Serial War, Structural Racism, and Afghan Precarity in Pakistan

Summary

This article examines how historical and material shifts have intensified the structural racism faced by Afghan refugees in Pakistan. Examining conditions for Afghans in Pakistan since the 1970s, the entry explores how during the Cold War era (1970s–1980s) to early 1990s, while excluded from the state as non-citizens and refugees, Afghans held an overall security of refuge in the country. Since the 2000s, however, with the onset of the War on Terror, this security has been steadily dismantled. As a result, Afghan life in Pakistan, already vulnerable, is now marked by greater precarity and an intensification of terror.