I\u2019m curious to know the role of foreign correspondents during the U.S. military\u2019s withdrawal from Afghanistan. Ferguson\u2019s comments during the interview made it seem like it was her \u201cteam\u201d consisted of her and her cameraman alone. I\u2019m 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\u2019s 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\u2019m 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\u2019s statistics on labor force distribution\u2014with Afghan immigrants disproportionately going into occupations such as \u201cproduction, transportation, and material moving occupations.\u201d
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 \u201clower education attainment among Afghan women\u201d 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\u2019s 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\u2019m curious to know how pervasive this trend of barriers to \u201cprofessionalization\u201d 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\u2019ve relocated.<\/p>\r\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I\u2019m curious to know the role of foreign correspondents during the U.S. military\u2019s withdrawal from Afghanistan. Ferguson\u2019s comments during the interview made it seem like it was her \u201cteam\u201d consisted of her and her cameraman alone. I\u2019m curious to know how foreign correspondents were let in and out of Afghanistan (particularly whether they were on<\/p>\n