Bangladeshi American

Infobox Ethnic group
group = Bangladeshi American
popplace = New York,California, Texas, Florida, Michigan
languages= American English, Bengali
poptime =150,000 (0.05% of the total population)
rels=Predominately Muslim. Some adherents of Hinduism & Christianity

Bangladeshi Americans are individuals of Bangladeshi descent who are citizens of the United States. The overwhelming majority of Bangladeshi Americans are ethnically Bengalis, and speak Bengali. Many immigrants from Bangladesh come from the districts of Sylhet and Chittagong as people from these two districts have a long history of working as merchant marines; the Sylheti and Chittagonian dialects of Bengali are often heard in the streets of major urban centers of the United States such as New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Dallas, Miami, etc. Most of the sylheti speakers tend to live in New York, California, and Michigan.

Most Bangladeshi Americans adhere to Islam, although there are a few numbers of Hindus and other religions such as, Christians and Buddhists.

Many Bangladeshi Americans are closely associated with the Indian American community, particularly with those of Bengali Indian descent.

Demographics

The 2000 census undertaken by the Census Bureau listed 95,294 people identifying themselves as having Bangladeshi origin. Almost 50% of Bangladeshis over the age of 25 had at least a Bachelor's degree as compared to less than 25% of the United States population. The reported median family income for Bangladeshis was $38,146, which was significantly lower than the United States average of $50,046 that year.

Notables

List of Notable Bangladeshi Americans:

*Nora Ali - Junior Miss America 2007 (Minnesota)
*Hasan M. Elahi - interdisciplinary media artist whose research interests include issues of surveillance
*Jawed Karim - co-founder of YouTube and lead technical architect of PayPal. [http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/12/technology/12tube.html?hp&ex=1160712000&en=c6ddbc2fdb0a4dea&ei=5094&partner=homepage With YouTube, Student Hits Jackpot Again] , The New York Times, October 12, 2006.]
*Kazi Sabeel Rahman - Rhodes Scholar (2005)
*Towfique Raj - Gates Scholar (2005)
*Fazlur Khan - civil engineer, lead architect of the Sears Tower and the John Hancock Center, [ [http://www.britannica.com/eb/article-9045265] "Fazlur Rahman Khan Bangladeshi American civil engineer known for his innovations in high-rise building construction."] considered "the greatest architectural engineer of the second half of the 20th century." [Ali Mir (2001). "Art of the Skyscraper: the Genius of Fazlur Khan". Rizzoli International Publications. ISBN 0-8478-2370-9.]
*Badal Roy - tabla player
*MOBONIX - Musician
*Iqbal Quadir - Founder of Grameen Phone, Bangladesh's largest telecom group. Iqbal Quadir has also lectured for Harvard's Kennedy School and for MIT.
*Monica Yunus - daughter of Muhammad Yunus and soprano singer Vera Forostenko
*Kali S. Banerjee - Statistics expert and professor [ [http://www.udel.edu/PR/UDaily/01-02/banerjee.html] Eulogy]
*Saif Ahmad - World Series of Poker winner.
*Reihan Salam - blogger at "The American Scene" and associate editor of The Atlantic Monthly
*Rashad Subhan - Model
*Sirajul and Mujibur - a pair of Bangladeshi New Yorkers who were a repeating feature in David Letterman's late-night show
*M. Shahid Alam - left-wing academic and essayist

ee also

*Bangladeshis in Japan
*Bangladeshis in Malaysia
*Desi
*Demographics of Bangladesh
*Asian American

References

External links

* [http://factfinder.census.gov/servlet/DTTable?_bm=y&-context=dt&-ds_name=DEC_2000_SF3_U&-CONTEXT=dt&-mt_name=DEC_2000_SF3_U_PCT019&-tree_id=403&-redoLog=true&-all_geo_types=N&-geo_id=01000US&-search_results=01000US&-format=&-_lang=en US Census 2000 foreign born population by country]