He Was An Interpreter For U.S. Forces In Afghanistan And Now He’s Driving For Uber

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Ahmad Zai Ahmadi began interpreting for U.S. forces in Afghanistan when he was a teenager. Since coming to the U.S. as a Special Immigrant Visa recipient, he’s mainly relied on gig work to support his family.

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Andrea Hsu/NPR

Asia
Afghans Trying To Get To The U.S. Face A Daunting Visa-Approval Process

It took 11 years for his visa to come through.

By then, he had a wife and three children. And soon after arriving in the U.S. in early 2020, he discovered his biggest test yet: He needed to find a way to support the family.

It’s the central challenge facing tens of thousands of Afghans who have escaped their homeland in recent months as the U.S. pulled out of a 20-year war. In the early months, the U.S. government provides a safety net for new arrivals — refugee resettlement agencies help families with immediate needs such as food, medical assistance, housing and schools for kids. But when it comes to finding employment, Afghans who have come to the U.S. in prior years say they were largely on their own.

Noah Coburn, an anthropologist at Bennington College and author of Under Contract: The Invisible Workers of America’s Global War, has interviewed over 100 Afghans who made their way to the U.S.

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Afghan refugees arrive at Dulles International Airport on August 27, 2021 in Dulles, Virginia, after being evacuated from Kabul following the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan.

Olivier Douliery/AFP via Getty Images

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Ismaeil Hakimi worked for U.S. contractor PAE until 2014, helping to build Afghanistan’s criminal justice system. After coming to the U.S., he struggled to find work but eventually landed a job at the University of Utah library. He and his family visited the Statue of Liberty on Aug. 5, 2021.

Ali Hakimi

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Ali Hakimi

Code Switch
The Making And Remaking Of Afghanistan

The cost of living in southern California was high, so after a couple years, Hakimi moved his family to Salt Lake City where the landscape was reminiscent of home. His children, by then old enough to work, found jobs at Target, Walmart and at the airport, but he had a harder time. He didn’t expect to be able to use his training as a lawyer given his lack of familiarity with the American legal system, but he could not even land a job at the local grocery store Harmons.

Hakimi was out of work for three months until he finally got what he considers a big break. He was hired at the University of Utah’s Marriott Library, to help students and other patrons with research. Today, he is working to build the library’s Middle East collection.

He considers himself lucky. His children are now in college at the University of Utah, studying computer science and medicine.

«We are very happy here,» he says.

Jina Krause-Vilmar, CEO of Upwardly Global, a nonprofit that helps refugees find professional jobs, says Afghans often arrive with skills that don’t exactly match what employers are seeking.

«They get kind of lost in limbo,» she says.

Some people need additional certifications to work in the U.S. Some need introductions to jobs that didn’t exist back home. Often what they need most is help presenting their experience in ways that make them more marketable to U.S. employers.

She points out that many of the Afghans who make it here are college graduates. They’re lawyers, engineers, accountants.

«That’s talent we’re leaving at the table,» says Krause-Vilmar. «It’s a missed opportunity for our country.»

At this particular moment it’s a huge opportunity, given how desperate employers are to find workers, she says. There are nearly 11 million jobs open in the U.S. right now.

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Ahmad Zai Ahmadi arrived in the U.S. just as the pandemic was forcing a shutdown. He started delivering food for Grubhub and DoorDash as a way to support his family, working 12 hours a day.

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With The Americans Gone, Afghanistan Enters Its Uncertain, Taliban-Led Future

Last year, he got a job at McDonald’s for five months as a cashier and customer service representative. But the $10 hourly wage wasn’t even enough to cover rent. He then moved to Walmart, which paid $12 an hour, but the hours were erratic, and the pay still wasn’t enough.

Ahmadi has a high school education and various certifications from Afghanistan. In the many years it took to get his U.S. visa, he worked as the general manager of a fuel delivery company and started his own travel agency, building up a bevy of skills, including in database programming.

But he has yet to find an opportunity to put those skills to use in the U.S.

«My certification doesn’t work here,» he says.

He’d like to get an American degree but can’t afford to take time off from work to enroll in classes.

Investigations
What It’s Like Inside The U.S. Processing Center Welcoming Thousands Of Afghans

The U.S. exit from Afghanistan did open a brief opportunity, one that allowed Ahmadi to take a break from gig work for a couple weeks.

He heard that interpreters were needed at the expo center near Washington Dulles airport to help process Afghans who were arriving in the U.S. He speaks both Pashto and Dari and was offered the job on the spot.

The pay was good, so he worked double shifts, from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m., to bank as much money as possible while he could. What he saw in those long hours was sobering. Many of the new arrivals he encountered do not even speak English.

«I’m so worried about these people,» says Ahmadi. «Life is very challenging in the United States.»

• gig workers
• gig economy
• Afghan refugees
• U.S. military