Published on 10:45 PM, February 06, 2020

Bernie Sanders appeals to Bengali-American immigrants in Facebook post

US Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders has posted on Facebook in Bengali seeking support from the Bengali diaspora in the US for his Medicare for All campaign.

The leftist senator from Vermont also posted in multiple other languages on his verified Facebook page, appealing to immigrants living in the US as party nomination process for the November election gathered steam before the Iowa caucuses.

In a series of Facebook posts Wednesday, Sanders pointed out the benefits of his single-payer health care system where a single government-run plan provides insurance coverage to all Americans. The Sanders plan envisions a future in which all Americans have health coverage and pay nothing out of pocket when they visit the doctor.

Sanders' progressive stance on environment and healthcare has made him a popular choice among Democratic voters. His immigration policy is also resonated with the immigrants.

A July 2014 report by the Migration Policy Institute puts the number of Bangladeshi immigrants in the US at approximately 277,000—making up only 0.5 percent of foreign born population residing legally in the country. About half of these immigrants arrived on US shores during or after the year 2000, with the median age of the Bangladeshi diaspora coming in at a relatively young age of 39.

The Bangladeshi population in the US is better educated than the general US population and as a higher household income level, according to the MPI report. The highest numbers of Bangladeshi immigrants in the United States reside in the state of New York, and are spread across the country in places like California, Texas, New Jersey and Florida.

According to the report, the US is the seventh most common destination for Bangladeshi-born emigrants and the fifth-largest source of remittance to Bangladesh.