An Afghan Military Interpreter Finds Footing In The U.S. Gig Economy

The gig economy has been criticized for failing to provide workers the benefits and stability of full-time employment and celebrated for its ability to allow workers to supplement their income on a flexible schedule. Ajmal Faqiri, an Afghan immigrant who lives in Virginia, has experienced both types of work arrangements.

He grew up in Kabul, Afghanistan and served as translator for the U.S. military before arriving in San Francisco on a Special Immigrant Visa in 2013. Faqiri has held more than 10 jobs, and started driving for Lyft in 2015.

Faqiri, his wife and their two children emigrated from Afghanistan in 2013, but the move wasn't the first time Faqiri had to navigate a drastically new economic landscape. As a child in Kabul, he dreamed of becoming a doctor, but the Taliban's occupation of his country and the efforts to push them out derailed those career aspirations. It also brought new opportunities — Faqiri, fluent in four languages, was offered a job as an interpreter and translator for the U.S. military in 2006.

He was just 17 years old when he took the job, which placed him in the same dangers as soldiers. "The first four years I was in the front line fighting against terrorism, Taliban," he said. "It was very tough job because it was scary ... You could see bullets crossing your head."

The remainder of his served time was spent at quieter training centers, where he interpreted between U.S. troops and Afghan troops. He'd work as a translator until 2013. Though he wasn't exposed to the front line at the training centers, Faqiri's life was still in grave danger.

"People called me and said, 'You are infidel, you are not Muslim anymore. We will kill you, you're working with Americans,' and so on and so on — but that didn't stop me from what I was doing," Faqiri said.

Faqiri wasn't alone in receiving death threats. In 2014, the International Refugee Assistance Project estimated that an Afghan interpreter was being killed every 36 hours. In 2016, NPR photojournalist David Gilkey and Afghan interpreter and journalist Zabihullah Tamanna were killed by the Taliban.

"When I start working as a translator there was not even the rumor that they would bring us to the United States. And then things changed," Faqiri said.

In 2006, the U.S. government enacted the Special Immigrant Visa, or SIV, program in response to threats on the lives of Iraqi and Afghan translators and interpreters assisting the U.S. military. Translators whose lives were in danger who had worked directly for the U.S. for more than a year could apply, and if accepted, immigrate to the U.S. with their spouses and children. - More, NPR

An Afghan Military Interpreter Finds Footing In The U.S. Gig Economy