*Research Scholar, Centre for the Study of Regional Development, School of Social Sciences, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi-110067. E-mail: rabiulansary.ansary786@gmail.com
**Assistant Professor, Centre for the Study of Regional Development, School of Social Sciences, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi-110067. E-mail: bhaswati2004@gmail.com
Online published on 28 September, 2016.
West Bengal being one of the border states of India is the most favourable destination of the immigrants especially those who enter from Bangladesh and Nepal. The process of immigration in West Bengal goes back to the history of population displacement and emergence of Bangladesh and Pakistan as Independent countries in 1947 and 1971. This is an attempt to study the socio-economic status of Bangladeshi immigrants in West Bengal. Most of the Bangladeshi immigrants are concentrated in the border districts (along the border of Bangladesh) of West Bengal. This study is based on 213 migrants from Bangladesh who primarily migrated after 1980, across the border. They are selected from Jalpaiguri district of the state where 7.17 per cent of the population are immigrants. Though these immigrants have entered into India without any valid documents, most of them managed to procure all the entitlements and basic facilities including voter's identity card, job card and ration card.
