Omar Mughal

By: Omar Mughal

I was born in England to Pakistani parents but growing up, being educated, joining the workforce there were many small incidents with local white folk which bitterly brought home to me what was different between us and them.

British society (including the BBC) had to give me a suffix like British-Asian; a moniker I disliked. Even the Antipodeans could say they had closer ties to the British Isles than me. Since leaving the UK to live in the USA I am much more identified by Americans as a Brit (a limey). I didn’t realize I was steeped in the British culture as I am, until I came here; I am sought out by the locals as the expert on British-ness. 

The unique British way such as what makes us laugh, our mannerism, our accents, the English language as spoken at home, the food, the music all sets us apart and we have a common understanding of this that other groups do not. In other words we maintain our British “culture” here. 

So what about my Pakistani roots? I have seldom visited Pakistan, even after an early arranged marriage with a Pakistani woman with whom I lived with in the UK for 10 years. In the USA our physical appearance, clothing and faith still set us apart from the majority but the Pakistani identity we inherited has evolved and amalgamated with our British identity. This internationalism allows us to see a little bit of ourselves in everyone we meet in the USA and unlike our parents who settled in the UK we’re making strides in integrating into our new home.