This dissertation employs data collected from multiple sites in Southern California over a period of nine months. Several in-depth ethnographic interviews and participant observations were conducted with Pakistani Muslim women (age 17-22) and their parents in an effort to better understand the influence that parents and ethno-religious communities had on their lives, academic choices, and aspirations. This dissertation explores the ways that seemingly paradoxical stereotypes, as members of a model minority and the victims of their parents, Pakistani culture and Islam, have informed the ways young Pakistani Muslim women identify themselves and are identified by others. As the children of immigrants and members of an ethno-religious community consistently marked by difference, I examine the varied and often conflicting ways participants define themselves and the ways they are defined by others through the processes of differentialism. Using a critical reconceptualization of agency, one that delinks the concept of agency from secular progressive politics, this work explores the varied modes of agency embodied by young Pakistani Muslim women. Findings confirm the idea that the lives, experiences and perspectives of immigrant youth are complex and multifaceted and that their identities are always in flux and ever changing. Importantly, this research contradicts the cultural clash theory, which suggests that Pakistani parents are inherently obstructive to their daughter's educational and career goals. This work challenges hegemonic discourses about young Pakistani women that position them as passive recipients of oppressive cultural and religious practices. Findings also complicate our view of agency and choice in relation to young Pakistani Muslim women, deepening our understanding of the roles of parents and ethno-religious communities in the lives of immigrant youth. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com.bibliotheek.ehb.be/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]