Rasel Kaber, like many first-generation Bangladeshi immigrants, moved to New York to

Rasel Kaber, like many first-generation Bangladeshi immigrants, moved to New York to build a career and to create a life in which he could make a positive impact.

Kaber, 31, settled in Jackson Heights, Queens, in 2006 and now works for Chhaya Community Development Corp., a nonprofit focused on improving access to housing and resources for South Asian Americans. Though Kaber is not yet a citizen, he’s heavily involved in local politics: Kaber founded the Youth Congress of Bangladeshi Americans last year and hopes to eventually run for political office.

“Politics is the main thing,” Kaber said. “We are a minority community. We need to establish ourselves politically.”

Like Kaber, Bangladeshis throughout New York City – while already entrenched in terms of population and employment – are just beginning to flex their political muscle. Though no Bangladeshi has been elected to office in New York and the community still faces civic engagement hurdles, it won’t be long before an official representative of this rapidly growing community is elected, said community group leaders and local officials throughout the city.

One of the reasons is the city’s increasing Bangladeshi presence; New York is the center of Bangladeshi immigration, said Nazli Kibria, a professor of sociology at Boston University who wrote “Muslims in Motion: Islam and National Identity in the Bangladeshi Diaspora.”

Bangladeshis started immigrating to New York in the 1980s when the first wave of professionals came over after the country became independent from Pakistan, Kibria said.

Aided by the green card lottery in the ’90s, family migration followed, and, within a few years, Bangladeshi communities with mosques and specialty stores began sprouting up in Queens.

Despite what many local politicians said were low-ball estimates of the city’s population following the 2010 census, there is no disputing the city’s increasing Asian – and Bangladeshi – populations.

Asian non-Hispanics, who now account for nearly 13 percent of the city’s population, saw the highest growth in the city between 2000 and 2010, according to census statistics. Within Asian populations, Bangladeshis are the fastest-growing group; they experienced a 400 percent uptick from 1990 to 2000, and, on the heels of that frenzied pace, increased 60 percent from 2000 to 2010. More than 30,000 Bangladeshis now live in New York City, according to projections based on data from the 2005-2009 American Community Survey. Further, community leaders say the number is much higher; the Bangladeshi American National Democratic Society estimates there are more than 50,000 Bangladeshis in New York City.

“Among the eight or nine Asian ethnic groups, they are growing the fastest by far,” said Howard Shih, census programs director at the Asian American Federation, who spoke about the subject at a recent conference on the evolution of civic and political engagement among New York City’s Asian-American population.

Shih said the Bangladeshi population has grown in both number and geographic reach; while its commercial core is in Jackson Heights, its residential population centers have spread throughout Queens as well as to Kensington, Brooklyn and Parkchester in the Bronx.

Despite its rapidly growing population and plethora of Bangla-speaking businesses, the Bangladeshi community has yet to make significant progress in terms of political representation.

Establishing political power generally requires a population that is both eligible and registered to vote, said Glenn Magpantay, director of the Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund’s democracy program.

“In the last 20 years they [Bangladeshi voters] were nonexistent,” Magpantay said, adding that there have been significant changes among the city’s Bangladeshi population in the last six to seven years, including many more becoming citizens and registered voters. “They are beginning to develop a political maturation.”

Voting patterns underscore the community’s growing political engagement. Bangladeshis were the leading ethnicity among first-time voters in the 2008 presidential election, according to the Democracy Program’s report from a multilingual exit poll. In terms of political affiliation, 97 percent of Bangladeshis voted Democrat, a larger percentage than any other ethnicity.

Among the city’s most active Bangladeshi political leaders is Abdus Shahid, president of the Bangladeshi American National Democratic Society and a member of Bronx Community Board 9, who has been involved in politics for the last 30 years.

“When I come in this country and I saw that my people were not in politics,” Shahid said. “Politicians were not looking for us because we weren’t involved. But now, they look for us.”

Shahid, who immigrated to New York in 1976, moved to Parkchester in 1985 and has witnessed the neighborhood – like many in New York – transition from a few Bangladeshi families into a Bangladeshi community (it’s now the second largest in the city).

Shahid created the Democratic Society in 2008 and soon after began hosting community events attended by local political candidates and elected officials. The society now boasts 5,000 members and, at a recent Bangladeshi New Year event, welcomed the Bangladeshi United Nations ambassador as well as New York State Assemblyman Peter Rivera, among other officials, Shahid said.

The increasingly powerful Bangladeshi vote has drawn the attention of politicians across the city. In addition to attending Democratic Society events, elected officials are even turning up at Kabul’s Youth Congress functions; Assemblyman Francisco Moya and Council Member Daniel Dromm made speaking appearances at a recent Youth Congress event. (Dromm and Moya did not respond to interview requests.)

One of the reasons may be the rise of Bangladeshi candidates.

Morshed Alam, a Bangladeshi-American from Queens, has been active in New York politics and social issues for more than 20 years, having served two terms on the school board and has twice run for local office. Despite receiving 42 percent of the vote in a bid for the state Senate in 1998, he lost to the incumbent. He came up short again while running for the state Assembly in 2006.

There were a number of challenges Alam could not overcome–such as a lack of funding and Democratic Party support — in order to win previous campaigns, he said.

“The new [Bangladeshi] American community was not participating, also I had a financial problem. I couldn’t raise enough money,” said Alam, who chronicled his experiences as an immigrant navigating civic life and politics in his book, “Grass Roots Politics.” “Also, I didn’t get enough support from the party at the time. I was new to the system.”

Alam, who worked for the Department of Environmental Protection before his current position as a chemist in Local 375, said the party plays an important role: “If the machine is not heavily favorable to you, it’s difficult.”

While party challenges still exist, Alam said the Bangladeshi community is now better positioned to elect a representative.

“I’ve seen a lot of people involved in parts of society like tenants associations and unions and business associations,” he said. “They [Bangladeshi New Yorkers] are trying to understand and become part of the community.”

Alam said he’s not sure if he will run again and that it likely will depend on redistricting.

“Redistricting is important to see the minority and ethnic communities — where they are,” he said, adding that a Bangladeshi candidate victory will depend upon the votes of the entire community, not just Bangladeshis. “You have to figure out who is living in the community and what their issues are.”

Shahid, who said he has considered running for City Council — but chose to focus on educating the community and empowering the next generation of Bangladeshis — said there weren’t enough voters and momentum for Bangladeshi candidates until now.

Contributing to the community’s previous lack of voter support is its focus on far-away politics, said Dil Afroz Ahmed, New York’s first female community board member of Bangladeshi origin and former president of the Bangladesh Society.

“We are home-oriented people, and we always care about our culture and heritage,” said Ahmed, member of Queens Community Board 8. “Bangladeshi people are mostly involved in politics back home. …not in American politics.”

Ahmed said politicians from Bangladesh make frequent appearances in New York and the country’s two main political parties – The Awami League and Bangladesh Nationalist Party – often play a stronger role in terms of New York Bangladeshi political identity than the typical Democrat-Republican distinction.

“Our country’s political views are hurting us,” she said. “We’re divided because of Bangladeshi political views.”

Professor Kibria said she noticed the same trend while conducting research for her book. “Part of the complexity is the division in the politics in Bangladesh,” Kibria said. “There is a very vigorous transnational political life.”

In addition to the challenge of competing with foreign politics, Ahmed cited other roadblocks that Bangladeshi New Yorkers must overcome to gain representation, including language barriers and fundraising. Moreover, Ahmed said it’s going to take a younger Bangladeshi candidate to become the community’s first elected official.

“We used to struggle with no jobs. But now people are settled and have money,” said Ahmed. “The new generation feels like they are American. Now they need to get involved.”

By Matt Draper, Voices That Must Be Heard, 6 July 2011.