UC Riverside

Colleges have consistently treated their Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) students as a monolithic community. Disaggregated data and personal accounts reveal that students from minoritized AAPI subgroups do not feel well supported or represented on their college campuses; resources for AAPI students are not adequate. Pakistani-heritage students have been consistently overlooked in this research, rendering the challenges this population faces invisible to institutions of higher education. Despite their omission from research, studying Pakistani-heritage students in the US provides a lens to better understand how a unique AAPI community dealing with both anti-Asian racism and Islamophobia navigate the limited institutional resources available to them. Through thirteen interviews with Pakistani-heritage college students and recent graduates and campus cultural center staff members, I explore how these students are utilizing both institutional and student-led resources, while navigating the racial-religious hinge between their AAPI and Muslim identities. Findings suggest that, while Pakistani students will sometimes visit campus cultural centers or South Asian and Muslim student organizations, none of these resources are currently well situated to provide the support that Pakistani-heritage student populations need. Pakistanis, and AAPI subgroups more broadly, need more university sponsored spaces dedicated to their wellbeing as they contend with racial, ethnic, and religious discrimination on interpersonal and institutional levels.