Returning International Labor Migrants from Bangladesh: The Experience and Effects of Deportation

This paper reports on the findings of a study of former or returned international migrant workers from Bangladesh. The analysis focuses on the economic situation and return experiences of those who had been deported or officially repatriated back to Bangladesh by the destination state. Data collection took place in 2003, in the Dhaka, Chittagong, and Sylhet regions of Bangladesh. In-depth, face-to-face interviews were conducted with eighty-one returned workers, twenty-five of whom had been deported. Studyparticipants were recruited with the cooperation and assistance of the community-based organization WARBE—the Welfare Association of Repatriated Bangladeshi Employees. The data did not reveal a clear and statistically significant difference in the economic outcomes of the migration episode for the deported in comparison to the other returnees. Also of note was the high incidence, as reported by the informants, of returning to Bangladesh under conditions of duress; coercion and constraint guided not just the return experiences of the deported but were present throughout the sample. The findings point to the need for policies that target the reduction of such returns of duress for international migrant workers from developing countries

Bangladeshi Migrant Associations in Italy: Transnational Engagement, Community Formation and Regional Unity

Referring to the case studies of two cities in Northern Italy, this article seeks to understand how Bangladeshi migrants use associations to seek transnational \u201cways of belonging\u201d and \u201cways of being\u201d. It analyses how this transnational attachment to their home country has played an important role in building their own \u201ccommunity\u201d. The findings reveal that Bangladeshi migrant organizations work to maintain \u201ctransnational ways of belonging\u201d by enabling migrants to retain their cultural roots; this is reflected in their observation of festivals, national days, and other practices and rituals. Although, as a relatively new migrant community, they do not share as many economic links through these associations as many other \u201cdiasporic\u201d organizations, migrants widely express a sense that these economic connections are with their country of origin. However, there is competition within the community based on regional origin, as well as have many ambivalences and contradictions

Is There Evidence of "Whitening" For Asian/White Multiracial People in Britain?

Growing rates of interracial unions in multi-ethnic societies such as Britain are notable, and point to significant changes in the blurring and possibly shifting nature of ethnic and racial boundaries. Asian Americans who partner with White Americans are assumed to engage in “whitening” – both in terms of their aspirations and their social consequences. Yet little is still known about the aftermath of intermarriage, even in the USA. Drawing on this US literature, this paper considers the whitening thesis in relation to multiracial people in Britain, with a particular focus on Asian/White multiracial people. I draw upon the findings of two British studies – one of multiracial young people in higher education (Aspinall & Song 2013), and another of multiracial people who are parents (Song 2017) – to explore these questions. I argue that conceptualizations of part Asian people (in the USA) as leaning toward their White heritages are often unsubstantiated, and deduced primarily from one key factor: their high rates of intermarriage with White spouses. In addition to the variable ways in which part Asian people may relate to their minority and White ancestries, we must consider the ambivalence, tensions, and contextually variable identifications and practices adopted by multiracial people

PATTERNS OF ADAPTATION AND SURVIVAL AMONG VIETNAMESE IN AN URBAN SETTING: A STUDY OF FAMILY AND GENDER (PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA)

This is a study of a group of recently arrived Vietnamese refugees. Qualitative research methods--participant-observation and in-depth interviewing--were used to gather data for the study. The study sample included twelve Vietnamese households living in the city of Philadelphia. The study examines the group\u27s strategies or methods of adaptation and coping with the social-cultural environment of the dominant society. It is shown that these strategies are collective and familial in nature. A traditional family system organizes, defines and gives cultural meaning and legitimacy to the cooperative relationships upon which these strategies are based. The study also examines the shifting and evolving gender experiences of the group. It shows that traditional notions of gender remain of significance to the Vietnamese women and men. This is so, despite the challenges and potential for change posed by the alternative model of gender within the dominant popular culture. It is suggested that the persistence of traditional, male dominant patterns of gender is related to the continued material and cultural relevance of the traditional family system for the Vietnamese. In addition, the contacts and relationships of the Vietnamese women with the institutions of the dominant society tend to reinforce their traditional experience of gender and their dependence on the traditional family system

PATTERNS OF ADAPTATION AND SURVIVAL AMONG VIETNAMESE IN AN URBAN SETTING: A STUDY OF FAMILY AND GENDER (PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA)

This is a study of a group of recently arrived Vietnamese refugees. Qualitative research methods--participant-observation and in-depth interviewing--were used to gather data for the study. The study sample included twelve Vietnamese households living in the city of Philadelphia. The study examines the group\u27s strategies or methods of adaptation and coping with the social-cultural environment of the dominant society. It is shown that these strategies are collective and familial in nature. A traditional family system organizes, defines and gives cultural meaning and legitimacy to the cooperative relationships upon which these strategies are based. The study also examines the shifting and evolving gender experiences of the group. It shows that traditional notions of gender remain of significance to the Vietnamese women and men. This is so, despite the challenges and potential for change posed by the alternative model of gender within the dominant popular culture. It is suggested that the persistence of traditional, male dominant patterns of gender is related to the continued material and cultural relevance of the traditional family system for the Vietnamese. In addition, the contacts and relationships of the Vietnamese women with the institutions of the dominant society tend to reinforce their traditional experience of gender and their dependence on the traditional family system

A Service of zbw Becoming a garments worker: The mobilization of women into the garments factories of Bangladesh Becoming a Garments Worker: The Mobilization of Women into the Garments Factories of Bangladesh

Standard-Nutzungsbedingungen: Die Dokumente auf EconStor dürfen zu eigenen wissenschaftlichen Zwecken und zum Privatgebrauch gespeichert und kopiert werden. Sie dürfen die Dokumente nicht für öffentliche oder kommerzielle Zwecke vervielfältigen, öffentlich ausstellen, öffentlich zugänglich machen, vertreiben oder anderweitig nutzen. Sofern die Verfasser die Dokumente unter Open-Content-Lizenzen (insbesondere CC-Lizenzen) zur Verfügung gestellt haben sollten, gelten abweichend von diesen Nutzungsbedingungen die in der dort genannten Lizenz gewährten Nutzungsrechte. Note: The pagination of the electronic version of this paper may differ from the printed publication. Terms of use: Documents in ISSN 1020-3354 Copyright © United Nations Research Institute for Social Development (UNRISD). Short extracts from this publication may be reproduced unaltered without authorization on condition that the source is indicated. For rights of reproduction or translation, application should be made to UNRISD, Palais des Nations, 1211 Geneva 10, Switzerland. UNRISD welcomes such applications. The designations employed in this publication, which are in conformity with United Nations practice, and the presentation of material herein do not imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever on the part of the United Nations Research Institute for Social Development concerning the legal status of any country, territory, city or area or of its authorities, or concerning the delimitation of its frontiers or boundaries. The responsibility for opinions expressed in signed articles, studies and other contributions rests solely with their authors, and publication does not constitute an endorsement by UNRISD of the opinions expressed in them. Preface In preparation for the Fourth World Conference on Women, which was held in Beijing in September 1995, UNRISD initiated an Occasional Paper Series reflecting work carried out under the UNRISD/UNDP project, Technical Cooperation and Women's Lives: Integrating Gender into Development Policy. In view of the intensified efforts in the aftermath of the conference to integrate gender concerns into policy analysis and formulation, and the progress of the gender programme at UNRISD, the Institute intends to continue this Occasional Paper Series to facilitate dissemination of the findings from its gender-related projects. The present paper is based on research undertaken in Bangladesh as part of the Technical Co-operation and Women's Lives project focusing on the theme of labour-intensive industrialization and female employment. Since the early 1980s an export-oriented garments industry has mushroomed in Bangladesh, with women workers constituting a significant proportion of its wage labour force. In explaining the reasons for the feminized wage labour force, considerable attention has been paid to the motivations of employers: the lower cost of young women workers, and their assumed "docility" and "nimbleness" in comparison to men. However, as Nazli Kibria argues, a fuller understanding of the movement of women into the garments factories of Bangladesh also requires the consideration of the "push" factors that underpin it. Conventional understandings of women's entry into wage employment in Bangladesh have emphasized the role played by extreme poverty and the related dynamic of male unemployment and desertion ¾ factors that are also explored in the present paper. But based on interviews with women factory workers in Dhaka, the author is able to suggest a more diverse set of factors underpinning their movement into the garments sector, which in a significant number of cases also entails individual rural-urban migration. Among the factors highlighted are family conflicts, marriage breakdowns, problems of sexual harrassment, the pressures from rising dowry demands and uncertain marriage prospects. Rather than being uniformly a response to dire poverty, the paper argues that in some instances garments work provides the means for enhancing personal and/or household economic prospects, while in other cases it provides a measure of economic and social independence for the women concerned. Another point emerging from the paper is that the meanings that are attached to any kind of work are context-specific and thus highly variable: notwithstanding the exploitative nature of work in garments factories, the value that women workers in this particular context attach to garments work needs to be seen in the light of other livelihood options that are open to them, such as domestic service and arduous forms of agricultural wage work