This study investigated Pakistani cultural expectations for first generation Pakistani women living in the United States, describing the processes that occurred in first generation Pakistani women as they negotiated native cultural expectations in the United States. A literature review was conducted that included historical underpinnings of the creation of Pakistan, a cross section of class influencing the Pakistani women's ability to access resources, differences between rural and urban classes, resiliency among South Asian women, Diaspora, immigration, and acculturation experiences. This phenomenological investigation included in-depth interviews with 10 Pakistani women who moved to the United States at or after adolescence, and had been living here for the past 7-10 years. They described their processes of adjusting and adapting to a new environment in the host country. Three textural themes and twelve subthemes emerged from the data. The study sought to illuminate the inner world of the participants by analyzing how they experienced time, space, causality, materiality, bodyhood, and relationship to self and relationship to others. Findings of this research supported a negotiation and reconciliation process between the two worlds within which these women live. While in the United States, their ethnic identity remains as they negotiate their identities within the often-conflicting expectations of these binary worlds. This study may be used as a guide for clinicians, immigration agencies, and social scientists to better understand the Pakistani women who have immigrated to the United States. This study may also applicable to general populations of immigrants entering into a new country.

Keywords: First generation Pakistani, cultural expectations, resiliency, ethnic identity, cultural identity, South Asian women, Pakistani women, Pakistani culture, immigration, acculturation, trauma, cultural ambivalence.