sohail anwar

Author: Ajmal Hajizada
Editor: Hamza Raza

The often-unattainable quest for higher education is nothing new for students with refugee backgrounds. I write this blog with a lived experience of my own, though my struggles have made me resilient, the question of a tranquil future still haunts me as I disentangle the twisted answer to where I belong. This piece attempts to shed some light on those we rarely see or listen to, virtually or otherwise. I sat with four recent graduates from different disciplines to understand the lives of young, newly repatriated Afghan refugees in their “home” country who attained higher education from neighboring Pakistan. These in-person and online meetings, along with chat follow-ups spanned two months in which we talked on themes such as opportunity, future, politics, and more.

All four participants had undergraduate or graduate degrees from Pakistan in disciplines ranging from medicine, business, and engineering. Under 30, three males and one female, each of whom is now either actively looking for jobs in Afghanistan or working in public service or private firms there. It has not been an easy journey for them, they report, but their hope to build a stable future for themselves is still afresh.

Opportunities under the new administration: Is it all doom?

Numerous Afghan academics have left the country since the new administration took over due to the restrictive environment, elimination of research funding, and sizable reduction in salaries (Nature, 2022). According to one of my participants, this case is also applicable in the health sector, where experts have flown away to Europe in search of financial and life security. The outflow has created space for fresh medical graduates like Abdul to work in a public hospital in Kabul after completing his education in Peshawar. In an attempt to save the health sector from collapsing, the new regime has facilitated the entry of newcomers as a replacement for senior experts. Although this can be a mitigation strategy for the over-stressed medical services in the midst of the diplomatic isolation of Afghanistan, the exodus of public health experts from the country is a huge loss.

Though Abdul’s experience could be applied to other recent male medical graduates who had repatriated to Afghanistan, the reality is different for female doctors. Shaista, a graduate of a medical college in Lahore, Pakistan, shared that she had no option but to leave her job at the Afghan Ministry of Health after the new administration took over the country. According to her, one of the most significant reasons behind her decision to quit was the question of safety. The historical hostility against women by the current regime, though might have eased this time around, can clearly not be forgotten.

“But is the home also waiting for you as
you are longing for your return to it?”

“It was difficult to get a government job in Afghanistan previously as well, but gender was not an obstacle, it was bribery that was rampant then,” Shaista recalls. Her dreams of rebuilding a home on her return now seem distant. Unclear state policies and politics of gender can fail numerous young girls who wish to contribute to Afghan society, Shaista reports. She stresses the shrunken space for ambitious girls like herself to realize their erstwhile dreams.

Expectations: Ours vs. Theirs

Throughout their time in Pakistan as students, the participants’ families reminded them their home needs them. More so, for those who were on scholarships from agencies like UNHCR or the government of Pakistan, these reminders were more frequent and the message clearer. Therefore, moving back to “home” is seldom a question. It is something that is prescribed by numerous actors around you. “But is the home also waiting for you as you are longing for your return to it?”, – asks Abdul.

A fresh-water stream in Paghman Valley, near Kabul

Asad, who graduated from an engineering university in Peshawar last year, identifies that employment opportunities for repatriated Afghan youth also vary based on the type of educational institute one has studied from, namely a madrassah or university. This was something he never expected as he had always heard that higher education is highly valued in Afghanistan.

“It is not easy to get a job in the public sector in Afghanistan, especially when you are a graduate of a Pakistani university”, shares Asad while adding that there is a general preference to recruit graduates of Pakistani madrassas instead. However, this preference shifts when the employment opportunity in question is in the private sector.

Belonging

After living significant parts of their lives in Pakistan, young repatriates often find it difficult to reintegrate into Afghan society. It is not just your physical location or environment that changes, it is also people’s attitudes, their assumptions about you, and the way they treat you. It is not easy to get comfortable with new realities and contexts once you return to a country that is supposedly your “home” – a place in which the only memories repatriates have are traumatic ones. The question of where young repatriates belong comes up repeatedly – not just as introspections but also in every conversation we have with our friends and extended family members. I can personally recount several occasions when my patriotism was subtly questioned by my friends when I visited Afghanistan. And while one struggles with finding the right opportunity for themselves, these soft interrogatory sessions force one into distress once again.

“It is not easy to get a job in the public
sector in Afghanistan, especially when
you are a graduate of a Pakistani
university.”

Shaista shares that her sheer happiness of finally moving back to her home in Afghanistan after years of living across the border was not lasting. She faced difficulty in communicating with her peers at work, she felt more comfortable expressing herself in Urdu or English compared to Dari. “The way you dress, or talk is never appropriate. It is just like fighting another uphill battle of acceptance for which I have no energy left, especially after living decades as a refugee”, Shaista texted me in our follow-up chat session. The thought of whether leaving the asylum country was the right option, even after knowing that there was no choice, to begin with, still lingers on in the minds of my participants.

Asad sits on a carpet viewing mountains in the hilly terrain of Paghmam

As repatriates, it is hard to believe in your dreams. It is even difficult when the home for which you longed for years fails to provide security and opportunity. A rise in the number of repatriates is often taken as evidence of a successful conflict resolution process. And as the world applauds, much more goes on in the lives of those who bear the brunt of displacement at first and yet another at second.

Ajmal writes at a cultural event in Pakistan showcasing Afghan culture

About the author

Ajmal is a final-year student at the University of Lahore, majoring in International Relations. Fluent in Dari and English, he is an advocate for sharing Afghan refugee experiences in Pakistan through research and print media. He aspires to become a social scientist with a focus on global refugee and migration policy. He can be reached @ AjmalHajizada on Twitter.

Author: Muhammad Ashar Khan
Dated: 19-11-2020

Theory of alienation is a central part of Marx’s critique of Capitalism. It explains how capitalism detaches humans from their existence and nature. It also provides deep insights into how capitalism can unravel nature, both in a physical and spiritual sense. Reading the theory today can help us understand capitalism’s role in climate change, and how the current system of political economy can unleash a global catastrophe.

Introduction

Alienation theory is a fundamental part of Karl Marx’s critique of capitalism. Marx argues that capitalism, in essence, is an exploitative economic system that perpetuates inequality between classes. It stratifies society into two main classes with opposing/clashing interests (i.e. the bourgeoisie and the proletariat). The bourgeoisie are the owners of the means of production while the proletariat refers to the working class. It, therefore, makes social cohesion impossible. Furthermore, it alienates them from their immediate surroundings — from the very nature that sustains them.

Another of Marx’s ideas, central to his critique of capitalism, is that of ‘forced labor’. He explains how capitalism externalizes humans from their reality, which makes them incapable of challenging a system that goes against human nature. He argues that capitalism divorces humans from their intellectual function by mandating repetitive tasks to maximize production. As a result, not only does it suppress human’s ability to think creatively, but also divorces them from their spirit. Human spirit for Marx is the ability of (wo)men to develop social bonds with fellow human beings for collective societal progress, instead of endeavoring to maximize personal benefits.

Under the light of the above arguments, this brief essay underlines how capitalism alienates humans from nature and their essential existence. It also aims to highlight the detrimental and catastrophic impact of such ideology on nature, and how its resultant unraveling of the global ecology is propelling us towards an existential crisis.

Estrangement from Nature
Humans, just like other species, depend on nature for both biotic and abiotic (intellectual, spiritual, financial, and so on) sustenance. We derive resources from nature that enable us to develop, produce, and grow. Thus, nature holds indispensable importance in our lives and without it our survival is inconceivable.

A reading of Marx’s work on ‘labor alienation’ in the 21st century, underlines an interesting fact about capitalism i.e. it inherently leads to estrangement from nature and natural spirit . By emphasizing on the accumulation of wealth and maximization of profits, Marx explains, capitalism commodifies nature and makes it a source of exploitation (Marx and Engels 2002). Man lives on nature, he explains, which means that nature is his body, with which he must remain in continuous interchange until he/she dies. That [(wo)]man’s physical and spiritual existence is linked to nature indicates that nature is linked to itself, for man is a part of nature (Marx and Engels 2002).

He lays the foundations of the idea of an umbilical relationship between humans and nature. By establishing that humanity and nature are inseparable, Marx refutes the anthropocentric view of nature as a resource that can be exploited for human benefits. Nature, for Marx, is not only an integral part of our biological existence, but it also sustains us economically. Every species that contributes to nature has a vital role in its operations, and disturbing it can unleash a cascading effect that can potentially disrupt the ecosystem.

Furthermore, Capitalism fosters an environment of deception and misinformation. This is fairly evident in the current global political atmosphere. Right-wing conservative politicians who often espouse the mantra of free-markets and advocate exponential economic growth through deregulation of fossil fuel industries, turn a blind eye to its severe consequences. These mantras are received positively by the masses who are often unaware of their long-term consequences. Such ignorance is well highlighted in Marx’s theory, where he argues that how the bourgeoisie class lures the working class into the façade of economic growth via an exponential increase in production until the latter becomes completely ignorant of detrimental consequences of such economic growth.

The global emphasis on unabated economic growth through the exploitation of natural resources also undermines the fact that an ecological imbalance can jeopardize millions of lives. Global warming is a clear manifestation of the self-destructive nature of the current system. Due to the inequality it has fostered, the top 1 percent, who have amassed most of the global wealth and are the major contributors of greenhouse gases, are at the helm of decision making, promoting policies that fit their profit models (Harvey, 2020). Their undiminished expansion reflects how capitalism is the root cause of global climate inequality. This leads the discussion to another point of Marx’s alienation theory: human to human alienation.

Human-to Human alienation

In the manuscript, Marx argues that capitalism has turned humans into “object[s] of production” (Marx and Engels 2002). This means that under capitalism humans are treated as machines destined to perform repetitive tasks as their labor. Thus, because capitalism disregards humanity’s uniqueness of thinking creatively, humans become devoid of their spirit— the spirit of ingenuity, artistry, and the sense of brotherhood. Not only does this lead to them becoming slaves of the system, but they also lose their ability to resist exploitation.

As we internalize the norms of capitalism and strive to amass wealth, we become increasingly alienated from our fellow beings. It means that when one person competes against another to achieve the same goal, both become ignorant of the detrimental consequences of such competition. On one hand, the cleavage that arises from this system is reflected in the inability of the proletariats to opt for collective resistance against capitalist exploitation. The bourgeoisie class, on the other hand, has seized this opportunity to divide proletariats, pitching them against one another, to curb any potential of a revolution that can challenge their exploitation.

Even though the threat of climate apocalypse is becoming increasingly imminent, we are still unable to take any decisive action. Not only is this the consequence of a weakened proletariat class, but it also shows how capitalism disconnects humans from their societal structure – alienating them from each other.

For example, only 147 multinational corporations that control over 40 percent of the global economy are the major source of carbon emission. However, their political clout often enables them to halt any progress towards protective legislations (Vossole, 2012). The working class, on the other hand, cannot challenge their political and economic imperialism, because we are ever more divided.
Lastly, it is imperative to underline that a massive inequality exists between the major contributors to environmental degradation and those who are directly affected by it. Countries in the Global South are at the gravest perils of climate crisis while the developed countries are the major contributors to carbon emissions (central cause of climate change).

Conclusion

As a result of the hegemony of neo-imperialist forces, we find ourselves unable to collectively resist the imminent disaster. This is mainly because the proletariats of the Global North are often ignorant of the problems their counterparts in the developing countries face, and thus, lack a cohesive force of unity, paving the way for the behemoth spread of capitalism. The alienation of the proletariat class from each other and their impotence to challenge the bourgeoisie structure is the primary reason why capitalism has emerged as an invincible ideology that dictates the direction of the global political economy.

Marx’s critique, therefore, is crucial to understand the connection between environmental degradation and capitalism. Contemporary writers like John Foster have developed Marx’s ideas by identifying the ecological rift between man and nature as a source of capitalism (Benton, 2018). This makes Marx’s work the focal point of alternative ideas that can be used to save nature from the effects of the current economic order — or disorder.

The Marxist blend of spiritual and material systems of political economy can, at least, provide us the direction for a change that is essential for saving our present and future. Marx’s work not only negates the “no alternative” idea, but it also sets forth the foundations of a “Green New Deal” (Holden, 2019) that can remedy the present-day situation. And it will not be the first time humanity shall embrace a new, we did this in the 1930s by reexamining capitalism under Keynesian macroeconomic ideas and — cannot stress enough— we need to do it once again.

References

Benton, T. (2018, June 5). What Karl Marx has to say about today’s environmental problems. The Conversation, p. n.p. Retrieved 6 27, 2020, from https://theconversation.com/what-karl-marx-has-to-say-about-todays-environmental-problems-97479
Harvey, F. (2020, September 21). World’s richest 1% cause double CO2 emissions of poorest 50%, says Oxfam. Retrieved from The Guardian : World’s richest 1% cause double CO2 emissions of poorest 50%, says Oxfam
Holden, E. (2019, February 11). What is the Green New Deal and how would it benefit society? Retrieved from The Guardian : https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/feb/11/green-new-deal-alexandria-ocasio-cortez-ed-markey
Marx, Karl, and Frederick Engels. 2002. “Other Writings of Marx and Engels.” In The Communist Manifesto: A Road Map to History’s Most Important Political Document, ed. Phil Grasper. Penguin, 149–53.
Vossole, J. V. (2012). Global Climate Governance: A Legitimation Crisis: Capitalism, Power, and Alienation. Fernand Braudel Center, 35(1), 1-27. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.com/stable/43233909