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One of the weirder transitions in the U.S. for Afghan evacuee Mohammad Pashtun was learning to deal with American scammers.
He was driving for Lyft when he received a call saying a customer was challenging his identity. The caller asked for all his personal information, but Mr. Pashtun had gone through an orientation with Lutheran Social Services of the National Capital Area that included warnings about scams.
He was immediately wary. He hung up and called Lyft, which told him the company had nothing to do with the call.
“Over here, everything is more online, and people have to know how to defend,” he told The Washington Times. “I will never give my Social Security number.”
Mr. Pashtun’s experience is similar to those of thousands of other Afghans who have arrived in the U.S. since the fall of their home country in 2021. Trained as an engineer, he quickly found his degree was virtually meaningless. What matters in the U.S. economy are certifications, which he lacks.
He is about to take exams to become a concrete inspector and has stopped driving for Lyft to focus on English classes. He also offers electrical and plumbing repairs on Task Rabbit.
Three years after the fall of Kabul, the Afghan program is still an experiment for the evacuees and for the communities striving to welcome them.
More Afghans are arriving, though the number is a fraction of the rushed days of late 2021 when tens of thousands were whisked out of Kabul and sent to resettlement camps at U.S. military bases before being released into communities to find their way.
The federal government eventually provided some assistance. Initially, only aid organizations connected the new arrivals with rental homes, helped them find jobs and gave them a crash course in American culture.
Afghans who never had to worry about their credit suddenly had to build a financial portfolio to rent a home. Lutheran Social Services and other aid organizations helped them sign up for Social Security, obtain driver’s licenses, enroll children in school and get them immunized.
Lutheran Social Services said the community rushed to help. A Jewish community center offered the use of its showers, and mosques provided culturally appropriate clothing.
“We had so many donations. This community is so generous that we no longer had a place to put the donations. We were operating between piles of boxes,” said Kristyn Peck, CEO of Lutheran Social Services of the National Capital Area.
The organization delivered assistance to 4,500 Afghans in the first year.
Three years on, the arrivals have slowed dramatically. The new arrivals’ needs are persistent but different.
Volunteer drivers are particularly in demand for migrants who need to attend job interviews or other necessary appointments. Buying a vehicle is usually beyond their means. They could try public transportation, but longer distances can be tricky. Ride-sharing can be expensive for new arrivals struggling with finances.
Also needed are tutors for children settling into American schools and mentors for adults adjusting to a new culture and jobs.
Doctors, lawyers and military-trained jet pilots in Afghanistan struggle to match their skills with American jobs.
They rushed to improve their English skills and understand aspects of American life that were unlike anything in Afghanistan.
“Here I didn’t have even my license, my Social Security [number], no credit,” said Ziaullah Amini, an information technology specialist who worked for 10 years with the U.S. Army and State Department.
With the help of Lutheran Social Services, he spent his first three months obtaining a license, completing his Social Security forms and landing an entry-level job in data entry. Though his first American job was below his IT skills, he labeled it a good experience.
Lutheran Social Services helped him obtain his network engineer certifications, and he landed what he calls his “dream job.”
“I’m very thankful, especially for LSS,” he said. “These agencies are a bridge.”
Hasib Satary, director of employment services in Virginia, said the group placed more than 500 people in jobs last year alone.
The U.S. inspector general charged with overseeing efforts in Afghanistan has been studying the experiences of evacuees and found significant disillusionment and clinical depression.
New arrivals struggle with establishing credit and learning English. Former Afghan military members reported feeling abandoned by the U.S. in their home country and miffed that the American troops with whom they worked for so many years haven’t contacted them.
The ongoing deterioration in their home country, including the Taliban’s banishment of women from much of public life, weighs heavily on the new arrivals. Many send money back to relatives.
Afghan women who made it to the U.S. reported suicidal thoughts.
“Unable to speak English, often illiterate, and stuck at home in small apartments with lots of children, they find themselves isolated in the United States,” the inspector general concluded.
The inspector general also spoke with evacuees in Canada and found many of the same issues surrounding jobs and culture shock.
“However, there was one important difference between each group’s experience: While the interviewees in the United States were primarily concerned about their uncertain future legal status, Afghans in Canada had the legal right to stay permanently, although some were not sure they wanted to,” the inspector general said.
The Afghans who spoke with The Times seemed to adjust better than those who reported to the inspector general. Still, they pointed to challenges such as the high cost of living in the Washington area and the need for two incomes.
In the beginning, new families received some federal financial support. That evaporates after a few months, and people quickly realize one income may not be enough, Mr. Satary said. Having a wife work outside the home contradicts cultural norms in much of Afghanistan.
“There are people that are coming from some villages and provinces of Afghanistan where they are not accepting a female going to work, culturally. They’ll say, ‘I’ll go work two shifts. [I’m] not letting my wife go to work,’” Mr. Satary said. “I see why. A lot of them, because their wife never worked, and they don’t want to force her.”
Birthrates are higher among Afghans, and the wife is the one who stays home to watch the children. Lutheran Social Services tries to connect women with local child care programs.
“We are giving them all this advice and tips that if you want to have a better life for yourself and your family, you’d better have two people working,” Mr. Satary said.
He said the experiences of Afghan families who have adjusted to the economic realities help that message.
He said his wife didn’t work in Afghanistan. When they arrived in Northern Virginia, she took courses at the community college and then approached him to suggest going to work.
Mr. Satary and Mr. Pashtun said English is a significant hurdle for many Afghan evacuees. Those who worked with the U.S. war effort usually brought some knowledge, so the large number of translators made the need to learn English less pressing.
Mr. Pashtun said he wished he had started learning the language earlier.
Food has also been a transition. He said the additives in American food were affecting his health, and he started acquiring allergies.
“Now I buy everything organic,” he said.
Mr. Pashtun’s wife also helped the U.S. effort by working with the U.S. Agency for International Development. She earned her special visa in 2017 and arrived in the U.S. several years before Mr. Pashtun.
She works as a finance officer and has earned U.S. citizenship. Ms. Pashtun said she is voting in her first American election this year.
• Stephen Dinan can be reached at sdinan@washingtontimes.com.
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