The Diversity Visa (DV) lottery is open for applications again, and for
The Diversity Visa (DV) lottery is open for applications again, and for Bangladesh, eligible to participate, there are 50,000 visas available to its nationals. Several campaigns conducted around the country call to: “Try your luck.” The campaigns will continue until all 50,000 visas have been won. Lottery winners will then rush to America, seeking to change their fate. What awaits them, however, are serious difficulties, from finding accommodations, employment, and learning the language, to sorting out schools for their children.
Faced with these problems in America, many Bangladeshis are opting to return their homeland. The most pressing of the problems is the lack of jobs. This journalist came across a gentleman at a travel agency who is a victim of such situation and was there to buy a ticket to fly back to Bangladesh. He came to America, along with all the members of his family, after winning the DV lottery, he informed me. After arriving here, they took shelter in the home of a Georgia-based relative. Unable to find employment, he sent his family members back to Bangladesh and made his way alone to New York to try to make a living and find a job that could help him to maintain his family in Bangladesh. He searched for a job in many places, including Manhattan, but was not successful. Fortunately, he said, he was smart enough not to quit his job in Bangladesh so he is going back to home to his previous job. In the name of changing his fate, The DV lottery burdened him with a loan of $7,000.
Another DV lottery winner this reporter found on the street agreed to speak. Asked how his new life in America was going, he sighed. “I am searching for a job, but have not managed to get one. The reality is that I can’t understand spoken English,” he said. “I had to borrow a huge amount of money to come to America. That should show you how I am” he added. “I can’t foresee my lot, what will happen tomorrow.”
A third Bangladeshi this journalist found in Jackson Heights also came to America after wining a DV lottery. “But I haven’ found a job and I spent all the dollars that I brought from Bangladesh. Now I am starving.”
There are many such cases that remain unreported. To explore solutions to these problems, we contacted M. A. Aziz, president of New York-based Bangladesh Society, who claimed “the Society is here to assist the Bangladeshis in resolving such problem. The Society will stand by anyone who contacts us.” Aziz added, “The City provides English as a Second Language (ESL) courses to remove the language problem and also offers computer training. If someone is unable to access such services, he should contact us and we will help,” Aziz said. The office of the Society remains opened from Monday to Sunday.
Asked about this issue, Badrun Nahar Mita, president of Jalalabad Association America, INC, opined that a resource center is needed to solve the problems faced by DV lottery winners. “Such a center would gather information about the newcomers, register the problems that they face, and provide assistance to arrange for the admission of their kids into schools and for housing accommodations,” she said. Nahar Mita also indicated she will place the need for such a resource center on the Association’s agenda.
By Md. Mostafizur Rahman, Weekly Bangla Patrika, 22 October 2010. Translated from English by Mohammad Zainal Abedin.