US immigration law shifts created distinct educated Pakistani migration waves

Evidence

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

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the broader scholarship on the 1965 Immigration Act reshaping Asian American demographics — relevant to the reader’s understanding of how legal regimes create labor diasporas.