For several decades, migration from Bangladesh has largely been measured through two indicators: the number of people leaving the country for work abroad and the amounts of remittances they send back home every year. These figures are undeniably important because remittances remain one of Bangladesh’s strongest economic lifelines, sustaining millions of families and helping stabilise the national economy.
In the 2024–25 fiscal year, Bangladesh has received about $30 billion in remittances — the highest amount in the country’s history as more than 20 million Bangladeshis, including diaspora people, have been living and working abroad, according to the government data and migration experts.
A significant portion of remittances came from the Bangladeshi immigrants in the United States, which has emerged as one of the largest single-country sources of remittance inflows. These contribute to the rural households, education, healthcare, and foreign currency reserves of Bangladesh.
Migration is yet far more than an economic phenomenon. Behind every remittance statistic lies a deeply human story of sacrifice, resilience, identity, and belonging. Few lives capture this broader reality of the Bangladeshi diaspora more profoundly than that of Dr. Fazlur Rahman.
His journey — from a rural village in Bengal to becoming a respected cancer physician in rural West Texas, and a writer — is not merely a personal success story. It reflects the intellectual, moral, and human contributions that Bangladeshis abroad continue to make across the world.
Born in what is now Bangladesh, Dr. Rahman experienced hardship from an early age. He lost his mother during childbirth when he was only seven years old. Before her death, she reportedly expressed a wish that her son would become a doctor dedicated to saving lives. Soon afterward, Rahman himself nearly died from kala-azar, a deadly disease that once devastated South Asia.
These early experiences shaped his understanding of suffering long before he entered medical school. They also laid the emotional foundation for a career defined not only by scientific expertise, but also by compassion.
After graduating from Dhaka Medical College, Dr. Rahman moved to the United States for advanced medical training. Like many highly educated immigrants, he could have pursued a prestigious and financially rewarding career in a major metropolitan city. Instead, he chose a different path. He settled in San Angelo, where he spent over 35 years treating cancer patients in a rural American community.
That decision speaks volumes about both the man and the immigrant experience itself. For many first-generation immigrants, success is often measured through wealth, status, or professional advancement. Dr. Rahman’s life reflected different value system — one rooted in service, humility, and human connection. In rural Texas, he became more than a physician. He became part of the emotional fabric of the community he served.
Cancer care, especially in small-town America, demands far more than technical expertise. Cancer patients often confront fear, uncertainty, loneliness, and mortality. Physicians working in such settings become witnesses to some of the most intimate moments of human life. Dr. Rahman understood this dimension of medicine deeply.
In his writings and public reflections, he repeatedly highlights that medicine is not merely about diagnosis or technology. It is about listening to patients, understanding their humanity, and treating them with dignity. At a time when healthcare systems across the world are increasingly shaped by bureaucracy, insurance complexity, and commercial pressures, this philosophy feels both rare and urgently necessary.
What makes Dr. Rahman significant is that he did not confine these reflections to clinical practice. He transformed them into literature and public thought. His books, The Temple Road: A Doctor’s Journey and Our Connected Lives: Caring for Cancer Patients in Rural Texas, are not simply memoirs of medicine. They are meditations on migration, ethics, grief, loneliness, memory, and the fragile bonds connecting people across cultures. He has also written articles and essays on medical, ethical, social and personal issues for many influential national and international publications such as the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Newsweek, Guardian Weekly, Harvard Review, Literary Hub, and Lancet.
In many ways, these works represent an overlooked dimension of the Bangladeshi diaspora: intellectual contribution.
Bangladeshis abroad are often discussed primarily as workers or remittance earners. Yet today’s diaspora includes scholars, physicians, scientists, writers, entrepreneurs, researchers, and public intellectuals who contribute significantly to global knowledge and culture. Their achievements challenge narrow stereotypes about migration and expand the global image of Bangladesh itself.
Dr. Rahman belongs to a generation of diasporic intellectuals who bridge multiple worlds simultaneously. He carries memories of rural Bengal while practicing medicine in Texas. He writes about American patients while remaining deeply connected to South Asian moral traditions. His life demonstrates how immigrants can enrich not only economies, but also the ethical and cultural life of their adopted societies.
This broader recognition became visible through the naming of a prestigious science lectureship after his wife and him in 2026: “The Fazlur and Jahanara Rahman Distinguished Lectureship in Science Honoring Dr. Roy E. Moon” at Angelo State University. The lectureship has hosted 14 Nobel laureates in science and other internationally renowned scientists in its 48-year history. For a Bangladeshi-origin physician to be honored in such a way is profoundly significant.
The recognition is not merely symbolic. It reflects the growing presence of Bangladeshis and other South Asians in global academic and intellectual spheres once largely inaccessible to immigrants from the Global South.
Today, the Bangladeshi diaspora has become one of the largest immigrant communities from South Asian countries. Various national and international estimates suggest that more than half a million Bangladeshi-Americans currently reside in the United States, concentrating across major US cities including New York, Atlanta and Houston, contributing to healthcare, academia, business, technology, journalism, and public service.
At the same time, Bangladesh continues to underutilize the broader potential of its diaspora. Overseas Bangladeshis are welcomed for their remittances, but their professional expertise, research capacity, and global networks often remain excluded from national planning and policymaking.
This is a missed opportunity.
Countries such as India, China, and South Korea have strategically integrated their diasporas into national development through investment initiatives, research collaboration, technology transfer, and policy engagement. Bangladesh could benefit enormously from adopting a more comprehensive diaspora strategy — one that recognizes overseas Bangladeshis not simply as economic actors, but as long-term partners in national progress.
Economically, their contribution remains indispensable. Bangladesh’s record-breaking remittance inflows continue to strengthen rural economies, support education and healthcare, and stabilize foreign currency reserves in central bank. But reducing the diaspora solely to remittance figures overlooks a much deeper reality. Bangladeshis living abroad are also contributing to knowledge, innovation, philanthropy, and cultural influence that extend far beyond economics.
The younger generation growing up abroad may find an important lesson in Dr. Rahman’s life. In an age increasingly dominated by competition, social media visibility, and material definitions of success, his journey presents an alternative model. It reminds us that achievement is not only about prestige or wealth, but also about empathy, service, intellectual honesty, and moral responsibility.
At its core, migration is a deeply human experience. It involves separation and reinvention, ambition and loneliness, memory and adaptation. The life of Dr. Fazlur Rahman embodies all of these dimensions.
**Md Owasim Uddin Bhuyan is a freelance journalist based in San Antonio, Texas. He can be reached at [email protected]
#The vires expressed here are the author's own