The U.S. frames Indian migration as brain drain and Pakistani as brawn drain

Evidence

The problem in defining communities in the U.S. in terms of their home countries, however, lies not only in the continuity of homogenized and disarticulated geographies that separate Pakistan from South Asia and that place it into a larger group of Muslim countries and regions but also in complex migrations, foreign policies, and geopolitical strategies of empire building. — Junaid Rana, Terrifying Muslims, 37 (#complicates, via linked claim)

Pakistanis also traveled to the U.S. in large numbers after the Immigration and Naturalization Act of 1965 shifted preferences toward educated professionals; even more made the journey in the 1990s under family-reunification policies and travel visas (Prashad 2000, 78– 79). North America has always had particular appeal for educated workers because of its need for highly skilled technical professionals and because it o√ers the promise of upward mobility. Because they are perceived as providing greater access to capital and resources, Europe and the U.S. have become symbols of wealth and opportunity in the imagined frameworks of potential migrants. — Junaid Rana, Terrifying Muslims, 493 (#complicates, via linked claim)

I argue, however, that Pakistani immigrants in the U.S. are simultaneously understood as South Asian and Middle Eastern, a classification that combines national origin, religion, ethnicity, and culture into a unitary conception of race and racial formation. — Junaid Rana, Terrifying Muslims, 80 (#complicates, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Indian migrants to the US came predominantly as petty bourgeois, not workers — Aijaz Ahmad, In Theory: Classes, Nations, Literatures, 327; US immigration law shifts created distinct educated Pakistani migration waves — Junaid Rana, Terrifying Muslims: Race and Labor in…, 493; US immigration policy changes reshaped South Asian migrants from professionals to workers. — Junaid Rana, Terrifying Muslims: Race and Labor in…, 916 (+4 more)

Broader Connections

• Defining US communities by home country erases complex migrations and imperial geopolitics #complicates (0.77) — Junaid Rana, Terrifying Muslims, 37
• US immigration law shifts created distinct educated Pakistani migration waves #complicates (0.75) — Junaid Rana, Terrifying Muslims, 493
• Pakistani immigrants are racially classified as both South Asian and Middle Eastern #complicates (0.74) — Junaid Rana, Terrifying Muslims, 80