep your self-respect. American dollars are worth nothing when you haven't any respect." So what advice would the General Manager of OPF offer for those Pakistanis who are already abroad? "Come back as soon as you finish your education and start a business here. May Allah help us, the situation is getting bad, and the only thing that America is good for now is its education."

Date/Time Last Modified: 6/18/2002 8:06:32 AM

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