The announcement by General Motors to shut down its Hamtramck auto plant has come as a major shock to many in the Bangladeshi community who have made this small town their home for years.
While not many Bangladeshis work at the GM plant itself, there’s a significant number that is employed by the smaller factories that supply parts and other accessories to the car manufacturing plant.
There are also several small businesses that cater to GM employees and they are deeply concerned about their future prospects.
Mohammed Uddin “Tipu” runs a popular restaurant Aladin Café frequented by many GM employees. He says the effect of the announcement is already being felt.
“Our lunch buffet is very popular, but I can already see the traffic going down by about 15 percent,” he says. Apart from the lunch and dinner crowd, his restaurant also used to get catering orders from GM which will go away, he says.
He fears significant losses to his business after the plant shuts down later this year.
Hamtramck, a small town near Detroit in Michigan, is a Muslim majority council and nearly 45 percent of residents are immigrants and a quarter of the population is of Bangladeshi descent, according to US census figures.
Many Bangladeshi immigrants moved to the area because of lower costs of living, larger amounts of space, work available in small factories, and the large Muslim community in Metro Detroit.
The community has also played a significant role in revitalising the town with new stores, businesses and places of worship and a part of the city is named “Bangla Town”.
Anam Miah, the Mayor Pro-Tem of Hamtramck, told Bangla Tribune that GM is the city’s largest tax-payer and its closure will have an impact on many services that the city provides to its residents.
Mr Miah, who too is of Bangladeshi descent, says the concerns of the community are real and the city administration is trying to find ways to see whether something new can be done at the facility.
“GM is a significant employer in our community and it pays about one million dollars in taxes every year. The loss is big,” he says.
According to a 2015 report, every person employed by the auto industry creates about half a dozen jobs in the resident community. The impact of its closure, too, is felt in a similar way.
In 2010, this plant was widely hailed as a comeback story for Detroit’s auto industry but the hybrid model being manufactured at the plant never caught on. GM had first announced that it will shutter the plant in June but has now extended the deadline to December 2019.
Salim Ahmed, owner of Kebab House, a restaurant in Hamtramck, says the community recently had a meeting with council members to discuss the way forward.
“We have to find some alternatives otherwise it will be difficult to survive,” he says, adding,” there are many fast food outlets run by Bangladeshis that cater primarily to GM. They will have no option but to shut down.”