Bangladeshi Immigrant Women Research Articles

The Health and Safety Experiences of Precariously Employed Bangladeshi Immigrant Workers in Toronto During the COVID-19 Pandemic.

Racialized immigrants in Canada have been disproportionately impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. Our qualitative, community-based study with South Asian Women and Immigrants' Services examined the impact of the second and third waves of the pandemic on the work and health of precariously employed Bangladeshi immigrant women and men in Toronto. Our study is based on interviews and focus group discussions with 45 workers, all conducted in Bangla, and 11 key informants. Interviews reveal work transitions, an increase in precarity, work in essential sectors, exposures at work, home and in transit, workplace prevention and management gaps, and an inability to take time off, with significant impacts on workers' physical and mental health. We discuss the implications of our findings for prevention, preparedness, and response by workplaces and governments to decrease the risk and reduce the impact of infectious diseases emergencies in the precarious work sector.

Perceived Challenges and Unmet Primary Care Access Needs among Bangladeshi Immigrant Women in Canada.

Introduction:Understanding barriers in primary health care access faced by Canadian immigrants, especially among women, is important for developing mitigation strategies. The aim of this study was to gain an in-depth understanding of perceived challenges and unmet primary health care access needs of Bangladeshi immigrant women in Canada.Methods:In this qualitative study, we conducted 7 focus groups among a sample of 42 first-generation immigrant women on their experiences in primary health care access in their preferred language, Bangla. Descriptive analysis was used for their socio-demographic characteristics and inductive thematic analysis was applied to the qualitative data.Results:The hurdles reported included long wait time at emergency service points, frustration from slow treatment process, economic losses resulting from absence at work, communication gap between physicians and immigrant patients, and transportation problem to go to the health care centers. No access to medical records for walk-in doctors, lack of urgent care, and lack of knowledge about Canadian health care systems are a few of other barriers emerged from the focus group discussions.Conclusions:The community perception about lack of primary health care resources is quite prevalent and is considered as one of the most important barriers by the grassroots community members.

Entrepreneurial Efforts by Bangladeshi Immigrant Women in New Zealand: A Preliminary Analysis

This exploratory research investigates the entrepreneurial orientation among migrant Bangladeshi women in New Zealand. There have been many studies of higher degrees of entrepreneurship among the migrant communities in the western world but this research studies the role and trends among the Bangladeshi migrant women using a mixed method of study. The descriptive statistics show unique trends among this group of women entrepreneurs. The women face various challenges but they also deal with these challenges in their unique ways. The striking trend that was established was that the limited expectations are limiting the growth of the businesses among these group of entrepreneurs in New Zealand. The findings of this research may be of interest among various policy makers both at the national and international levels. This may also be of interest for researchers who study women empowerment concepts around the world.

Capital without its field: educated Bangladeshi women in the British labour market

ABSTRACT The paper investigates the relatively underexplored field of educated first-generation Bangladeshi immigrant women’s labour market experience in Britain. Applying an intersectional lens using Pierre Bourdieu’s notion of ‘capital’, ‘habitus’ and ‘field’ [1986. “The Forms of Capital.” In Handbook of Theory and Research for the Sociology of Education, edited by John G. Richardson, 241–258. New York: Greenwood] and Nira Yuval-Davis’s ‘situational intersectionality’ [2015. “Situated Intersectionality and Social Inequality.” Raisons Politiques 2 (58): 91–100], the paper examines immigrant women’s employment barriers and their diverse strategies to deal with the barriers in the UK labour market. Analysing twenty-eight participants’ narratives into three categories: (i) Full-time professionals, (ii) Part-time wage earners and (iii) Economically inactive women, the paper highlights how the issue of capital mobilisation affected South Asian immigrant women’s employment choices. The participants’ situational differences within a complex nexus of unequal capital portability, non-recognition of skills, and their limited familiarity with British cultural capital, family’s economy and their lifecycle stages shaped the immediate and long-term choices they could make. The analysis emphasises the necessity to examine contemporary first-generation Bangladeshi as well as South Asian, Muslim women’s employment from a capital mobilisation perspective taking into account the situations within which they operate.

Origin culture and domestic violence against Bangladeshi immigrant women in Southern California

People from around the world migrate to the United States (US) in search of a better life. However, this migration sometimes increases vulnerability to domestic violence among immigrant women. This study investigates the underlying mechanism of domestic violence against immigrant women. Using a mixed method approach including survey and ethnographic stories about domestic violence among Bangladeshi immigrants in Southern California, this study recognizes how immigrants’ origin culture of male-dominated family in Bangladesh and the US immigration laws together create a condition conducive to violence against women. It identifies the immigrants’ continued adherence to the original patriarchal family organization as the main contributor of continued and increased vulnerability of Bangladeshi immigrant women. Emphasizing individual’s rights in the US, the paper suggests necessary measure for the state, community organizations and individuals to address the problem, and reduce these women’s vulnerability.

Pregnancy-Related Experiences of Bangladeshi Immigrant Women in the U.S.

Pregnancy-Related Experiences of Bangladeshi Immigrant Women in the U.S.

ASHA: Using Participatory Methods to Develop an Asset-building Mental Health Intervention for Bangladeshi Immigrant Women

ASHA: Using Participatory Methods to Develop an Asset-building Mental Health Intervention for Bangladeshi Immigrant Women

"Tension" in South Asian women: developing a measure of common mental disorder using participatory methods.

Although common mental disorder (CMD) is highly prevalent among South Asian immigrant women, they rarely seek mental treatment. This may be owing in part to the lack of conceptual synchrony between medical models of mental disorder and the social models of distress common in South Asian communities. Furthermore, common mental health screening and diagnostic measures may not adequately capture distress in this group. Community-based participatory research (CBPR) is ideally suited to help address measurement issues in CMD as well as to develop culturally appropriate treatment models. To use participatory methods to identify an appropriate, culturally specific mental health syndrome and develop an instrument to measure this syndrome. We formed a partnership between researchers, clinicians, and community members. The partnership selected a culturally specific model of emotional distress/illness, "tension," as a focus for further study. Partners developed a scale to measure Tension and tested the new scale on 162 Bangladeshi immigrant women living in the Bronx. The 24-item "Tension Scale" had high internal consistency (α = 0.83). On bivariate analysis, the scale significantly correlated in the expected direction with depressed as measured by the Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-2), age, education, self-rated health, having seen a physician in the past year, and other variables. Using participatory techniques, we created a new measure designed to assess CMD in an isolated immigrant group. The new measure shows excellent psychometric properties and will be helpful in the implementation of a community-based, culturally synchronous intervention for depression. We describe a useful strategy for the rapid development and field testing of culturally appropriate measures of mental distress and disorder.

Ethnic Density and Maternal and Infant Health Inequalities: Bangladeshi Immigrant Women in New York City in the 1990s

How do the social and material characteristics of residential contexts in the host country affect immigrant maternal and infant health? We examine this question through the lens of the ethnic density hypothesis, a hypothesis that posits beneficial effects on immigrant health of living in areas of high ethnic density; that is, among a socially and linguistically similar population. We analyze the association between infant low birth weight and ethnic density for Bangladeshi immigrant mothers in New York City during a period of rapid and sustained immigration (1990–2000). For Bangladeshi immigrant women, ethnic neighborhoods can provide an important source of social and material support during pregnancy. Geographic information systems (GIS) and spatial analysis methods are used to create a fine-grained indicator of ethnic density. Results show that the relationship between ethnic density and infant low birth weight changed over time. The lack of association in the early years (1990 and 1993) might reflect the fact that the Bangladeshi population had not yet reached a sufficient size, or spatially clustered settlement pattern, to provide dense ethnic neighborhoods and concentrations of social and material resources. In 2000, we observe a U-shaped association between low birth weight and density: Women living in ethnically isolated settings and those living in high-density enclaves are more vulnerable to adverse infant health outcomes. The results suggest the need for a more nuanced understanding of immigrant maternal and infant health and ethnic density that incorporates the dynamism of immigrant experiences and their associations with shifting spatially and socially defined residential environments.

Women's agency and citizenship across transnational identities: a case study of the Bangladeshi diaspora in the UK

This article focuses on agency and citizenship from the point of view of Bangladeshi immigrant women who have been living in UK for the last two generations. They have a transnational identity, living between two cultures, which often have contradictory elements. On the one hand, these women identify themselves as British citizens: a status which provides them with some liberal rights. On the other hand, they practise Bangladeshi culture at home, which often entails patriarchal elements. At the junction of these two identities, religion (Islam) works as a guiding principle, and as a uniting tool in their personal as well as public lives. The present article challenges the notions that immigrant women shaped by Bangladeshi culture are victims of patriarchal ideologies, and that Bangladeshi culture hinders women from development. It rather suggests that it is not Bangladeshi culture or religion that hinders women from exercising agency, but their identity as immigrants.

Perception of spousal abuse expressed by married Bangladeshi immigrant women in Houston, Texas, U.S.A.

Relocating from a homogeneous ethnic country into one that is heterogeneous may threaten one's self-identity, cause isolation, and trigger tension between a couple making the journey together. Most spousal abuse cannot be separated from the cultural, social, and economic contexts in which it occurs. An assessment of abuse in an immigrant community is impacted by stereotypes, cultural stigmas, and lack of knowledge or trust of available resources and services. A prevalence rate of 10% for spousal abuse was revealed in this study of 23 married female immigrants from Bangladesh residing in Houston, Texas. Using both a quantitative and qualitative design, women reported both mental/verbal and physical abuse, most frequently committed by the husband and in-laws. Commonalities exist with other immigrant groups, but characteristics unique to those from Bangladesh must be considered to effectively address abuse against women in this community.