Ethnicized displacements: Urban lives of Afghan Pashtuns and Afghanistani Hazaras in Quetta, Pakistan
This dissertation compares the urban lives of displaced Afghan Pashtuns and Afghanistani Hazaras, focusing on how ethnicization of their subnational identities shapes their everyday experiences. I explore how displaced Afghans in Quetta, Pakistan, navigate and resist multi-layered minoritization, marginalization, and forced displacement, revealing significant variations in how Afghan Pashtuns and Afghanistani Hazaras access the city of Quetta in everyday life. By offering a nuanced understanding of how subnational ethnicized identities influence urban experiences and access to space and services, I challenge conventional approaches that homogenize displaced populations by national origin or legal status. My findings are informed by qualitative data, including ethnographic observations and in-depth interviews, conducted over a seven-year period. I use an intersectional framework to trace the process through which ethnicized identities influence decision making among Afghan Pashtuns and Afghanistani Hazaras and lead to different social and spatial outcomes. I find that variations in their experiences of minoritization are narrated differently in each group’s origin stories, which include such experiences in their places of origin, at the border between Afghanistan and Pakistan, and after their arrival in Quetta. These narratives of ethnicization place different social and spatial constraints on Pashtuns and Hazaras respectively, leading to different social and spatial outcomes for each group. These constraints create urban spaces that are physically accessible but socially inaccessible for minoritized Hazaras. While Pashtuns can access urban space and services with relative ease, Hazaras are restricted to two segregated settlements. As a result, minoritized Hazaras travel longer distances and spend more time and money to access critical urban services like hospitals. This shows that accessibility is socialized for minoritized groups. By developing a more nuanced understanding of how minoritized groups navigate and build urban space in everyday life, my findings will inform planning and policymaking and help improve urban outcomes for marginalized groups in the world’s cities.
Urban, Refugees, Displacement, Afghan, Hazara, Pakistan, Quetta, Afghanistan
University of Illinois - Urbana-Champaign
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University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign