LA MODALIDAD SEMIPRESENCIAL

Prior to 1965, the ways by which the U.S. achieve their “melting pot” ideal was by implementing

a quota system that allowed certain groups, mostly Europeans to come while it severely limited

other groups, particularly Asians to enter. After 1965, a series of immigration Acts passed,

allowing, this time, underrepresented countries to come for employment and families to follow82.

In 1990, Congress passed a new program, the OP-1 to increase the diversification of its

population and multiplied various programs through which 19 million immigrants applied in the

first year. The program quickly changed from a first-come, first-served criteria to a random

selection of applicants. Most of these programs were not set on stone; they were temporary and

were rather trial programs that sought the best strategy to maintain the ideal racial and ethnic

composition of the United States. It is in 1994 that the Diversity Visa lottery program began.

This time, Congress legislated a permanent lottery program where 55,000 visas or green cards

were made available per year to a new category of immigrants. Going through various changes to

minimize selectivity biases, the program finally opted for a minimum education level. Through

the DV visa, millions of Bangladeshis entered the United States, with their families. Children

under the age of 21 and spouses, if the relationship existed prior to being admitted to the US,

were also able to join.

In the Asia region, Bangladesh is the top country winner for the DV Lottery. Within the last five

years, a little less than 50,000 people were sent to the USA. The US Department of State reports

that 5,983 Bangladeshis were granted admission to the US in 2008. The 2000 New York Census

shows that 28, 269 Bangladeshis lived in New York City. The 2010 census is still underway.83

82 _{Those Acts include the NP-5 Program implemented by the Immigration Reform and Control Act (IRCA) in 1986,}

which granted 5,000 immigrant visas per year to natives of countries that were facing severe unemployment and poverty. In 1988, the NP-5 Program increased the number of immigrant visas to 15,000 per year (Wolfsdorf and Rahman, 2000).

An important note is that at least four of the respondents mentioned they had come under the DV

program but also said they had arrived in the U.S. before the DV program started in 1994-95. It

may have been the OP1 or that they came under different circumstances.

Table  25.  District  of  residence  in  Bangladesh  prior  to  coming  to  US   Districts of residence in Bangladesh TOTAL Dhaka 39 Chittagong 8 Silhet 6 Comilla 4 Jamalpur 2 Swandip 1 Barisal 2 Cox’s Bazar 1 Bogra 1 North Bengal 1

Table 6 shows that the majority of informants come from Dhaka. Thirty-nine out 65 participants

lived in Dhaka prior to coming to the U.S. This result may be explained by the fact that my

sample is constituted mostly of people with higher education and/or professionals who generally

come from Dhaka City where universities and information about opportunities are accessible.

Furthermore, Bangladeshis who came under the DV program are more likely to come from

Dhaka for two major reasons: first, one needs to have at least 12 years of the equivalence of high

school in the US. The majority of higher education institutions are found in Dhaka84_{. Second, the}

information about DV programs is usually more accessible in Dhaka City since the Bangladeshi

embassy is located there.

84 _{This is not to say that other cities do not have universities or good schools. Chittagong city in fact is known for its}

Table  26.  Gender  distribution  

TYPE US

Male 61

Female 4

TOTAL 65

As I already noted, my study focused on men and inevitably, women are largely

underrepresented. In this study, I am not concerned with gender inequality. I did not ask men

about their remittance practice so that they give their opinions on gender roles. Rather, this

aspect emerged from my interviews’ analysis. By talking with these men, I hoped to get a better

understanding of which norms the remittance practice and how it reinforces certain cultural

aspects, which I explore in this dissertation.

It is important to note, however, that in most occasions, the wives of the men I interviewed in

their home sat with their husbands during the interview.

Table  27.  Education  attainment  in  Bangladesh  and  US   EDUCATION LEVEL IN BANGLADESH AND US

Prior to coming to the US Past and completed diploma, and currently enrolled in US

HIGH SCHOOL 18 - SOME COLLEGE 9 - BA/BS 11 9 MASTERS 13 8 PHD 1 3 OTHERS 13 - TOTAL 65 20

Table 8 indicates that the majority of the participants had at least finished high school or the

equivalent prior to their arrival in NY. Nine out of 65 had some College while 11 obtained a BA

or BS. Thirteen had a Masters before coming to the U.S. and 3 had a PhD. In the U.S., the table

eight are either completing a Masters or have it already. Two out of three participants had gotten

a PhD from a U.S. university while the other two were in their third and fourth year,

respectively, at the time of the interview.

Again table 8 shows that immigrants to the U.S. from Bangladesh are generally of educated

and/or professional type. The DV program requirements are one explanation. It could also be the

result of a selection bias, as explained by Tasneem Siddiqui in her IOM report on Bangladeshis

diasporas in the UK and the U.S. (2004). She hypothesizes that “there could be a selection bias in

scholarship allocation in favor of those who completed their degrees from Dhaka based

educational institutions.”

Table  28.  Prior  and  current  occupation  in  US     TYPE OF OCCUPATIONS IN NY PRIOR 85 _CURRENT Restaurant/busboy/dishwasher 25 1 Taxi driver 21 5 Construction worker 2 1 Barber 1 1 Fruit/Snack Vendor 15 11

Store clerk/cashier/watch man 4 5

Civil service job/ housing authority/social worker/ city transit/security guard

7 8

IT professional/accountant 3 2

Teacher 5 1

Engineer 1 1

Business owner/Self Employed 3 10

Pharmacist 2 2

Stay-at-home 11 (women) 8 (women)

Journalist 2 2

Unemployed 0 0

Retired 1 1

Other 18 6

85 _{This section includes all jobs Bangladeshi immigrants had prior to the current one. The number therefore will total}

more than 65 as each individual had more than one job experience over the course of their lives in NY, restaurant and cab driving being the most common among them. At least 90% of all informants work/ed more than one job at a time (prior to getting the current one).

Table 9 shows that at least 50% of Bangladeshi immigrants to the US currently hold

professionals or technical positions while the other half is employed as low skilled jobs. Of

important note, 3 out of 11 women work (social worker, dental technician, and clerk). All 11

women come live as middle class families. In addition, we observe that 46 out of 65 Bangladeshi

immigrants have worked in restaurants or as cab drivers prior to getting their current position,

which is usually a higher salary job. My data concurs with a recent census profile (2007), which

reports that 28.3% out of 81, 283 recorded Bangladeshis living in New York work in

Management, Professional, and related occupations while 35.7% are in Sales and Office

Occupations.

C).FIELDWORK CHALLENGES: LEARNING FROM BANGLADESHI INFORMANTS

Like in many sociological studies, it is difficult to assess exactly all the issues encountered in the

data-gathering procedures. After all, as my Methods professor once told me in graduate school, a

research should not be about “you and your problems. It should be more about what you actually

studied or what you asked people about”. While I do not believe that a research shall be about

one’s problems, I do think it is important to address, at least provisionally the main challenges

researchers encounter during his/her data collection. While on one hand, it forces us to be very

explicit about the methods we use and its limitation, on the other, it helps to highlight the

benefits to be gained by connecting different ways of understanding the world around us, in

terms of scientific methods and culture in general.

In this section, I would like to call attention to some of the challenges I encountered during