Discussion Post: Acculturation & Assimilation
By Sharon S. Joag

The Afghan crisis has been weighing in my mind since the Taliban returned to power on August 16, 2021. The Afghanistan history is complex, and deep; and the culture of the Afghan people is fraught with both fundamentalism and liberalism at different periods of time in its history. Now that the more fundamental Taliban government has returned, it has caused a dramatic scramble to flee the country.

I was especially interested in the time when the United States airlifted more than 80,000 Afghans and brought them to the United States. At that time, I wondered how the United States would process these immigrants. They had no visa, and they did not come through either a legal visa or work permit; neither were they considered illegal. This article discusses a program called the “humanitarian parole”, where foreigners can come to the United States, without a Visa and usually in emergency situations.

A Humanitarian Parole is a very kind and ethical program for the immigrants in need. However, this parole was given only to those immigrants that already had family ties to the United States and only to those immigrants who were air-lifted out of Afghanistan. There are still thousands more Afghans (approximately 40,000) who have applied for the humanitarian parole, and most have been denied. The application fee for the Humanitarian Parole Application is $575 per person, as found on the USCIS website: https://www.uscis.gov/forms/explore-my-options/humanitarian-parole.

The article I chose is titled, “Thousands of Afghans Face Narrow Path to Gain Entry to U.S.”, and can be accessed here: https://www.wsj.com/articles/thousands-of-afghans-face-narrow-path-to-gain-entry-to-u-s-11643727602?st=8l182hu6o8xbvfk&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink

It follows a family who fled from Afghanistan, into Pakistan where they are now living illegally on the outskirts of Islamabad. The family consists of a mother and her three children. They paid $2300 to the USCIS for the application fee for the Humanitarian Parole application and got denied. She was denied since she has no ties to the United States, and did not work for a United States.

Many Afghans have applied for the Humanitarian Parole application and have been denied. Refugee advocates, members of Congress, and US Government Officials encouraged many Afghans to apply to this program, not fully understanding that the United States only granted the Humanitarian Parole initially to speed up the processes when they initially airlifted and brought the Afghan civilians to the United States.  However, the process has now changed and they are only accepting Special Immigrant Visas (SIV) or Refugee applications which have a clearer path, on entry to the United States.
I feel that his important piece of information should have been outlined in bold print online, so the Afghanis don’t blindly fill out an application that they are sure to be denied. Also, the refugee advocates and the members of Congress should have been made aware of the changes that had occurred as far as which applications the Afghanis should fill out.

Resettlement of the Afghan refugees already in the United States is taking place, albeit slowly. Falicov describes the transition of migration that is “full of loss and disarray” (Falicov, 2016, pp.223). This is undoubtedly true for the Afghans. However, Falicov also talks about the young adult feeling a “separation from and attachment to a country and a national identity (which) may be dislocating both in the cognitive and the emotional levels. (Falicov, 2016, pp. 234). I agreed with Falicov for the most part, and for the immigrants that I had in my mind as I was reading the Falicov chapter. However, I tend to now disagree with these findings, in the case of the Afghan refugee.  Falicov was assuming that the country the immigrant is from has a sense and feeling of “home”, which may not be true for all Afghans, due to the country’s tumultuous history. 

While trying to resettle so many Afghans into the country, new specialized programs need to be put into place to provide adequate economic and social opportunities for the Afghans, as Falicov explains (Falicov, 2016, pp.226). Placing them initially with family is a short term fix, however, the families already in the United States will eventually feel the psychosocial and economic stress as well. The unrest and imbalance in the Afghan families and community will happen as they try and forge a new life in the American society, however there needs to be special programs and tools in place that can help these immigrant families to optimally adapt to our American society. Through this project I hope I will be able to find ways to advocate for the Afghan refugee, and their families.

 

References:
1. https://www.uscis.gov/forms/explore-my-options/humanitarian-parole

2. https://www.wsj.com/articles/thousands-of-afghans-face-narrow-path-to-gain-entry-to-u-s-11643727602?st=8l182hu6o8xbvfk&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink

3. Falicov, C. J. (2016). Migration and the Family Life Cycle. In Expanding Family Life Cycle, The: Individual, Family, and Social Perspectives, 5th Edition. (pp. 222-237, Ch. 12). Boston: Allyn & Bacon. 2016 Migration and the Family Life Cycle.pdf