I’m curious to know the role of foreign correspondents during the U.S. military’s withdrawal from Afghanistan. Ferguson’s comments during the interview made it seem like it was her “team” consisted of her and her cameraman alone. I’m curious to know how foreign correspondents were let in and out of Afghanistan (particularly whether they were on some of the last U.S. military flights leaving Afghanistan). I also want to know the ethical or moral obligations of foreign correspondents in relaying information about evacuation to their contacts. Ferguson’s interview seemed to allude to the fact that there were contacts who had reached out to her seeking information about whether and how they should evacuate.

I appreciated the fact that the New York Times made the reports that they obtained from the FOIA available on their website for public access. I’m wondering if there were any other major journalism pieces that came out of this collection of records.

The article from the Migration Policy Institute contextualized an interaction I had with a man from Afghanistan I met in Texas. By sheer coincidence, my Uber driver in Houston over fall break told me that he had escaped from Afghanistan in 2021. He said he worked with the U.S. military which leads me to believe that he was a translator. He also told me that he worked as an electrical engineer for 15 years before escaping to the U.S. with his four children and wife, but had to work as an Uber driver because he could not afford to go through the certification process to work as an electrical engineer in the U.S. This is in line with MPI’s statistics on labor force distribution—with Afghan immigrants disproportionately going into occupations such as “production, transportation, and material moving occupations.”

He also told me that he is responsible for much of the out-of-the-house childcare because his wife cannot drive a car or speak English. This is in line with “lower education attainment among Afghan women” that the article notes. He also told me that he sends remittances to his parents who are still in Afghanistan. This is also consistent with the MPI’s findings on remittances.

What was particularly striking to me from our short conversation was that despite his professional qualifications, he virtually has no choice but to legally be in a position where he is an independent contractor and is in a more vulnerable economic position than if he were an employee of a company. I’m curious to know how pervasive this trend of barriers to “professionalization” among Afghan immigrants in particular is and whether the U.S. military has mechanisms for allowing these immigrants a way to continue their profession once they’ve relocated.