Afghan Americans (From: آمریکاییهای افغانتبار Amrikāyi-hāye Afghān tabar, Pashto: د امريکا افغانان Da Amrīka Afghanan) are Americans of Afghan descent or Americans of Afghan origin. They form the largest Afghan community in North America, second only to Canadian Afghans.
Afghan Americans may come from one of the ethnic groups in Afghanistan. They have long been considered by the United States Board of Immigration Appeals and the Census Bureau as white Americans, but a large number of individuals may also identify themselves as Middle Eastern or as Asian American, or even as "Central Asian" or "South Asian.".
The Afghan community in the United States was so minimal that many were accepted as refugees after the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in December 1979. Others had arrived similarly during and after the last war in Afghanistan.
Afghan Americans live and work throughout the United States. The states of California, Virginia, and New York have historically had the largest numbers of Afghan Americans. Thousands can also be found in Texas, Arizona, Georgia, Oklahoma, Washington, Idaho, North Carolina, Missouri, and Illinois. In 2022, the total number will be around 155,000.
History and population
Afghan Americans have a long history of immigrating to the United States, as they have been arriving since the 1860s. This was around the time that the Afghanistan-United States relationship was being built. Wallace Fard Muhammad claimed to be from Afghanistan.
A draft World War I registration card for Wallie Dodd Fard from 1917 shows that he lived in Los Angeles, California, as an unmarried restaurateur, and reports that he was born in Shinka, Afghanistan in 1893. Between the 1920s and 1940 s, hundreds of Afghans immigrated to the United States.
Between 1953 and early 1970, at least 230 people legally entered the United States. Some of them are students who have been awarded scholarships to study at American universities.
After the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979, around five million Afghans were displaced. They are forced to secretly migrate to (or seek refuge in) other countries. These Afghan refugees or asylum seekers found temporary shelter in neighboring Pakistan and Iran, and from there, thousands made their way to Europe, North America, Oceania and elsewhere in the world.
Under the law, those born in Pakistan, Iran or India are not Pakistani, Iranian or Indian. Their birth certificates and other legal documents confirm that they are Afghan citizens.
Starting in 1980, Afghan Americans arrived in the United States as families. They are accepted as refugees or asylum seekers. In some cases, a family is represented by only one parent due to the death of the other parent.
They began to settle in the New York metropolitan area, California (especially in the San Francisco Bay Area and the Los Angeles-Orange County area) and in other parts of the United States, where large Muslim community centers kept them engaged. The largest Afghan American population is in Fremont, California, followed by Northern Virginia and Queens in New York City.
Smaller Afghan American communities also exist in the states of Texas, Oklahoma, Washington, Arizona, Georgia, Idaho, Missouri, Illinois, Michigan, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Florida, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Maryland, Colorado, Utah, New Mexico, Ohio, Oregon, Tennessee, and so on. In Chicago, the 2000 census counted 556 Afghan Americans, approximately half located within the city.
The first immigrants to Afghanistan's families in the early 1980s were mostly wealthy and urban and educated elites. They are eligible to apply for temporary refugee status living temporarily in Pakistan and India, and many also lived in Germany before their resettlement to the United States. Family reunification programs bring less affluent people out of rural Afghanistan, many of whom are illiterate and maintain a more traditional village lifestyle.
The Child Citizenship Act 2000
Those admitted under 8 U.S.C. § 1157 and being a green card recipient under 8 U.S.C. § 1159(a) are legally protected against inadmissibility, even if they do not have a green card, Afghan passport, Afghan identity card, or other official documents.
In addition to these privileges or benefits, whenever one parent is naturalized, all of his or her children are legally entitled to naturalization through that American parent. This conferment of American citizenship legally applies to all children born outside the United States. Citizenship claims are subject to legal review under United States federal courts.
Post-September 11, 2001, the Afghan American community faced discrimination. Bush's plans to legalize jobs to help the economy stalled after the terror attacks in 2001. It halted talk of legalizing immigrants resulting in few immigrants being accepted from 2001 to 2005.
Four hundred six thousand eighty immigrant visas were issued in 2001. According to the Department of Homeland Security, three hundred ninety-five thousand five were issued in 2005.
Afghanistan's Allied Protection Act of 2009
In 2001, a news reporter stated without providing any references or sources that there were 200,000 Afghan Americans. This wild assumption may include Afghan Canadians. According to the U.S. According to the Census Bureau, there were approximately 65,972 Afghan Americans in 2006.
The American Community Survey (A.C.S.) estimated a total of 94,726 foreign-born Afghan immigrants lived and worked in the United States in 2016, representing a 30% increase over the past ten years. Thousands of Afghans have been admitted to the US under the Special Immigrant Visa (SIV) program since 2005.
Congress passed the Afghanistan Allied Protection Act of 2009, which was extended in 2014. Afghans who risked their lives during the US-led war in Afghanistan are eligible for SIV. This program for Afghans creates a legal pathway to U.S. citizenship for recipients and their immediate family members.
Evacuate 2021
Many Afghans, including those working with the United States, moved to the country after the Taliban took control of Kabul in August 2021.
Culture of Afghan Americans
Like other immigrants in the United States, Afghan Americans have gradually adopted the American way of life. But many of those who were born in Afghanistan still have a deep appreciation for Afghan culture.
For example, they often wear Afghan clothes at home, watch Afghan shows, listen to Afghan music, eat mostly Afghan food, and enthusiastically follow Afghan politics. They also value their oral traditions in telling stories. The stories they sometimes tell are about Mullah Nasreddin, Afghanistan's history, myths and religion.
Afghan Americans celebrate August 19 as Afghanistan Independence Day, corresponding to August 1919, when Afghanistan became fully independent following the signing of the Anglo-Afghan Treaty. Small festivals are held in cities with an Afghan community, usually in parks where black, red and green Afghan flags are seen around cars.
Eid al-Fitr and Nowruz remain popular festivals for Afghans. The 2021 American sitcom United States of Al showcases American and Afghan culture.
An October 2001 Washington Post article claimed that the Afghan-American community, "concentrated in the cities of Fremont and Hayward, is in many ways a microcosm of a country nearly a dozen time zones apart." Various community members commented that the Afghan community, after conflict and division at home, is still divided in the United States, but they all share a love for their country of origin.
Ethnicity and race
American Afghans consist of various ethnic groups present in Afghanistan, Tajiks, including Pashtuns, Uzbeks, Hazaras, Baloch, Turkmen, and many others. Since 1945, Afgan-Americans has been officially classified as Caucasian.
For purposes of the U.S. Census, Afghans are racially categorized as white Americans. However, some Afghan Americans may identify as Middle Eastern Americans, Central Asian Americans, or Asian Americans. In recent years, a new census category called SWANA (which includes American Afghans) has been proposed in an attempt to a more accurate categorization.
Religion
Most Afghan Americans follow Sunni Islam, with a sizeable Shia Muslim community. Many Afghan Americans living in Northern Virginia are members of the All Dulles Area Muslim Society, which has several local chapters.
After the September 11 attacks in 2001, an Afghan-American mosque in New York City donated blood, held a memorial for those killed inside the World Trade Center (W.T.C.) and funded a memorial for New York City firefighters.
There is an Afghan Jewish community in New York City, numbering about 200 families as of 2007. A group of Afghan Americans in the Los Angeles area practice Christianity. Hussain Andaryas is an Afghan Christian televangelist of Hazara ethnic origin.
Outside of the Abrahamic religions, there are communities of Afghan Hindus and Afghan Sikhs. They are primarily found in New York and Maryland.
Media
Afghan Americans have established media channels dedicated to their diaspora. Television channels such as Ariana Afghanistan, Payam-e-Afghan, Tuti TV, and Pamir T.V. are examples. In the 1990s, Afghan T.V. broadcast on KSCI Channel 18 in Los Angeles, as well as magazines such as Afghanistan Mirror.
Many organizations have also been formed in support of Afghan youth, solidarity, women's rights, and other causes. Recently a new radio station was also launched called Radio Afghan Los Angeles.
Demographics
Economy
Many Afghan Americans own real estate in Afghanistan, which in some cases, has been legally passed down from their ancestors for generations. Afghan Americans who arrived before the 21st century were found to be mostly found living close to other middle-class Americans. Some may be found living in upper-middle-class neighborhoods and earning high salaries.
Because most Afghan Americans were initially accepted as refugees under 8 U.S.C. § 1157, the government provides various forms of assistance (welfare) and chooses their city of residence. Some decided to move to other cities that had larger Afghan communities, but most stayed in the city where they first arrived.
They gradually abandoned government assistance programs and eventually mortgaged their homes. Their children are sent to colleges or universities. Those who cannot achieve this decide to build or franchise small businesses. Some become real estate agents, bank employees, office workers, hotel employees, shop employees, salespeople, security guards, drivers, mechanics, waiters, etc.
Like many other immigrants to the United States, Afghan Americans are often involved in operating small businesses. Many operate American and Afghan restaurants and Afghan markets, while some have been reported in the 1990s as vendors in Manhattan, where they have replaced Greek Americans in the field.
The family income of Afghan Americans (specifically, those who are called "refugees") averaged $50,000 in 2015. This figure is higher than Mexican Americans, Cubans Americans and slightly higher than Hmong Americans but lower than Vietnamese Americans.
Education
Afghan immigrants received in the United States before 1979 were highly educated. In contrast, today's immigrants have fled totalitarianism, genocide, torture, persecution, persecution, and military conflict. This group has difficulties in learning English.
Those who were educated in America during the mid-20th century and travelled back to Afghanistan faced difficulty finding jobs when they returned to the United States because their education, often in medicine and engineering, was often seen as out of date. After the 1979 Soviet invasion,
Afghanistan's education system deteriorated, causing many migrants in the late 20th century to place less emphasis on educational attainment.