Ahmed and Shaila Hossain are immigrants from Bangladesh who moved in 2010 to Queens, NY, where there is a large Bangladeshi community. (Names and details have been changed to protect the participants.) To finance the move, they borrowed from family and friends. Shaila, 34, even sold some of her wedding gold. Ahmed, 44, has master’s degrees in business administration and economics. Back home his education enabled him to work as an accountant at a large corporation, while Shaila could afford to be a full-time mother. Now, because they lack English proficiency and American educational credentials, they are at the beginning of a long, slow ascent from their current jobs in retail, food services and driving a taxi to the professions to which they aspire.
Read about Ahmed and Shaila Hossain in the full case study.
