Ghulam Danish: [car interior] It’s just a little extra income for me. So I can equalize the expenses that I have.
I’m sitting next to Ghulam Danish in his used hybrid. He recently immigrated from Afghanistan. And like millions of Americans, he drives for rideshare companies like Uber and Lyft.
Ghulam Danish: The expenses are high here and one job is not enough for, like, for low-income families who work entry-level jobs, one job is not enough, I guess. That’s why, if a person like me, who has family — two or three children — have to either have a high-paid job or who should work an extra time in a second job.
Ghulam is 31. He has a wife and kids, and he’s always thinking about how to provide for them. They live in Northeast Philadelphia, where we’re picking up passengers now.
Ghulam Danish: So, Shaylin, can I ask you something? Um, it’s. I don’t know. It’s if if you don’t want maybe this, not this, but I got this ride for five-point-something. Know. Maybe they are charging you more than that, right? Yeah, this half. So they are literally giving the driver half of what they are charging from the riders.
Nichole Currie: Wow. So you paid $10 for the ride.
S: More.
Ghulam Danish: Oh, yeah. So, yeah, it’s crazy.
S: It’s robbery.
Ghulam Danish: You guys want to do this robbery? You guys want all you want to deal with the Uber company? Be careful haha. But, yeah, this is how it’s happening. So I’m paying all the things like maintenance, time and my money on this car. Everything. I’m getting only five….
Ghulam doesn’t make very much from driving for rideshare companies, and it’s not what he wants to do forever. Driving is a side gig, a stop on the way to a larger goal: earning a stable income that’s enough to support his family in a new country, as a refugee.
Ghulam Danish: As a refugee, as a newcomer here, I need. I need to do a lot. I have to stand on my own feet, like the way I want … And like right now, me and people like me, we are just trying to survive, which is different from living.….
I’m Nichole Currie, and this is Thriving, an audio documentary about our economic future together.
I’ve been following 10 Philadelphians for a year to learn what it takes to make it in America. After a pandemic and so much social upheaval: What are the obstacles and opportunities we all face to economically thrive in the United States? Each person we’re following tells us something different about our collective future.
In this episode: recent immigrants. We’re following Ghulam Danish, who left a middle-class life amid the turmoil of the American military’s withdrawal from Afghanistan. He and his family are trying to establish a new life, in a new country, after leaving everything behind.
A defining quality of the United States is just how many people in the world would choose to come here if they could — double the rate of the next country, which is Canada, according to Gallup. And in a country that’s getting older, immigrants bolster our workforce. They create vibrant communities and bring fresh ideas.
Today, foreign-born residents make up the highest share of Philadelphia’s population since the 1940s. But immigrants don’t have it easy once they touch American soil. They are met with numerous obstacles like language barriers and discrimination — all things that make it difficult for people to really make this country their new home.
That’s where Ghulam was when we met, almost a year after he and his family left Afghanistan.
“Right now, me and people like me, we are just trying to survive, which is different from living.”
Ghulam Danish
Ghulam Danish: My life was directly in danger, so I had to hurry up to get out of Afghanistan.
In late August of 2021, Ghulam was living in Kabul when the Taliban invaded.
US troops were withdrawing, leaving Afghanistan, and the radical group was quickly taking over. Ghulam feared that he could become a target because of his ties to the United States.
Ghulam Danish: I was working with the US security company. And some of my neighbors knew that I was working there.
On the sixth day of the invasion, Ghulam, his wife Naija, and their daughter Angela, who was 4 at the time, got tickets for a flight out of the country. A family friend in the US helped arrange their evacuation.
At 4 a.m., they called a taxi and headed to the Kabul International Airport.
Ghulam Danish: And at that time, airport was a mess. The people of Kabul and surrounding areas, they were trying to get out through the airport. Kilometers away, there was millions of people. The taxi driver said he cannot move forward. We had to walk.
They couldn’t miss this flight.
Ghulam Danish: Because my wife was nine months pregnant. We were expecting another baby.
And I was really afraid that if I could not get out at that moment it would become very problematic for us. Because if my wife would give birth to another baby, then if we knew we had problem with getting passports and getting out of Afghanistan and getting visas. So it was going to be very complicated.
They managed to make it into the airport, onto the plane, and out of the country.
In less than 24 hours, they left behind their house, family, friends, and their jobs.
Ghulam Danish: I had a good life, good job in Afghanistan before the collapse. Which is of course, not easy, but it’s also not difficult for us except that we have left, uh, our family members back there. We are worried about them. We cannot forget that easily.
They first flew to Qatar, and then to the US — to Philadelphia. They stayed one day, and then were flown to an army base in Indiana for mandatory health check-ins. That’s where Naija gave birth to their second daughter, Eliana.
Two months later, in November, the family returned to Philadelphia — this time, for good. They stayed in a hotel across from City Hall, paid for by the Nationalities Service Center — a Philadelphia nonprofit that helps refugees.
Ghulam Danish: I could just have a glance of the city, and I, well, I had few days to run and walk around the city.
After those few days, Ghulam and Naija settled into reality. They drew out a plan for how to start their lives over — how to survive in the US, and how to make Philadelphia their new home.
The first step in this plan was for Ghulam to find a job in his career field. He was a media analyst in Afghanistan, and had planned to find something similar in the US, but transferring skills from one country to the next as a refugee is far from seamless.
So for now, Ghulam is taking jobs just to get by.
Ghulam Danish: Right now, I am a food service worker in the utility department.
When I first interview him in September 2022, Ghulam’s working at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia or CHOP. He started there nine months ago. Ghulam works full-time in the cafeteria — cleaning dishes.
Ghulam Danish: It is a hard job. At least for me, it’s a hard job. I haven’t done a physical job before in my country. I was always in office.
At his previous job, Ghulam helped US companies in Afghanistan analyze incoming communication for potential threats and security risks. He liked his work.
Ghulam Danish: Now, I’m just doing a survival job. In the beginning, it was actually very hard for me. I was getting exhausted, too much.
“It’s not a normal life that I’m living now. A normal life would be having family time, having friends time, having a fun time. When you don’t have your Sundays off, Saturdays off, that means it’s not a normal life for me.“
Ghulam danish
Ghulam stands for most of his 8-hour shift. He works 5 — sometimes 6 — days a week, usually on the weekends, and always at night.
Ghulam Danish: It’s not a normal life that I’m living now. A normal life would be having family time, having friends time, having a fun time. When you don’t have your Sundays off, Saturdays off, that means it’s not a normal life for me.
I’m looking for a better job, an office job where I could work during the day and be home during the evening and during the weekend. And a job with normal pay. Not too high, not too low.
Right now, Ghulam says he makes “OK” money at CHOP, about 20 dollars an hour. That’s about $41,000 a year. Ghulam makes it work for his family of four. But he still wants that “office” job, the first rung in eventually climbing the corporate ladder. That’s what he’s looking for now. Ghulam’s job search takes place at home in a two-bedroom apartment in the Oxford Circle neighborhood. He lives there with his two daughters and his wife, who is now expecting a third child.
When he’s not working at CHOP, Ghulam is in his bedroom-turned office. A nearly empty room where he sits at the computer, glued to the screen for hours. Looking for resources to help him find a job.
Ghulam Danish: There are two NGOs that now I know.
Ghulam found two nonprofit organizations that specifically help refugees with work. He’s been working with a career training program called Upwardly Global, and a Philadelphia-based organization called The Welcoming Center.
He’s getting as much help as he can — perfecting his LinkedIn, prepping for interviews with career coaches, and taking classes in project management and data analysis.
He’s been at this for months. Using resources, applying to jobs, going on interviews.
Nichole Currie: Have you heard back from any of the employers that you interviewed with?
Ghulam Danish: Um… They are insistent that I’m overqualified. So they say I may not stay there for a long time. Although I am telling them that I will be working with you guys for a long time. But they don’t believe.
From other employers, he’s heard the opposite.
Ghulam Danish: They somehow emailed that I’m not suitable for those jobs, but, uh, I am. Although it was also kind of entry-level job, I think I have also some limitations. Basically considering my accent or something, they might thought that I’m not suitable for those jobs.
While it’s illegal to judge applicants on their accents, it can still happen. Language barriers are the number one obstacle that immigrants face in a new country. And the Pew Research Center estimates that almost 47% of immigrants in the US do not speak English proficiently.
Ghulam speaks English — and four other languages — which is more than most Americans. Regardless, he worries about how employers will feel about his accented English.
He’s trying to thread a needle.
Ghulam Danish: Over qualification is as much a problem as under qualification here in the USA. So I have to find a fit for myself… I’m trying.
Sameer Rao: We hear stories about this all the time. People struggling to get jobs, particularly immigrants, based on certain barriers.
This is Sameer Rao, he’s an editor at Technical.ly — and a child of immigrants. He’s been doing a lot of research and reporting about the economic trends at the heart of this project.
And he’s found that an immigrant’s education and work experience abroad may be seen as obsolete in the US — a country that has for so long attracted foreign-born newcomers.
Sameer Rao: When it comes to Ghulam’s experience of having been told that he was over- or underqualified for a number of positions, um, I don’t think that that’s particularly unique, particularly when we have a situation where, particularly in the white collar workforce, there are certain nationalities or groups where their experience seems to be more valued than others probably owing to a lot of, like, educational infrastructure and wealth within the countries that they come from.
Yet immigrants have a huge and growing impact on the economy, and the country as a whole.
Sameer Rao: It’s true about a lot of cities in the United States, but in Philadelphia particularly, census data suggested that there were two groups that were particularly contributing to growth of the population in the city, and one of them was in fact, uh, immigrants.
The profile of immigrants that have come to this country recently is very different than that of even 20 years ago. Um, you know, there are increasing rates of Asian Americans. There are increasing, you know, there’s an ongoing rate of Latinx immigration. But there’s Black immigrants as well.
And immigration to the US is up during the Biden administration, despite recent aggressive anti-immigrant stunts like shipping migrants from Texas to Martha’s Vineyard, or setting up floating barriers in the Rio Grande.
Sameer Rao: In a lot of ways, our experiences as a country are defined both by immigration and extreme nativist pushback.
That’s the America Ghulam is trying to work in. And he actually remains more optimistic than not.
Before I leave his home, he tells me about two more interviews coming up.
He has a really good feeling about them. He feels prepared. With the help of the NGOs, his list of qualifications is getting longer and longer.
I ask about the employers — who they are, where they are, but his lips are sealed. He doesn’t want to jinx it, so he smiles and says he’d rather tell me once he gets an offer.
Two weeks later, he emails. He didn’t get either job.
Three months later, I call Ghulam. He’s still working at CHOP.
CALL: Hopefully, yeah, it should be my last…last days. Hoping to get another one soon.
He’s now been at CHOP for almost a year — and even though he is optimistic, Ghulam cannot help but think he’s a world away from being where he really wants to be.
Remember, in Afghanistan, he had a comfortable office job. He earned enough to own a home and provide for his family. Overnight, everything changed. He found himself on a plane to a new country. He appreciates having work at all, but he’s not used to working this way — and the physical labor has started to take a toll on his body.
So when he began to develop severe back pain, he cut back his hours. He works part-time now, and Naija got a part-time job, too.
CALL: Yeah she works half the days of the week and I work the other half the days. Three days I work, three days she works.
The job search slogs on. But there’s one thing Ghulam is very excited to share.
The Philadelphia Marathon. Ghulam has been a distance runner for a long time.
Running was a way for him to manage his stress and physical pain when he lived in Afghanistan, but he hasn’t been running since he got to the US — even though he has a lot to be stressed about. So he signed up to participate in the race in his new city.
I meet him at the finish line, near the Philadelphia Museum of Art.
Ghulam Danish: This is a medal that everybody receives, everyone here who finishes the half marathon.
It’s a little over 30 degrees outside — Ghulam is cloaked in a blanket with an athletic red puffer coat peeking underneath. He’s wearing a silver medal around his neck. It’s in the shape of the Liberty Bell.
Ghulam Danish: And this is the second one I have received it, one was in Afghanistan.
Ghulam seems invigorated. He tells me how he beat his time from the last half-marathon he ran back in Afghanistan. How he persevered when the race became grueling. How he wishes he could have run the full marathon instead.
Ghulam opted for the half-marathon because of his job.
Ghulam Danish: For the full marathon I didn’t have time. And the kind of work that I’m doing, I’m standing on my feet all the time and working on my feet so I get tired by my feet. So, so it’s not easy to run on, to run all the time. That’s the only reason…
Regardless, training for the run was a nice distraction from his tiresome and stressful cycle of work, job applications, being a dad and a husband — and all of the extra challenges that come with being a new immigrant.
He’s trying to carve out more time to run, and he wants to find a way to share this feeling.
Ghulam Danish: I’m thinking of gathering some immigrants like me to run together as a group because they are struggling with life here, with jobs. Half of their time is wasted for searching for better jobs. It’s very much a stressful situation for them, too. They get demotivated sometimes. They get stressed out. They give up sometimes. So I said, one of the one of the way that they can stay motivated and stay happy, to kill this stress, is running.
Not long after the race, he has to head home. His family couldn’t come watch him run — because Naija is now eight months pregnant, and there’s lots to do to get ready.
###
On Dec. 6, Ghulam and his family welcome their third child — a baby girl named Sarah.
Ghulam Danish: Yeah…I feel very excited about her.
Ghulam is spending what extra time he does have with Sarah — he feels that she is truly a blessing. But while a newborn brings joy, she also comes with expenses — diapers, onesies, bottles, the list goes on. But…
Ghulam Danish: I’m not really concerned about that.
Ghulam has a backup plan. He signed up for Uber and Lyft when he got his license last year. It was extra income he knew he’d need, but he had to wait because the ride-sharing companies require drivers to have a US license for a year.
He finally got his certification — two days before Sarah’s birth.
Ghulam Danish: I’m having a beautiful family and I’m healthy. I’m sure I can work for them.
###
And then, one week after Sarah’s birth, Ghulam got the news he’s been waiting for.
Ghulam Danish: I got another job.
An office job — as a career coach for refugees at the Nationalities Service Center in Philadelphia.
Ghulam Danish: I had a lot of interview. For this one, I felt very good fit because I was a jobseeker for one year, so I learned a lot doing this.
Ghulam immediately resigned from his position at CHOP.
Now, just a few weeks in, his wife says the new position is already changing their lives.
Naija Danish: The one thing from his previous job, when he was working late night, and like 12:25, he was coming at home and my daughters were waiting for him.
Naija would stay up with Angela and Eliana, who would often wait at the front door for Ghulam to come home — usually around 11 p.m.
They don’t have to do that anymore. He’s home a little after 5 p.m.
Naija Danish: Right now, I’m very happy because my daughters are comfortable, he’s comfortable, and I am comfortable.
She thinks back to when they were living in the hotel across from City Hall, just days after arriving in Philadelphia. And the plan they drew up for how to survive here.
Naija Danish:: He’s just like, showing me, this is the way. And my husband, he’s open-mind and he’s a logical and he has a positive mind about everything. And one thing I really like about him, he is just like creating the goals and trying to create steps.
Naija Danish: (And) I’m very happy for him.
The job is really a full-circle moment.
Ghulam spent more than a year working with career coaches at Upwardly Global and The Welcoming Center, completing training, and learning about the workforce in a new country. And now he’ll be helping other refugees.
All while working what he considers a “normal” job — the kind of 9 to 5 he dreamed of.
Ghulam Danish: Getting a job like this, well financially, it’s just enough for me for now. But it means a lot to me. It means a lot to me because now I am… I can, I can say that I’m living a normal life.
###
It’s May now. Ghulam has been at his job for four months. He still drives for rideshare companies to make a little extra cash. But a lot has changed. His weekends are free, so he has more time to spend with his family. Like his eldest daughter, Angela, who is 5 now.
Ghulam is the cameraman for Angela’s YouTube channel — where she documents her activities in the US, like going to her first skating rink in Philadelphia. Ghulam is the only person she trusts to record.
Ghulam and Naija also bought a 2008 Ford Explorer to fit the entire family. Ghulam was even able to start that running group with other immigrants. It’s called Seven Bridges — named after his favorite trail in Pennypack Park. And Ghulam absolutely loves his job — working with refugees like him. He’s good at it.
Ghulam Danish: I really want to help them a lot. I’ve gone the same path that they are now. I know how it feels for them to be searching for better jobs and having difficulties here.
Nichole Currie: In terms of, like, when we met and you were looking for a job to now, like, do you feel like you’ve changed any or, you know, grown any?
Ghulam Danish: Yes, I have changed, a lot, I can say personally. When I got here, and also some of my friends when we met, I was stressed out, although I was telling you the kind of I was better then, like, in better situation, but I was still stressed out.
Nichole Currie: Every time I meet with you, you’re, like, full of optimism. You and your wife.
Ghulam Danish: Coming from… like, everyone who came here we’re kind of traumatized. All of my friends, including me, we were traumatized because of the way we left our country. And those things kind of affected our relationship or friendship, too, here.
Ghulam’s relationships with other refugees were strained because of the overwhelming stress of making a new home in a new country and finding an ideal job. In moments when Ghulam and his refugee friends could have operated like a support system, sometimes there was tension instead.
Ghulam Danish: Because of the trauma, because of the stress, because of a lot of things that we had. And it was kind of getting hurtful to everyone.
Ghulam finally gained clarity about this — after he had the time to relax and abandon the burden of looking for a job.
Ghulam Danish: This is a kind of personal revolution that happened to me recently. So it’s a really great growth for me. And I’m, like, nowadays, I’m really living peaceful life.
AMBI IN PARK: So, this car is our picnic car, family car. We have all this stuff here and the picnic stuff.
After we talk, I go with Ghulam and his family for an outing.
Ghulam Danish: Hopefully, we get a spot over there. We can get some spots a little further.
We’re at Pennypack Park — about five minutes from their home.
They come here almost every weekend now that Ghulam only works weekdays. It’s a special place. The park reminds him of the village where he grew up — a few miles outside of Kabul.
Ghulam Danish: My birthplace we have the valley and water like this. One difference, that it was mountainous, full of hills and mountains and valley. But here it’s more flat. But because of the river and this nature, it it gives the same, the same beauty, the same sense of within, the same feeling.
We all gather at the edge of the stream that runs through the park.
The family begins unpacking their picnic basket. They unfold lawn chairs, blankets, and set up a small portable swing for Sarah, who is now 4 months old. Naija takes out homemade Afghan treats, chocolate chip cookies, and a thermal mug filled with hot tea.
Ghulam takes his shoes off, walks into the stream … He gathers a few rocks, and shows Angela the right angle to skip them.
When he’s not in the water, Ghulam just sits in his lawn chair, gazing at the stream and his family … absorbing what can seem like a mundane moment.
Ghulam Danish: It feels good to sit and watch the, um, river stream. I mean, for me, it’s always enjoyable and peaceful to sit by the riverside and have some silence for myself.
He has peace, a job he loves, and a beautiful family in Philadelphia, making use of the skills he and his wife have, raising kids who have so much promise.
Ghulam is no longer in survival mode. He’s finally living.
For Thriving. I’m Nichole Currie.
Ghulam Danish: So, uh. How… how do you guys relax when you always want to relax and have a peaceful day?
Thriving is brought to you by Technical.ly and Rowhome Productions with support from the William Penn Foundation, Pew Charitable Trusts and the Knight Foundation.
Learn more about Thriving at technical dot ly.
Thriving’s executive producer is Technical.ly CEO Christopher Wink.
The series is reported, produced, and hosted by me, Nichole Currie.
Our story editor is Jen Kinney. Managing producer is Alex Lewis. Mix and sound design by John Myers.
Special thanks to Technical.ly editors Christina Kristofic, Sameer Rao, and Julie Zeglen.
This episode features music from Blue Dot Sessions and Philippe Bronchtein.
Our theme music is by Flat Mary Road.
Thanks for listening.