Bengali Immigrant Custodians in Syracuse

Md Nurul Amin is a 51-year-old Bengali custodian employed at the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University. He is the only Bengali custodian working at the university. His migration to the United States is closely tied to the Diversity Immigrant Visa (DV) Program, commonly known as the Green Card Lottery. In the 1990s, Nurul’s older brother immigrated to Syracuse, New York, through the DV Program and later sponsored Nurul for an immigrant visa in 2014. Since then, Nurul has been living with his niece and her family in Liverpool, New York, all of whom are now naturalized U.S. citizens.

I first encountered Nurul during my initial months at Syracuse University as an international student. While I was familiar with the Bangladeshi student community on campus, I gradually learned about Nurul’s extended family, many of whom work as custodians across different educational institutions in the Syracuse area. I observed that their stories and contributions remain largely invisible, even within the Bangladeshi community itself. This lack of awareness sparked my interest in understanding their lived experiences as immigrant workers.

This photo story documents the everyday lives of Md Nurul Amin and his extended family, highlighting their experiences as Bengali immigrant custodians in Syracuse and bringing attention to a community that often remains unseen within the academic environment.