Economics
Most of the community today lives a comfortable, middle-class and upper-middle-class existence[11][20], although there might be very few incidence of poverty among newer uneducated immigrants. Many Pakistani Americans also own their own businesses, including restaurants, groceries, clothing and appliance stores, newspaper booths, and travel agencies. It is common to include members of the extended and immediate family in the business. The Pakistani-American immigrant community is extremely generous and philanthropic. Research shows that in the year 2002, this community gave near US$ 1 Billion in philanthropy (including value of volunteered time).[18] An increasing number of Pakistani Americans work in the medical field. The Association of Physicians of Pakistani Descent of North America, APPNA, has been meeting in various locations across the United States for the past 30 years. There are more than 15,000 doctors practicing medicine in America who are from Pakistani decent.[34] Pakistan is the fourth highest source of IMG doctors in the US[35] and they are chiefly concentrated in New York, California, Florida, New Jersey and Illinois.[36] Pakistani Americans tend to follow the residence pattern set by other Americans, in that they move to more affluent suburbs as their prosperity increases. Members of the community believe in the symbolic importance of owning homes; accordingly, Pakistani Americans tend to save and make other monetary sacrifices earlier on in order to purchase their own homes as soon as possible.[11] Members of the family and the larger community tend to take care of each other, and to assist in times of economic need. Hence, it would be more common to turn to a community member for economic assistance rather than to a government agency. Relatively low levels of Pakistani-Americans are on welfare and public assistance.[11] According to the census the mean household income in the United States in 2002 was $57,852 annually, while that for Pakistanis, was $70,047.[3] Compared to other heritage groups in the United States, Pakistani Americans tend to be better educated with 60% holding a bachelors degree or higher professional degrees.[37] There are more than 1,000 Pakistani-American millionaires.
