Bangladeshi migrant associations in Italy: transnational engagement, community formation and regional unity

ABSTRACT

Referring to the case studies of two cities in Northern Italy, this article seeks to understand how Bangladeshi migrants use associations to seek transnational “ways of belonging” and “ways of being”. It analyses how this transnational attachment to their home country has played an important role in building their own “community”. The findings reveal that Bangladeshi migrant organizations work to maintain “transnational ways of belonging” by enabling migrants to retain their cultural roots; this is reflected in their observation of festivals, national days, and other practices and rituals. Although, as a relatively new migrant community, they do not share as many economic links through these associations as many other “diasporic” organizations, migrants widely express a sense that these economic connections are with their country of origin. However, there is competition within the community based on regional origin, as well as have many ambivalences and contradictions.

KEYWORDS:

• Migrant association
• ways of being
• ways of belonging
• community formation
• transnationalism
• Bangladeshi migration

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1 We are aware that what is perceived and represented as “religious identity” within the migration experience is often reinvented or invented, tout court (Eade, Fremeaux, and Garbin 2002; Eade and Garbin 2006; Kibria 2011).

2 We are aware of the social stratifications and political divisions running through what we have called the “Bangladeshi community” in Padova and we do not want to propose a homogeneous, compact and uniform representation.

3 Bangladesh is divided into 65 districts.

4 The Municipality of Padova established, within the Municipal Council, a council of migrants with a purely advisory function.

5 In Europe, the first permanent Shahid Minar monument was built in London, the second was erected in Bari.

6 The former Italian Communist Party.

7 Self-managed Social Centres (centri sociali autogestiti) are empty buildings (former factories, warehouses, shop floors etc.) occupied by activists and transformed into “autonomous spaces”, where recreational and political activities are organized.