Dr Anne J Kershen, Director of the Centre for the Study of Migration at Queen Mary and Westfield College (University of London) is currently undertaking research into the socio-economic mobility of young Bangladeshis in Britain. She is intent on discovering the process by which young Bangladeshis make their decision as to their vocational future, their role models and family support. She is also concerned to explore their experience of professional training and subsequent employment. Dr Kershen seeks to learn whether the process of professionalisation has in any way been hampered by discrimination as a result of race, religion or colour.

In order to facilitate her research, Dr Kershen held a meeting of fifteen young Bangladeshi professionals, with the help of one of her students, Abdur Rafique, and BBPA committee members: Mahfuz Hussain and Jilu Ahmed, at Queen Mary and Westfield College on the 19th March last. They were all members of the British Bangladeshi Professional Association (BBPA) founded at the end of last year. Amongst those attending were representatives from the legal profession, local government, accountancy, engineering, journalism, and I chemical and biological sciences (including post doctoral researchers). All those who attended agreed with Dr Kershen that it was imperative to replace the current negative impression of Bangladeshi academic and professional achievement with the reality of the current level of success, one which is constantly rising.

It was hoped that the publicised results of Dr Kershen's research will enable young Bangladeshis entering the professions to benefit in the job market and to encourage others to follow a professional course. Dr Kershen presented her initial findings as a guest speaker at the City of Stuttgart's first international conference on migration held in July this year. She will subsequently be presenting a more detailed paper at a conference in Washington D.C in January at next year.

If you have any contribution you would like to make to her research, Dr Kershen can be contacted through: Department of Politics Queen Mary and Westfield College London E1 4NS Tel: 0171 975 5009 Email: a.kershen@qmw.ac.uk