Pakistanis Second Fastest Growing Group Among Asian-Americans

[Riaz Haq]

There are now more Asians migrating to the United States than Hispanics,  reflecting a  decline in illegal
immigration as American employers increase their demand for
high-skilled workers. About 430,000 Asians, or 36 percent of all new immigrants, arrived in
the U.S. in 2010, according to the latest census data. That's higher than 370,000, or 31 percent, who were Hispanic.

A study published by the Pew Research Center details what it describes as "the rise of Asian-Americans",  a
highly diverse and fast-growing group making up roughly 5 percent of the
U.S. population. Mostly foreign-born and naturalized citizens, their
numbers have been boosted by increases in visas granted to specialized
workers and to wealthy investors as the U.S. economy becomes driven less
by manufacturing and more by technology.

 The Pew survey is based on an analysis of census data as well as
interviews with 3,511 Asian adults living in the U.S., conducted by cell
phone or landline from Jan. 3 to March 27. The poll has a margin of
error of plus or minus 2.4 percentage points for all respondents, higher
for subgroups.


Pakistani-Americans (pop: 409,163) are the seventh largest community among Asian-Americans, behind Chinese (3.8 million),  Filipinos (3.4 million), Indians (3.2 million), Vietnamese (1.74 million),  Koreans (1.7 million) and Japanese (1.3 million), according to Asian-American Center For Advancing Justice . They are still a miniscule fraction of the overall US population. However, their numbers have more than doubled in the last decade due to increased immigration, according to US Census 2010 data. With 100% increase since 2000, Pakistanis are the second fastest growing Asian immigrant group in the United States. With median household income of $63,000, Pakistani-Americans also earn more than an average American household. The most common jobs of Pakistani-Americans include doctors, engineers, 
accountants, salespersons, administrators/managers and financial analysts, and 55 per cent hold at least a
bachelor’s degree which is higher than 49% of all Asian-Americans and almost twice the 28% of overall American population with college degrees.



Here are some of the highlights of Pakistani-American data from US Census 2010 as gleaned from a report titled "A Community of Contrasts Asian Americans in the United States: 2011" published by Asian-American Center For Advancing Justice:

1. There are 409,163 Pakistani-Americans in 2010, the 7th largest Asian-American community in America.

2. Pakistani-American population doubled from 2000 (204,309) to 2010 (409,163), the second largest percentage increase after Bangladeshis' 157% increase in the same period.

3.  The median household income of Pakistani-American families is nearly
$63,000 versus $51,369 average for all Americans.

4. 55% of Pakistanis have a bachelor's degree or higher.

5. 55% of Pakistanis own their own homes.

6. 6% of Pakistani-American population is mixed race.

7. 65% of Pakistanis in America are foreign-born. 57% of foreign-born Pakistani-American population is made up of naturalized citizens.

8. There are 120,000 Pakistani legal permanent residents of which 42% are eligible to naturalize.

9. There were 69,202 immigrant visas issued to Pakistanis from 2001 to 2010, the 5th highest among Asian nations.

10. 28% of Pakistanis have limited English proficiency.

11. 15% of Pakistanis are classified as poor; only 1% of them are on public assistance.

12. 8% of Pakistanis are unemployed, a figure lower than the general population of Americans.


13. Median age of Pakistanis in America is only 29 years, lower than most of the Asian groups and the national median age of 36.8 years.

Pakistani-American community is still relatively young when compared with other immigrant groups. More of the Pakistanis in America are college educated than the general population of whites and various immigrant groups. The youthful energy and higher education levels of Pakistani-Americans are opening doors for them to rise and shine in America, in spite of the current economic difficulties in their adopted land of opportunities.

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[Riaz Haq]

Upscale Pakistani-American restaurant near the White House in WashingtonDC feeds the poor and homeless every single day . Served 16,000 free meals in 2018| WJLA

Sakina Halal Grill looks like your typical high-end restaurant located just blocks from the White House. During the lunchtime rush hour, many customers flock to the grill for the all you can eat buffet of authentic Pakistani Indian food.

However, it's anything but just another restaurant.

Beyond the delicious flavors you find, the warm Chai Latte or fresh lemon water, you would never know that homeless people are walking in and out to experience the same thing paying customers are.

https://youtu.be/GIHVwDlJUQ8

[Riaz Haq]

Four years ago, Maliha Javed, an immigrant from Pakistan, was not paying attention to politics. A community college student in suburban Atlanta, she was busy paying for books and studying for classes. She did not vote that year.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/25/us/georgia-asian-american-voters...

But the past four years changed her. The Trump administration’s Muslim travel ban affected some of her friends. The child separation policy reminded her of living apart from her parents for three years during her own move to the United States. Then, this summer, the discovery that she was pregnant made it final: On Election Day, she marched into the Amazing Grace Lutheran Church near her house and voted for the first time in her life. She chose Joseph R. Biden Jr.

“I want it to be a better country for him to grow up in,” said Ms. Javed, who is 24 and is having a boy.

Ms. Javed is part of a small but powerful new force in Georgia politics: Asian-American voters. She lives in Gwinnett County, Georgia’s second-most populous county and the one with the largest Asian-American population. Mr. Biden, who narrowly defeated President Trump in Georgia, won Gwinnett County by 18 percentage points, a substantial increase over Hillary Clinton’s performance four years ago and only the second time the county went blue since the 1970s.

----------------
https://www.abc12.com/2020/11/07/muslim-vote-helps-secure-michigan-...

- Roughly 146,000 votes give now President-elect Joe Biden the edge over President Donald Trump in the Great Lakes State. That margin was even tighter in 2016 when Trump carried Michigan with 10,700 more votes than Hillary Clinton.

By and large, the tight margins of victory in certain states for either candidate highlight how critical every vote is, and perhaps more importantly, the hard work of expanding the electorate. Muslim civic engagement nonprofit Emgage Michigan did just that for the Biden/Harris ticket in 2020, according to the organization’s executive director.

“I want everyone to know that Muslims played a huge role for Biden to win Michigan and the nation itself," said Nada Al-Hanooti, Executive Director of Emgage Michigan.

Al-Hanooti says their efforts resulted in 80,000 absentee and early votes from Muslims. The exact number of Muslim votes cast in Michigan isn’t something that is officially known yet.

She says the president’s ban on visitors from predominantly Muslim countries played a major factor for Muslim families, among other serious social issues. Biden pledged to end the ban on day one if elected.

[Riaz Haq]

Pakistani-Americans in Biden Administration as of 1/25/21:

Ali Zaidi, Deputy Climate Change Advisor in the White House

Salman Ahmad, Director of Policy Planning in US State Department

Saima Mohsin. US Attorney in Detroit, MI in Department of Justice (DOJ)

[Riaz Haq]

Pakistani Americans are the eighth largest Asian American ethnic group after Chinese American, Filipino American, Asian Indian Americans, Vietnamese Americans, Korean Americans, Japanese Americans and Cambodian American communities. They are also the second largest South Asian American ethnic group, after Asian Indian Americans, and have one of the largest Muslim American ethnic groups in the United States, after the African American community.


https://geriatrics.stanford.edu/ethnomed/pakistani/introduction.html

Pakistan is ranked as the 12th highest source country for immigration into the United States. Compared to other heritage groups in the United States, Pakistani Americans are well educated with an estimated 60% holding a bachelor’s degree or higher professional degrees.

According to the 1990 U.S. Census, there were 81,691 individuals who identified themselves as of Pakistani origin. A U.S Census Bureau American community survey in conducted in 2005 showed that there has been a tremendous growth of the Pakistani American population with an estimated 210,000 (+/- 18,989) persons reporting a Pakistani descent who are currently living in the United States. (U.S. Census Bureau, 2005)

The Census Bureau, however, excluded the population living in institutions, college dormitories, and other group quarters from all population groups. The Pakistani embassy estimates the number of people of Pakistani origin living in United States to be much higher, closer to 600,000. (Government of Pakistan, 2004, p. 30)

There are two distinct groups of Pakistani older adults in the United States:
1. Older adults who immigrate to the US
This group consists of the parents or grandparents who immigrated to the US to be reunited with their adult children and to spend their remaining days in the care of their children.

2. Adults who immigrate to the US and live here and become older adults
This group consists of the professionals and their nuclear families who immigrated to this country in the 1950s and 1970s. Their acculturation trajectory is very different from that of the first group as these subjects have often joined the American work force and lived here for many years and may be well acculturated into the American culture.

Given their degree of acculturation, this group’s communication skills, decision-making patterns and clinical adherence patterns are likely to differ significantly from those of the older adults who immigrate to the US, to be reunited with their adult children.

Preferred Cultural Terms
The preferred term for Americans with roots in Pakistan is Pakistani American, regardless of their province of origin in Pakistan.

Currently, an estimated 10% of Pakistani Americans are over the age of 55 and the estimated percentage of older adults (>65 years) is about 4.1 percent.

Between the periods of 1989–1992, an estimated 2,433 elders over the age of 60 years emigrated from Pakistan to the United States. In 2005, it was estimated that there were a total of 9342 Pakistani elders with the elderly men (53.3%) slightly outnumbering the women (46.7). About 95.9 % of the Pakistani elders were foreign-born (Young & Gu, 1995; US Census Bureau, 2005).

[Riaz Haq]

#US Congressman Jamaal Bowman, #Democrat, #NewYork, introduces resolution in House to designate March 23 as ‘Pakistan Day’. He initiated the “landmark resolution”. It is the first such resolution introduced in the US Congress. #PakistanDay2023 #Pakistan
https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/international/world-news/...


The resolution emphasised the importance of recognising and paying tribute to those who foster ethnic pride and enhance the profile of cultural diversity, which strengthens the fabric of the US communities.

Bowman in fact stated that it was an honour for him to introduce the resolution and stressed the importance of standing with the people of Pakistan during their time of crisis.

Bowman expressed his solidarity with Pakistan, which has been hit by a natural disaster and conveyed his message of peace and love to the people of Pakistan.

The resolution also highlighted that Pakistan Day provides an excellent opportunity for all US residents to learn more about Pakistan’s rich heritage and foster an appreciation for its ancient culture among future generations.

Pakistan’s ambassador to the US, Masood Khan, thanked Bowman for his initiative, which would bring the two countries and their people closer to each other.

[Riaz Haq]

A Facebook Internship That Led to a 650-Guest Wedding Celebration

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/07/28/style/zabreen-khan-hamza-chouder...

In New York, Hamza Choudery and Zabreen Khan quickly bonded over a shared culture and cricket. This month they were married in Lahore.

Hamza Shabbir Choudery was trying to play it cool. He had casually asked his colleague Zabreen Akhtar Khan to grab a bite to eat after work one Friday in the fall of 2017.

Ms. Khan and Mr. Choudery, both 27, met in New York the year before as summer interns at Facebook, now known as Meta. After finishing college, each moved to Manhattan to join the company full time in the global sales department. They then became friends.

They worked on the same floor, and Mr. Choudery regularly made excuses to pass by Ms. Khan’s desk. Her office mates noticed. “When I wasn’t around, they would egg Hamza on, and when he wasn’t around, they would tell me, ‘Oh my God, he really likes you, has anything happened yet?’,” Ms. Khan said.

Their casual, after-work dinner lasted for several hours, with the two going out for dessert afterward, then chatting on the fire escape of Mr. Choudery’s East Village apartment. “That’s the anniversary that we celebrate, because that is when things got serious for us,” Mr. Choudery said.

Over the next few months their relationship slowly evolved. “I embarrassingly said, ‘I wonder what your parents will think of me,’” Mr. Choudery said, laughing. “I had a lot of faith in the relationship from the get-go.”


Ms. Khan, who is now a partner at the venture capital firm Phenomenal Ventures, was born and raised in Lahore, Pakistan. She has a bachelor’s degree in science, technology and society from Stanford and an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School.

Mr. Choudery, a founder of Autoblocks, an artificial intelligence start-up company, was born in Bangial, a village in Pakistan about three hours outside Lahore. His family moved to the United States when he was 3, and he grew up on a farm in Pocomoke City, Md. He has a bachelor’s degree in finance and information systems from University of Maryland and an M.B.A. from Stanford Graduate School of Business.

“There was a very easy bond between us because there were a lot of shared values and shared experiences,” Ms. Khan said. “We’re both a little bit Pakistani, a little bit American.”

Both also like cricket. “He knows all the players’ names, we can reference the same Pakistan cricket matches that happened 15 years ago,” Ms. Khan said. Mr. Choudery even joined the same cricket league as Ms. Khan’s older brother in New York, endearing him more to her family.

[Riaz Haq]

US Visa issuance 2018 to 2023: Non-immigrant visas showed a steady increase from 40,679 in 2018 to 80,852 in 2023, and while Immigrant visas fluctuated, they too increased from 10,114 in 2018 to 16,320 in 2023 – Gallup Pakistan Digital Analytics Report on Immigration and Non Immigration Visas to US from Pakistan

https://gallup.com.pk/post/36260#:~:text=US%20from%20Pakistan-,US%2...

Has there been an increase in influx from Pakistan to US between 2018 to 2023?

Non-immigrant visas showed a steady increase from 40,679 in 2018 to 80,852 in 2023. Conversely, immigrant visas fluctuated, with 10,114 in 2018 experiencing a noticeable drop in 2020 with only 3,750 visas issues, most likely due to Covid-19, however, they rebounded by 2023 with 16,320 immigrant visas issued within the year. These numbers reflect the dynamic nature of travel and immigration patterns over the past few years.

KEY FINDINGS FROM THIS PRESS RELEASE:

There was a fluctuating trend of non-immigration US visas issued for Pakistanis in 2023, with peaks in October (9,565) and December (7,483), and low points in July (4,795) and April (5,723), highlighting potential seasonal patterns or shifts in travel behaviour.
Across categories: “Business & pleasure” lead with 85.11% of the visas issued, followed by “Student” making up 3.67% of the visas issued, while “Temporary Workers” only made up 1.33% of the total Non-Immigration US Visas issued in 2023.
Immigrant US visa issuance for Pakistanis fluctuated month-to-month, reflecting varying demand.
Across categories: “Special immigrants” lead with 46.65%, closely followed by “Immediate relatives of US citizens” at 32.22%, while “Employment based” visas only made up 1.41% of the Immigrant US Visas issued in 2023, indicating a lesser reliance in work-related sponsorship.
Non-immigrant visa issuance showed a steady increase from 40,679 in 2018 to 80,852 in 2023.
Immigrant visa issuances fluctuated, with 10,114 visas issued in 2018, experiencing a noticeable drop in 2020 with only 3,750 visas issues, most likely due to Covid-19, however, they rebounded by 2023 with 16,320 immigrant visas issued within the year. These numbers reflect the dynamic nature of travel and immigration patterns over the past few years.
Examining the Non-Immigrant Visa issuances in Pakistan, Islamabad Consulate led with 52.2%, while the Karachi Consulate followed with 47.8%.