The struggle of the New Immigrants in the United States!
Background on the problem
A small town naming “Sylhet” in Bangladesh, is where I was born in a big family of eight members. My dad was the only source of income in the family. Unfortunately, he passed away in 2005. Since then, I have seen the struggle that my mom went thru to provide food for us.
After a lot of struggle with the help of my uncle in 2014, It was time for us to fly to the land of Steve Jobs and Sundar Pichai, in other words to the land of possibilities. It was almost as the beginning of another life that I was about to live in the country that would value my hard work and where I can actually make my dream a reality. As Pele said:
“Success is no accident. It is hard work, perseverance, learning, studying, sacrifice and most of all, love of what you are doing or learning to do.”
Coming out of a country where I spoke only “Bengali” all my life, the reality of getting adjusted to this new land was much harder than I expected. I was part of an education system that is nowhere close to the education system in the US. I spent almost 18 years not knowing what insurance meant. And if you are from a lower-middle-class family there was no such thing as SAT and ACT in your dictionary. I am from a culture where you don’t work until you are done with your university. It was clear that this country is going to be different but no one in my family was ready for this big of a change this quickly.
That’ s why I decided to make a web app that’ll be a one-stop place for new immigrants to find information on how to navigate their way through this country; jobs, cultural mores, education, health system etc. My goal is to assist those who come after me so they don’t have to be lost in the complicated life of America.
PEST Analysis
To understand the problem better I dug more into what is out there and how certain factor as Political, Economical, Social, Technological would affect the problem that I am trying to solve.
To start with political affect, as we all know that the current political situation is not very friendly for the new immigrants in the US. In addition the process of making it to the US is extremely slow as my family had to wait 15 years to get the VISA to come to the US.
To be able to make those new comers feel welcome in this space I looked at how there is a gap of them not being able to connect with their community, and that is the gap that my app would solve to welcome those in this culture and help them adjust easily.
Technology can solve almost anything in this world. so I decided to make something that will solve my problem as well too. They will be able to read the info in their own language and get going with their life in this country.
Resources that are available out there:
As I was landing to the US I was given a pamphlet in english that has a bit of introduction on how to settle down in the US, however, looking at it was giving me headache as I didn’t know almost no english at that time. It was provided by the UCSIS! Besides that I didn’t find any resources that would be helpful for new comers in the US.
User Interviews
As I was thinking about the idea of making something that would be a resource for new immigrants in the US, I decided to see whether if others people felt the same way as I felt when I moved to the US. I wanted to see what their insight was on how they think this problem could be solved and what their input is on my idea. Here are a few questions that I asked my users:
- What was the biggest struggle that you faced when you immigrated to the US?
- What did you do to work around the struggle that had faced?
- How did you first find your community here in the US?
- How hard was to find jobs in the US for you at the beginning? Easy/Hard? What would you do to change it or make it easier for new immigrants?
- How did you learn the language?
- Was it hard to get health care for you and for your family?
- Was it hard to navigate how to get your kids to school or in college? was age an issue to get those services?
- What was your life like after immigrating?
- What was the language you had to learn in your country?
etc.
Most of the question that I was asking was to those people who immigrated from Bangladesh, India, Pakistan. A lot of the people that I talked to had wished that they wish there was some sort of way for them to know what they needed to do step by step to settle down in the US. After doing the interviews I was more clear that there is actually a need of what I am thinking of creating.
Industry Contact’s thoughts!
I had a chance to discuss about my idea with a software engineer at Airbnb. He thought it was was great idea too, he shared he also thinks that it’d be helpful for those who come to the US new from countries like Bangladesh, and they would be able to navigate easily.
A glance at my wireframes
Before I start writing my product I wanted to make a paper prototype to see how the flow of my app would go. That’s why I did a wireframe to see the bigger picture of where I am trying to go with my idea.
My plan on making new Immigrants life a bit easier
Looking back on the time when I moved to the US I wish there was a place where I can find what I need to do to be able to get going in this country that would have been a great help, because I didn’t find any help I decided to be the help for others.
I decided that I am going to be creating a web app that would at least be a little bit of help to those new comers in the US. A website where almost all these resources will be available for people to access. For example information about education, healthcare, resources on how to get a job as a new immigrant, how to file tax etc. In addition a way to find their community so they can feel as they more fit into this country rather than being lost all over. I’ll close my writing with a quote from President Barak Obama:
“My fellow Americans, we are and always will be a nation of immigrants. We were strangers once, too.”
Let’s create a country where everyone is welcome from all over the world.
