The post-September 11 world has made life worse for working immigrants. In the name of national security, the U.S. government has intensified its border patrol and aviation systems, scrutinizing immigrants coming into the country and deporting those who are considered a threat to the safety of Americans.
Advocates allege that the 9/11 attacks created a backlash against immigrants, claiming that racial discrimination nowadays is more palpable than ever before in American society. The number of detained and deported immigrants has increased dramatically over the last five years, and cases of hate crimes and profiling escalated across the country.
Alex Kabba, of African Abroad and Mohsin Zaheer, editor of Sada-e-Pakistan, ethnic newspapers in New York, shared their thoughts about their coverage of the most important issues that their own communities face since 9/11 and how they see the future.
Alex Kabba worked for 15 years at major magazines in his home country of Nigeria. Because of his critical reporting on General Sani Abacha’s military regime, in 1995 he sought asylum in the United States. Kabba founded African Abroad, a bi-weekly that serves the African immigrant community in the United States, in February 2000. Currently, the paper has a national circulation of 55,000.
A native of Lahore, Pakistan, Mohsin Zaheer worked as a reporter for several Urdu newspapers in Pakistan from 1990 to 2001. When he came to the United States, right after September 11, 2001, he joined Sada-e-Pakistan, an Urdu-language weekly based in Brooklyn, “Little Pakistan.” The paper has a circulation of 20,000 to 25,000.
What is the most important story you have covered since the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001?
KABBA: There have been two issues: the economy and xenophobia.
It has been hard economically because so much money has been spent on Iraq. This affects our community and the United States in general.
The money given to the people affected by 9/11 in New York was not enough. Instead of spending on health care, the U.S. government has allocated more for Iraq and is not doing anything for the people in the United States.
Secondly, a wave of xenophobia grips the United States. There has been a backlash against immigrants by people who can’t distinguish between terrorists and honest working immigrants.
The government enacted nationalistic laws to restrict residency. To get a job or a residency, immigrants have to prove that they have legal status. When they are documented they don’t have any problems, except for African Muslims or those whose names sound Muslim. They’re targeted at the airport and other public places because of racial profiling. Most of them have kept a low-profile.
This is a country of immigrants, although a negligent few are here to do harm to the United States. Somebody who wants to work as a day laborer is not a terrorist. Currently, the voice to defend immigrants is not strong. We try to promote the good side of immigration.
ZAHEER: Let me emphasize first: 9/11 was a horrendous event. I don’t have enough words to condemn it. Those terrorists were the biggest enemies of humanity. They defamed Islam, making all Muslims suffer. They forced the United States to adopt harsh policies.
The most important story we covered over the last five years was the huge impact of 9/11 on the Pakistani community in the United States. After 9/11, to my estimation, more than 50,000 members of the Pakistani community left the United States – not just voluntarily, but most of them were deported. The U.S. government chartered more than eight flights back to Pakistan.
Before 9/11, the United States was the land of opportunity, of civil liberties and human rights – not only for Americans but also for people all over the world immigrating to the United States. But 9/11 changed this country and the whole world.
How is your community dealing with the immigration and civil rights issues after 9/11?
KABBA: For us, it’s no problem getting a job. The majority of African immigrants are documented. Mostly, they come with their whole family and live across the United States. They are doing very well because they are highly educated – three-fifths of African immigrants received a university education, and two-thirds have graduated. Americans are the beneficiary of this brain-drain to the United States, as African immigrants work as doctors or own their own businesses.
ZAHEER: Today, there is a big gap of mistrust between the two worlds: the Muslim society and the western society. Nobody takes the right step for building a bridge between these two. Indeed, we as Muslims are consumed by the mistrust. As soon as anything happens in the world – in London, Madrid, Iraq, Afghanistan, or anywhere – people in western society assume the perpetrators must have been Muslims. If 9/11 hadn’t happened, we wouldn’t be suffering that much. So we are victims, too, but it’s hard for us to make other people understand that.”
How has your community been coping?
KABBA: We are coping very well. Not all Americans are against us; there are a few rednecks, a few talk-show hosts who just try to whip up popular sentiment. Since 2001 there has been no successful terrorist attack on this country. It’s a false alarm most of the time. The Republicans are just whipping up fear. After terrorist attacks like in Madrid or London people feel insecure and afraid, but a typical American still likes immigrants because they do the jobs that Americans don’t do.
ZAHEER: Until 2001, the Pakistani community continued to grow. More than 500,000 Pakistanis lived in the United States, most of them in big cities like Washington DC, Los Angeles, Atlanta, New York, or in New Jersey. But, due to the special registration policy for South Asians introduced after the attacks, and the strict and tough immigration policy of the current administration, the Pakistani community is no longer growing. People stopped coming to the United States.
After so many people left, the Pakistani community in New York and other U.S. cities suffered economically. Not only were the people gone, but also the customers for Pakistani shops.
Above all, a lot of Pakistani families and their relatives suffered. When the head of the family is deported, he leaves behind his wife and children. But we take care of our extended families, so when the father has to leave, more than five to10 family members are affected, not knowing where the father is, and how to survive without his salary.
What is the difference between 2002 and today? Is the situation becoming normal?
KABBA: Our African community is still rapidly growing. It is estimated that by the end of 2006, there will be 1.5 million African immigrants in the United States. Most of them live in immigrant-friendly cities, like New York, Chicago, Ohio, Atlanta, Washington D.C., Maryland, and our newspaper is growing, too.
ZAHEER: No. One year after 9/11, the Bush administration tried to open a line of communication between Muslims and the U.S. government. In 2002, the Department of Homeland Security and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) held meetings to improve the dialogue with the Muslim communities in the United States. At this point, life was going back to normal, but then other attacks happened, in Bali, Madrid, and London, adding to the existing problem.
Now, Pakistani Americans are scared again. Some days we wake up and we realize that our friends and neighbors have been arrested. Pakistanis are being picked up at their work. We don’t know how many eyes are watching us over. The last six months, it has become worse. And now, with the bomb plot to blow up the planes leaving from England, Pakistanis are afraid again.
What also happened to us is what we call “flight-phobia” – family members from Pakistan don’t come to visit us anymore because of all the problems. A friend of mine from Pakistan arrived here last week. He told me that all passengers on his flight from Islamabad to New York, including the board crew and pilots, had to enter a special room at the John F. Kennedy airport for special interrogations with officers of the Department of Homeland Security. Do they interview other people – or only us Pakistanis? We are treated like suspects. There may be some black sheep among us, maybe, but the impression still prevails that we are being singled out, discriminated against.
However, I think that five years after 9/11, the world is now much safer. The administration has done a lot, and in the last years no terrorist plots have succeeded in the United States. But the mistrust still prevails and the gap between the Pakistani community and the U.S. society is growing.
How is it possible to overcome this gap between immigrants and Americans?
KABBA: If there’s a regime change in the United States, with a more rational president – who doesn’t put terrorist and immigrants in one group for political ends – it will be better. In my opinion, the U.S. administration should concentrate on domestic problems and not on problems all over the world.
ZAHEER: We have to look at the root causes of the terrorist attacks, what were the reasons that provoked the so-called terrorists to do what they did. We try hard to show people that Pakistanis in general are good people, to make Americans believe that we’re peaceful human beings. The policy makers improved the official partnership between the United States and Pakistan, but there is still a gap between the two different societies. Unfortunately, this problem is still uncovered, nobody is bridging this gap. We have to overcome the gap between the cultures through mutual understanding and communication. Indeed, despite all of these problems, the United States is still the best country for immigrants – not only for those from Pakistan. Although discrimination has grown, we might still have more rights and liberty in this country than in our own.
The authors are editorial and communications interns of the Independent Press Association-New York.
