In the year 2004, some 157 Pakistani physicians arrived in the United States on a J1 visa. Out of these, only 49 percent (57) were able to get the necessary documents and start their residency on time, ie July 1, 2004. The Pakistani American Public Affairs Committee (PAKPAC) said this in a statement on Monday. This is significantly lower than other countries, for example, India (70 percent on time), and Philippines (81percent on time).
Six months later, 74 percent (116) of the total 157 were able to join their residencies, which again is considerably lower than other countries, including India (86 percent) and Philippines (97 percent). It is surprising that 100 percent of physicians from a country like Syria were able to eventually start their residencies. From all the 108 countries, 94 residents have not arrived to date to join their residencies. 41 of these 94 (43.6 percent) are from Pakistan alone. The numbers are obviously suggestive of an emergent need to evaluate and understand these differences. Multiple solutions were suggested by the group.
The PAKPAC, held at meeting with the different US departments on Sunday, in which matters pertaining to welfare of Pakistani community were taken up.
The different departments represented in the meeting included United States Department of Justice, the United States Department of Homeland Security, the State Department, the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Transport Security Administration.
The Department of Justice was represented by William Sanchez: Special Council for Immigration-Related Unfair Employment Practices, DOJ, Civil Rights Division, Eric Treene: Special Council for Religious Discrimination, DOJ, Civil Rights Division, and Shaarik Zafar: Special Council for Nation Origin Discrimination, DOJ, Civil Rights Division.
At the discussion the PAKPAC representatives including Dr Raza Bokhari, President elect of PAKPAC, and Dr Saud Anwar, Secretary of PAKPAC spoke about the post 9-11 backlash including the religious and national origin discrimination.
The PAKPAC statement said: Dr Anwar presented the background of the backlash. This included some of the following information: Of the 2,760 people deported by US authorities in 2002, as many as 961 or over 34 percent were Pakistanis residing in the US. Over 600 immigration hearings were closed because the government designated the detainees to be of special interest to the government. In 2001, of the 1,264 deportation, 375 were Pakistanis, the highest number from any of the 24 Muslim countries whose nationals have been required to register." It added:"A survey conducted by Florida-based Bendixen and Associates performed for Amnesty International found that Pakistani Americans reported higher levels of discrimination and government targeting than Americans of Arab descent.
This survey report in August 2004 showed that about 31 percent of Pakistani Americans said they have experienced discrimination in their schools, workplaces or neighbourhoods over the past three years.
This is a much higher number compared to the twenty-one percent of Arab Americans who made the claim. About 63 percent of Pakistani Americans said it was local police who they felt was discriminating as opposed to the 21 percent Arab Americans said it was local police."
Comments
Comments are closed.