Academic and Reference Books

Throughout South Asia, questions of illegal immigration combined wit those of national security have acquired politically explosive dimensions in recent years. Despite this, migration studies have remained, by and large, confined to the domains of economics and demography. Dealing with transborder migrations from Bangladesh to West Bengal, The Marginal Nation analyzes these issues within a richer perspective which accommodates the historical, cultural and geographic dimensions along with the economic and demographic.

In recent years, urban sociology, examining Third World metropolises, has attracted the attention and interest both of academies and policy makers, especially because of the increasing pressures of population growth, poverty and environmental degradation. Social Formation in Dhaka City, is therefore, a welcome and timely addition to the growing body of empirical research in this extremely important field. Divided into eight chapters, the book is a pioneering work both in content and methodology.

Migration from rural regions to urban centers, especially the capital city of Dhaka, continues unabated. Popular hypotheses put forth to elucidate migration are inadequate. Migrants tend to be uneducated, ignorant, landless and unemployed in the countryside. They tend to be unskilled and ill quipped for the city. Yet they migrate with expectations of a better life in the metropolis. The urban benefits, fail to tough the majority of the poor migrants. Many of the migrants live in very poor housing with some living without a shelter.

Surveys find that compared to other Asia countries sex-workers in Bangladesh report the highest number of partners, and the lowest rate of condom use. While these statistics are serious warning signals for a probable HIV/AIDS epidemic, the overwhelming majority of sex-workers have other immediate concerns such as poverty, threats of eviction from brothels, extreme uncertainties in city streets, total rejection by society, and exploitation by the controllers ( the police topping the list) of the trade.