The Political Economy of Obligation and Ally-ship: Examining Afghan Migration to the U.S. 2021-2026 by Durana Saydee

Following the U.S. military withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021, nearly 200,000 Afghan nationals have been resettled in the United States through emergency humanitarian programs and special immigrant pathways. While public and political discourse has largely framed these arrivals through the language of obligation toward “Afghan allies,” these frameworks prioritize military affiliations and obscure the diverse legal trajectories and lived experiences of Afghans after resettlement. This article examines how the U.S. Special Immigrant Visa (SIV) program has transformed from a mechanism intended to protect wartime collaborators into a bureaucratic system shaped by evolving political objectives, heightened scrutiny, and contested notions of deservingness. Drawing on interviews with 100 Afghan nationals resettled in San Diego between 2021 and 2026, immigration attorneys, and military-veteran advocates, alongside archival analysis and survey data, this study investigates how Afghan migrants navigate the SIV process amid changing immigration policies and growing legal uncertainty. I argue that “deservingness” in this case is a politically contingent framework that affects access to protection, influences legal brokerage, and differentiates Afghans according to their perceived value to the United States. By situating contemporary Afghan migration within the longer history of U.S. military intervention and immigration policymaking, this article demonstrates how narratives of obligation simultaneously facilitate protection for some while marginalizing others. In doing so, it contributes to the scholarship on asylum, humanitarian admissions, legal precarity, and the politics of deservingness by demonstrating how politically contingent wartime alliances continue to shape migrants’ experiences long after conflict has “ended.”