Most of the Pakistani immigrants who migrated to the United Kingdom believe that no cultural assimilation occurs for them in the country, according to a research conducted by two Northwestern University in Qatar students this past summer.

Meher Mehtab, a journalism senior, and Basmah Kamran Azmi, a communications junior, were the first NU-Q students to receive the Summer Undergraduate Research Grant from Northwestern’s main campus in Evanston. As part of their research, they stayed in London from mid-June to the end of July and conducted qualitative oral history based research, a process that involves interviewing people about their personal experiences related to past events.

“Although we can’t say that our research was 100 percent successful because we weren’t able to get all the information as planned, we still found very interesting stories and views,” said Mehtab. “There were a few people who refused to accept the fact that any assimilation can ever take place between Pakistanis and the British, because of how different our cultures were, and there were other people who said that the only reason we are not assimilating is because we’re not differentiating between our religion and our culture.”

Mehtab and Azmi found out about the grant opportunity when Peter Civetta, director of the Office of Undergraduate Research at Northwestern’s Evanston campus, visited NU-Q and gave a talk on research opportunities for undergraduates. Soon after, Mehtab and Azmi started working on their proposal, a process that took four months.

“It was really difficult because we had to figure out a topic that was interesting to us and something we felt connected to,” said Azmi. The process was made easier for them through the support of university’s staff and faculty members. Mehtab and Azmi discussed their initial ideas with Klaus Schoenbach, associate dean for research, and prepared technical details of their application with Liz Lance, the research administrator at NU-Q’s research office. Their faculty advisor was Abraham Abusharif, associate professor in residence in the journalism department. They also spoke with Christopher Sparshott, an assistant professor of history, to narrow down their research idea and to Sami Hermez, an assistant professor of anthropology, to learn about applying anthropological perspectives to their oral history interviews. They also received guidance from Northwestern’s research office in Evanston.

Mehtab and Azmi wanted to explore minority communities in the United Kingdom. They decided to study Pakistani immigrants because being Pakistani themselves helped them relate to the topic better, they said. “Also, the fact that the U.K. and Pakistan have so much in common with the colonization history makes this relationship of Pakistani immigrants in the U.K. a lot more interesting,” Mehtab added.

After getting their grant approved, Mehtab and Azmi started contacting all the relatives they had in Britain. “Finding our sources were really easy as we did have relatives who migrated to the U.K. in the 70’s, in the 60’s and even as early as the 50’s,” said Mehtab. She added that the strong sense of community among first-generation Pakistani immigrants helped them form new connections through their relatives.

For their final project, both Azmi and Mehtab plan to publish their results in an interactive web page showcasing the video interviews they recorded, along with a written component. They hope to complete it by the end of the fall semester.

For students who want to apply for an NU summer undergraduate research grant in the future, both Mehtab and Azmi advise students to start their proposals early and stay focused. “You have thousands of people competing with you, so you don’t have that NU-Q privilege to just compete with only a few number of people,” Mehtab said. “You have to be on top of it and only do it if you’re really passionate about it.”