Description
This paper explores how Pakistan’s four-decade relationship with Afghan refugees has turned from hospitality to hostility. Once welcomed in the name of Islamic solidarity and shared history, Afghan migrants are now being repatriated amid fear, exhaustion and political pressure. Using insights from the ethics of hospitality and postcolonial migration theory, the paper argues that Pakistan’s shift reflects a deeper crisis in how moral obligation and national identity are imagined in the Global South.
Methodologically, the study draws on first-hand primary sources collected during field reporting and interviews with Afghan families, local officials and aid workers in border districts. These accounts are supported by analysis of policy documents, government briefings and Urdu-language media debates rarely used in academic literature. This combination allows a grounded understanding of how emotions of threat and fatigue shape both policy and public feeling.
The paper contributes an exclusive perspective from within Pakistan, showing how the moral language of refuge is being replaced by a politics of blame and withdrawal. It invites reflection on what this emotional and ethical reversal means for the future of asylum in South Asia.
Keywords:
migration, refugees, Pakistan, Afghanistan, hospitality, hostility, ethics, emotions, asylum, belonging
