Afghans in the United States

BACKGROUND AND POPULATION

Afghanistan has historically been the link between Central Asia, Middle East and the Indian sub-continent. It is a nation made up of many different nationalities -- the result of many invasions and migrations. Within its current borders there are at least 19 major ethnic groups: Baluch, Chahar Aimak, Turkmen, Hazara, Pashtun, Tajik, Uzbek, Nuristani, Arab, Kirghiz, Pashai, Persian, and others.


Historically, the Pashtun has been the most dominant. The term "Afghan," for example, generally is viewed by other peoples in the country to refer to the Pashtuns. Today the Pashtuns represent about 50% of the total population. Tajiks come in second with 25%.


Within the country there are tiny Hindu, Sikh and Jewish communities, but the vast majority of this people are Muslims. Many ethnic groups, the Pashtun for example, consider Islam to be one of the defining aspects of their ethnic identity. Islam was brought to Afghanistan during the eight and ninth century by the Arabs. A conservative estimate of the Afghan population in the United States, based on figures provided by the INS, is 60,000. Some say that the San Francisco Bay area alone includes 40,000 people of Afghan descent. Northern Virginia is the second largest community, with about 20,000 people. There are some 10,000 in the Los Angeles area, and there are other communities in New York, Georgia, Oregon, and Texas. The most active community is in the San Francisco Bay area; it supports eight mosques and many cultural organizations and businesses.


The Afghan population in the United States is diverse in terms of religious affiliation, ethnicity and social class. While the majority of Afghans in the United States are Pashtun and Tajik, there is an Uzbek minority in New York, as well as some Afghan Jews, Hindus and Hazaras scattered around the country.

Since 1999, the United States has admitted those refugees who fled to Pakistan after 1996 when the Taliban came to power. Of these refugees, more than half are Tajik. The majorities are educated and speak Dari, an Afghan dialect of Farsi (Persian). The second category, the WAR cases, represents nearly two-thirds of the 4,256 Afghan refugees who have been approved for resettlement since 1999. They are women who fled Afghanistan after the Taliban took over. Since 1999, about 2,800 have been approved to come to the U.S. The percentage of Tajiks (nearly 70%) among these cases is even higher than it is for other recent Afghan refugee groups. Urban professionals make up more than half of the cases; of these, nearly a third are highly trained professionals (primarily doctors, engineers, and lawyers). The rest are mostly teachers, but there are also clerks, office administrators, skilled craftswomen, service workers (maids, beauticians, and cooks), technicians, academics, journalists, and artists. In 2000, about one-third of the refugees admitted were widows, but by 2001 the number increased to more than half. More recent cases belong to the middle and lower socioeconomic classes and are arriving in the United States with less education and fewer economic and social resources.

SOUTHERN BAPTIST WORK WITH THE AFGHAN-AMERICAN POPULATION

There is no known church that is focusing primarily on reaching the Afghan people groups. However, the SBC lists nine churches that minister to the Farsi speaking Iranians in the US. Some of these churches minister to Afghan-American people groups. Persian Christian Church (Emanuel) in West Hills, California has few Dari (an Afghan dialect of Farsi) speaking Afghan members.

We pray that many state conventions, associations and churches will intentionally reach out to the Afghan-American people living in North America.

TOP 15 METRO AREAS WITH AFGHAN-AMERICAN POPULATION (Census 2000)

TOP TEN STATES WITH AFGHAN-AMERICAN-OWNED BUSINESSES