Little Bangladesh

This volume presents a comprehensive overview of the Bangladeshi diaspora in USA. Based on case studies from across Southern California, it discusses themes such as economic advantages of migration beyond sociological models of globalization; Bangladeshi diaspora and Little Bangladesh; oral histories of settlement and incoming migrants; imagined homelands in California; emigration and immigration; trans-business and the American Dream; diaspora and social media; Islam and transnationalism; and Bangladeshi Islam in the USA. It explores the trans-global subjectivity and embodied experiences of Bangladeshi migrants as they negotiate economic opportunity, security, and challenges. The book also documents transnational ties that migrants retain; the aspirations and anxieties they face; and what it means to be a Muslim living in the USA in the post-9/11 era. With its rich, multi-sited ethnographic narratives set in transnational studies and studies of globalization, this book will interest scholars and researchers of diaspora studies, migration studies, South Asian studies, political sociology, social anthropology, sociology and political studies, international relations and those interested in Bangladesh.

Zahir Ahmed is a Professor of Anthropology at Jahangirnagar University, Dhaka, Bangladesh. He received his BSS and MSS in sociology from the University of Chittagong and his MA and DPhil in social anthropology from the University of Sussex. He has published several articles and book chapters. He has worked on the Bangladeshi diaspora in London, Birmingham, Leicester, and Brighton while affiliated with the University of Manchester and University of Sussex. He also received funding from the IIES as a Senior Fulbright Fellow to conduct research on the Bangladeshi diaspora in the USA, and Southern California in particular. During this, he was affiliated with the Department of Anthropology at the University of California, Irvine. He has collaborated with the Department of Anthropology and Sociology at SOAS, London on the research project "Parliamentary Democracy and Public Engagement in Westminster, Ethiopia and Bangladesh." He is a founder chair of the Society for Anthropological Research Bangladesh (SARB). He is also a long-time member of American Anthropological Association (AAA), and currently serves on a specially commissioned Task Force on the Proliferation of Border and Security Walls.

Introduction 1. Settlement of the Bangladeshis in the US 2. Multi-sited Ethnography and the Bangladeshi Diaspora 3. Southern California Ethnographies 4. Bangladeshi Diaspora in New York City 5. Movement Across Desh and Bidesh 6. Islam and Transnationalism. Conclusions: Diaspora, Travel and Connectedness