A local paper serves Pakistani immigrants in New Jersey — and a journalist devotes himself to his community
In small towns where immigrant-owned businesses help to drive the local economy, in-language newspapers like Urdu News play a critical role in the Pakistani and Muslim communities.
On an unseasonably balmy weekend in January, Laree Adda restaurant was packed with people of Pakistani descent, mostly middle-aged men in button-down shirts and women in traditional shalwar kameez, or trousers and tunics gilded with golden laces.
The restaurant, located on a tree-lined section of Grove Street, half a block from the PATH train station, is a favorite spot for friends and families who live or visit around the area, sharing their stories in Urdu over lamb karahi and mango lassi — and a place to pick up a print copy of Urdu News, a weekly newspaper that provides them the latest news and information about their community.
Urdu News is one of the five Pakistani publications that covers the New Jersey-New York-Connecticut tristate area. All of them are based in New York City.
According to Navaid and his friend Imran, who were drinking tea at the restaurant that day, Urdu News is “considered to be a news-driven weekly” that provides timely news to the growing population of Pakistani Americans in New Jersey.
“My wife and I read it each week,” Navaid said, “but my children can’t even speak or read Urdu, unfortunately.”
In recent years, Jersey City — particularly in areas that are close to the train station or have an easy access to New York City by public transportation — has become the biggest enclave of Pakistani immigrants in the state, and it shows no sign of slowing.
Many Pakistani families have also moved to central and southern parts of the state, such as Edison and Trenton, respectively, to look for a more affordable housing and a much bigger space for their children.
And in small cities and towns, where immigrant-owned businesses are critical pieces of the fabric of the local economy, an in-language newspaper, like Urdu News, plays a vital role in the Pakistani and Muslim communities.
“Most Pakistani parents [would] prefer to read an Urdu newspaper over an English-language mainstream newspaper,” said Mohsin Zaheer, publisher and editor of Urdu News. “As for their children, who most likely were born or raised in the U.S., you’d be lucky to see them pick up any kind of newspapers.”
Based on the census data, New Jersey is home to nearly 30,000 Pakistani Americans. But the number could even be higher.
“If you ask the Pakistani consulate,” Zaheer said, “they’d tell you that the Pakistani population in the tri-state region, especially in New Jersey, is at least three times higher that what the census data shows.”
Partly, he says that not everyone favors to participate in the decennial census and those who were U.S.-born or raised may not identify as Pakistani.
Rise of community journalism in the wake of 9/11
Zaheer worked as the former deputy editor of the Daily Kabrain, a newspaper based in Lahore, for nine years. But like many immigrants, he did not come to the United States, in 1999, to become a journalist.
Nor did he ever imagine he would start a newspaper business.
Instead, in order to survive and get acculturated to the American life, he first established himself by working at McDonald’s and retail stores. He got those jobs from fellow Pakistani immigrants and, interestingly, from an Urdu-language weekly, Sada-e Pakistan.
“When I met the brother/sister owners of Sada-e Pakistan and they offered me to run the editorial operation of the paper, I did not have any sources. They gave me the journalism experience in America,” he said.
Yet, two years into his job as the editor and reporter, the 9/11 terror struck the country.
As federal government powers were expanded under the U.S. Patriot Act, reportedly resulting in increased cases of racial profiling against Muslims by law enforcement and the implementation of the special federal registration requirement for foreign nationals from predominantly Islamic countries, the Pakistani and other South Asian communities were devastated.
“It was really a nightmare. I will never forget those difficult times. Everyone was scared. I know a lot of people from my community — fathers, mothers, brothers, sisters, cousins, young children—who got deported or faced deportation each day,” Zaheer recalled.
In the aftermath of 9/11, which saw profiling against Muslims, federal registration, and deportations, providing news to his community was more significant and needed than ever before, said Zaheer. Never in history, had members of South Asian diasporas experienced such challenges.
Zaheer says he reported on how to educate Pakistani immigrant families about their rights. He reported on what to do when ICE agents knock on doors in the middle of the night. And he reported on how to find legal counsel to fight arrest or deportation.
“I dedicated my career to help Pakistani immigrant families. My wife and I had our first child amid this political chaos,” he said. “But I’m really glad I did it.”
Fall of a Pakistani newspaper
More than a decade later, as newspapers began to shift to digital and advertising opportunities also started to shrink, Sada-e Pakistan owners decided to focus their business on the healthcare sector, and the newspaper had to close down.
“[The owners] actually gave me the right to continue its operations, but I could see some liabilities that I had to bear,” Zaheer said. “On the other hand, I didn’t even know what else to do.”
Over the past 30 years, he says the only job he acquired has been in journalism.
Admittedly, he was worried because he never put his hands on managing and owning a newspaper.
But he only had two choices: re-start a publication or start an entirely new career.
“When you want to continue to do good work for the community but also you want to ensure that you don’t hurt your responsibility to your family, and you have three kids who go to school, ‘what will you do?’ I asked myself those questions again and again,” he said.
Birth of Urdu News
In 2018, Zaheer decided to establish Urdu News, both the online and print editions, and gave it a shot for 12 weeks.
If Urdu News failed to capture a significant audience in the Pakistani community in the New Jersey and New York areas, he promised himself to give it up and look for another job.
“Fortunately, my community has embraced the newspaper,” he said. “Despite some financial struggles, like any newspaper business would experience nowadays, I am happy that it is doing well.”
At the height of the coronavirus pandemic, Zaheer participated in several reporting fellowships, allowing him to cover in-depth stories on the Pakistani community in New Jersey.
Now celebrating its 5th anniversary, the online edition of Urdu News has grown from having 100 to 3,000 views a day, he said, and is now printing about 2,000 copies a week.
Aging: What lies ahead
The aging of Pakistani immigrants raises questions related to their increased need for care and help from relatives, as well as what future holds for Pakistani newspapers in the United States, he said.
“At first, many Pakistanis who immigrated to the U.S. thought they’d only give themselves about three years to work and save money, and then they’d go back to Pakistan. That’s the classic immigrant mentality,” Zaheer said.
But he noted that almost none went back to Pakistan and, instead, they ended up raising a family and living permanently in the U.S.
“Now, the U.S.-born population of Pakistani Americans is much higher than those of Pakistani-born immigrants,” Zaheer said.
The hidden sustainability of a Pakistani publication, he explained, is deeply embedded in the support of the Pakistani immigrants — those who read, write and speak in Urdu and Arabic.
But the first- and second-generation Pakistani Americans, many of whom are now in their early 20s, lack the native language of their parents. Many of them also prefer to read English-language publications.
In addition, he believes that the traditional Pakistani family structure is inevitably changing. He says it is not uncommon to see children of aging Pakistani parents who, adopting the western culture, move out of state, posing home care challenges for the parents left behind.
“I hope to see new Pakistani immigrants in the coming years,” Zaheer said. “They would not only contribute to the vibrancy of cities and suburbs, but they would also replenish the audience of Urdu-language publications in New Jersey and across America.”
Anthony “Oni” Advincula is the ethnic and community media coordinator at the Center for Cooperative Media at Montclair State University. Contact him at advinculaa@montclair.edu.
About the Center for Cooperative Media: The Center is a grant-funded program of the School of Communication and Media at Montclair State University. Its mission is to grow and strengthen local journalism, and in doing so serve New Jersey residents. The Center is supported with funding from Montclair State University, John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation, Democracy Fund, the New Jersey Local News Lab (a partnership of the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation, Democracy Fund, and Community Foundation of New Jersey), and the Abrams Foundation. For more information, visit centerforcooperativemedia.org.
