ABSTRACT
Immigration policies and the constant tightening of immigration laws have threatened and undermined their ability to expand their community. The continued tightening of immigration controls strikes at the very roots of British Pakistanis' deepest loyalties: to close kinsmen, dependants, and in relation to unquestionable familial obligations. The British Pakistani response both to racism in Britain and to the economic recession of the 1980s has been, on the whole, to close ranks and consolidate their internally autonomous institutions. British Pakistanis have, built up a series of autonomous cultural and religious institutions. Rituals of offering and sacrifice and wedding rituals exemplify the process of symbolic renewal and relocation in the local Pakistani community. Immigrants must resituate cultural categories and imagery within a new environment. British Pakistanis make extensive economic and ritual investments at home, and they continue to arrange marriages at home, drawing spouses from a pool of close affines and kinsmen living in Pakistan.
