Afghan refugees living in India have traditionally been studied through a limited lens provided by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). To measure assimilation into Indian society, the UNHCR bifurcates a religiously diverse population into “ethnic" Afghans (those born Muslim) and "non-ethnic" Afghans (born Sikh or Hindu). In this project, new ethnographic methods are explored to challenge the methodological nationalism of this binary, paving the way for “global assimilation” as a new articulation of Afghan refugee aspirations.