Afghan Community

As of right now I’m interested in reporting on the Afghan community within New York. More specifically I hope to learn and write about how the expectations they had of America compare to the reality they’ve been faced with. This topic interests me largely because of my experience in Greece with refugees from Afghanistan, Syria, and Somalia. Throughout the month that I was working with these families, what stuck with me the most were the conversations I had with two young girls from Afghanistan, Dina and Delara. Very mature for their age, these girls would opt out of the roughhousing most children their age came to the ‘kids room’ for. Instead, they asked nearly everyday to sit with me and talk over tea. While we were talking it became very obvious that Dina and Delara are amidst challenges in their life most could not fathom. Their families were forced to leave their home when it became a war zone, and they are now living in a refugee camp based in Athens, with little to nothing. They constantly told me about how they hated their home and never enjoyed growing up in Afghanistan. They went further to describe just how hard life is in the refugee camp, they hate living in Greece as well. It was after they told me this that Dina told me she “just loves America.” Dina’s eyes lit up when she spoke of America and all that it has to offer. I listened to these girls speak of America, a place they have never been, as if the streets are paved with gold. I became curious as to how their expectations would match up to a life in America. I plan to get the perspective of Afghan immigrants living in NYC concerning their life now vs the one they imagined when first deciding to leave their country. I understand that Flushing, Queens is often referred to as “Little Afghanistan” due to its high Afghan population. This should be a great location for me to conduct interviews and meet people dealing with the trials of immigration.