Pakistani American
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Pakistani American |
|---|
 ,  ,  |
| Total population |
|
Approximately 210,415[1] |
| Regions with significant populations |
| Northeast, West, South |
| Languages |
| American English, Urdu, Languages of Pakistan |
| Religions |
| Islam, Christianity, others |
| Related ethnic groups |
| Asian Indians, Asian Americans, South Asian Americans |
Pakistani Americans refers to someone born in the United States of Pakistani descent or to someone who has immigrated to the United States from Pakistan. A number of Pakistani Americans came to the United States via Pakistani communities in other countries such as United Kingdom. Most Pakistani Americans are Muslims by religion, but there are also Christians, Parsis,Baha'is, atheists and agnostics.
Contents |
[edit] History in the United States
Since Pakistan only came into existence in 1947, any documentation of the life of Pakistani Americans can technically only commence from that year. However, it should be noted that Muslim immigrants from India and the region that is now Pakistan entered the United States as early as the eighteenth century, working alongside their Hindu or Sikh brethren in agriculture, logging, and mining in the western states of California, Oregon, and Washington. Figures from the 1990 U.S. Census indicate that there are about 100,000 Pakistani Americans in the United States but since then the size of the Pakistani community has increased dramatically. The US Census Bureau has published in 2005 Community Survey Report that Pakistani American population stands at about 210,000 +/- 18989 [1] in 2005. However this census exclude the population living in institutions, college dormitories, and other group quarters from all population groups including Pakistani Americans but includes Permanent residents. The Pakistani embassy estimates the number of people of Pakistani origin living in United States to be much higher.Pakistani immigrants reside mainly in the states of New Jersey,New York,California,Texas,Illinois,Virginia,Maryland,Georgia and Michigan[2]
The Pakistani American population in Virginia and Maryland is primarily in Washington, DC metro area.
Approximately 35,000 Pakistani Americans live in New York City, primarily in the boroughs of Queens and Brooklyn making it the largest concentration of Pakistani Americans in the United States. In 2000, Pakistani Americans made up New York City's fifth largest Asian American group. Chicago, Houston and Washington, DC metropolitan areas also boast large Pakistani American populations.
Pakistan is the 12th highest ranked source country for immigration into the US, and the highest ranked Muslim nation.[3] Compared to other heritage groups in the US, Pakistani Americans are better educated with 54% holding a bachelors degree or higher.[4]
[edit] Languages
Pakistani Americans often keep hold of their native tongues, whether it be Urdu, Punjabi, Pashto, Sindhi, Seraiki, Kashmiri, Balochi, Gujarati or or any of the other plethora of Languages of Pakistan.
[edit] Religion
Most Pakistani Americans are devout Muslims. Religion figures prominently in the life of Pakistani American families, and the Quran and the teachings of the Prophet serve as the guidelines that Pakistani Muslims are supposed to follow throughout their lives.
The majority of Pakistanis belong to the Sunni sect of Islam, although a significant representation may also be found among the Shi'ite sect. In smaller towns in America where there may not be mosques within easy access, Pakistani Americans make trips to attend the nearest one on major religious holidays and occasions. Pakistani Americans worship at mosques alongside other Muslims who might trace their ancestry to all parts of the Islamic world and to India; there are generally no separate Pakistani American mosques.
Pakistani Americans also participate in and contribute to the larger Islamic community, which includes Arab Americans and African Americans, in America. They are part of the larger community's efforts to educate the country about the ideals of Islam and the teachings of the prophet Mohammed. Pakistani Americans have played important roles in the association the Muslim Students of America (MSA), which caters to the needs of Islamic students across the United States.
Although the overwhelming majority of Pakistani Americans are Muslims, there are also Hindus, Christians, and Zoroastrians within the community. Pakistani Christians, like Asian Indian Christians, worship at churches all over the country and share in the religious life of the dominant Christian culture in America. In recent times, Pakistani Zoroastrians (called Parsis) have come to the United States mainly from the cities of Lahore and Karachi. Apart from fellow Pakistanis, they mostly congregate with their Indian breathren as well as with Zoroastrians from Iran.
[edit] Economics
Most of the community today lives a comfortable, middle-class and upper-middle-class existence, although there might be some incidence of poverty among newer uneducated immigrants. These immigrants tend to take low-paying jobs involving manual or unskilled labor and tend to live in big cities where such jobs are readily available. Many Pakistani Americans also own their own businesses, including restaurants, groceries, clothing and appliance stores, newspaper booths, and travel agencies. It is common to include members of the extended and immediate family in the business.
An increasing number of Pakistani Americans work in the medical field. The Association of Physicians of Pakistani Descent of North America, called APPNA, has been meeting in various locations across the United States for the past 30 years. More information can be found at [2]
Pakistani Americans tend to follow the residence pattern set by other Americans, in that they move to more affluent suburbs as their prosperity increases. Members of the community believe in the symbolic importance of owning homes; accordingly, Pakistani Americans tend to save and make other monetary sacrifices earlier on in order to purchase their own homes as soon as possible.
Members of the family and the larger community tend to take care of each other, and to assist in times of economic need. Hence, it would be more common to turn to a community member for economic assistance rather than to a government agency. Relatively low levels of the community are therefore on welfare and public assistance.
[edit] Notable Pakistani Americans
[edit] Politicians
- Saqib Ali is a delegate-elect to the Maryland House of Delegates, having won the right to represent the 39th District in the 2006 elections.[5]
- Saghir "Saggy" Tahir serves as a New Hampshire State Representative. He is the only elected Muslim in the Republican Party.[6] In the 2006 elections, he was re-elected for a fourth term to represent Ward 2, District 9 in his home town of Manchester.[7]
[edit] Academia and Art
Pakistani Americans have achieved success in many fields, particularly in academia, where they hold positions of respect as faculty members in many prestigious universities. Some of them are:
- Mohammad Asad Khan (1940– ), a geophysicist and educator, is on the faculty of the geophysics and geodesy department at the University of Hawaii. He has also been a visiting scientist at numerous institutions, including NASA's Goddard Space Center.
- Mazhar Ali Khan Malik is a professor of economics and engineering and founder of the Pakistan League of America (PLA).
- Samuel Iftikhar (1923-1991) was an Asian scholar and reference librarian at the Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. for more than 25 years. He worked mainly in the Southern Asian section of the library.
- Samina Quraeshi (1946– ) is the director of design arts at the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) in Washington, D.C. She holds dual Pakistani and American citizenship and is a graduate of the Yale University School of Art and Architecture. She has been a design consultant who has run her own business.
- Akbar S. Ahmed US resident Pakistani anthropologist of global repute.
[edit] Literature
- Shahzia Sikander (born 1969 in Lahore, Pakistan) is a Pakistan-born American artist who specializes in Indian and Persian miniature painting. She has also created murals, installations, mixed-media works and performance art. She is a 2006 recipient of the MacArthur Fellows Program "genius grant". She currently resides in New York City.
- Rob Asghar is a writer and political commentator. His essays and commentaries have appeared in more than 30 newspapers around the world, including The Denver Post, The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Daily News, Los Angeles Times, The Philadelphia Inquirer and The Japan Times. Asghar has also been a columnist for Creators Syndicate and the Ashland Daily Tidings.
- Bapsi Sidhwa is a Pakistani novelist and playwright of Parsi-Zoroastrian background who now resides in Texas. Her novel Cracking India (which described the Partition of India) was the basis for Deepa Mehta's film Earth (1998 film).
[edit] Health and Medicine
- Dr. Salam Shahidi (1933-1992) was a leading medical researcher in the department of health, New York City. He was also vice-chairman of the Pakistan League of America (PLA) and president of a cultural organization called the National Association of Pakistani Americans.
- Dr. Muhammad Akhtar is currently the commissioner of Public Health in Washington, D.C., a position he assumed in 1991. He was born in Lahore, Pakistan, and has held important posts in the health departments of the states of Michigan and Missouri during the 1970s and 1980s.
- Dr. Amanullah Khan (1940– ), a physician, served on the faculty of West Pakistan Medical School. He was a fellow in hematology and oncology at the Wadley Institute of Molecular Medicine in Dallas, Texas, between 1966 and 1969, and has been the chair of the department of immunology from 1970. He is the author of several books and has written several articles in scholarly journals in his field.
- Dr. Shafi Bezar, a Manhattan surgeon, is also publisher of the community newspaper Awan, and president of the Pakistan League of America (PLA).
- Dr. Mohammed Sayeed Quraishi (1924– ) holds a doctorate from the University of Massachusetts. He has served as a member of the United Nations WHO team to Bangladesh and has been an entomologist at the Malaria Institute of Pakistan. He has served at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland and the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. He is the author of many books and received the Recognition and Appreciation of Special Achievement Award by the National Institute of Health in 1988.
[edit] Media
- Martin Bashir is the co-anchor of ABC News "Nightline" and is based in New York. Twenty-seven million American viewers tuned in to watch his 2003 documentary "Living with Michael Jackson," which featured exclusive access to the King of Pop and prompted a police investigation of the singer.
- Mansoor Ijaz is a businessman, the founder and chairman of Crescent Investment Management LLC (CIM), a New York investment partnership since 1990 that includes among others Lt Gen James Alan Abrahamson (USAF Ret), former director of President Reagan's Strategic Defense Initiative and the renowned German architect Joachim Hauser. He is also a commentator on Fox News.
[edit] Entertainment
There are Urdu radio stations in areas with high Pakistani population. Several cable and satellite providers offer Pakistani channels: GEO, ARY, PTV, and many more. Others have offered Pakistani content for subscription, such as when Pakistan played Australia for the Cricket World Cup in 1999. In July 2005, MTV premiered a spin-off network called MTV Desi which targets South Asian Americans in the U.S. which includes Pakistanis.[8]
There are also several famous Pakistanis in the American entertainment scene such as:
- Nadia Ali is a famous songstress best known as a former member of the band iiO. She has worked with many famous DJ's such as Armin Van Buuren.
- Mr. Capone-E is a rapper and producer from Los Angeles, California. He records for the Thump Records and Hi-Power labels.[9] According to his website, he has sold over 500,000 records.[10] Capone-E has collaborated with such hip hop performers as NB Ridaz, Lil Flip, and Nate Dogg.
- Bohemia, is a Pakistani American Rapper from the San Francisco. His music has been widely played in the American clubbing scene and a big impact on the streets of America. He has a large underground following and is widely recognized as the pioneer of Desi Hip Hop.
- Strings (band) is a Pakistani band that had their song "Naajanay Kyoun" from their album Dhaani included in the soundtrack from Spider-Man 2.
[edit] Pakistani Americans in Popular Culture
Babu Bhatt was a Pakistani immigrant who was befriended by Jerry Seinfeld in the popular 90's sitcom Seinfeld. He was portrayed somewhat steoreotypically as a fresh off the boat Pakistani immigrant who was unsuccesful in opening his own restaurant.
[edit] Major Pakistani American Gatherings
- Pakistan Independence Day parade: The event is held every year around August 14 (the date Pakistan recieved independence from Great Britian) in New York City.
- APPNA Conference: This event is organized every year by APPNA (Association of Pakistani Physicians in North America). The conference attracts hundreds of Pakistani American physicians and their families from all over North America. In August 2006 it was held in Chicago. The 2007 conference will be held in Orlando, FL.
[edit] See also
[edit] Notes and references
- ^ a b US demographic census. Retrieved on 2006-11-19.
- ^ http://www.pal-c.org/pkamericans.html
- ^ http://www.pakistanlink.com/nayyer/12212001.html
- ^ http://www.saalt.org/pdfs/Who_are_South_Asians.pdf
- ^ "Indo-Americans make a mark in US polls", Hindustan Times, November 8, 2006. Retrieved Dec. 10, 2006
- ^ Barnie Choudhury. "US Muslims flex political muscle", BBC, Friday, 23 January, 2004. Retrieved on Dec. 25, 2006
- ^ Representative Saghir A. Tahir (r). Retrieved on Dec. 25, 2006
- ^ MTV DESI[1]. Accessed June 8, 2006.
- ^ Answers.com. Mr.Capone-E. Accessed June 8, 2006.
- ^ Mr. Capone-E "News". Accessed June 8, 2006
[edit] External links
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