Bangladeshis in Italy
Total population
146,000–400,000[1]
Regions with significant populations
Lazio, Lombardy, Veneto, Sicily
Languages
Bengali, Italian, English
Religion
Islam (majority), Hinduism (minority)
Related ethnic groups
Bangladeshi diaspora, British Bangladeshis, Bangladeshi Americans

Bangladeshis are one of the largest immigrant populations in Italy. As of 2017, an "educated guess made by ... government officials" of Bangladesh was that there were 400,000 Bangladeshis living in Italy.[1] In 2019, the Italian Ministry of Labour and Social Policies put the number of Bangladeshis regularly residing in Italy at 145,707.[2]

History

Bangladeshis first started immigrating to Italy in the 1980s, following the independence of Bangladesh in 1971.[3] Many were skilled graduates attracted by career opportunities in industrial Northern Italy.[4] Between late 1989 and mid-1990 the 200–300 Bangladeshis living in Rome increased by an estimated twenty-fold to become the largest Bangladeshi community in continental Europe. Subsequently, the population in Rome doubled in size, mainly through undocumented migration, to an estimated 10,000 people as of 1995.[3] There are also a significant number of Bangladeshis in Sicily.[5]

From 2012, over 20,000 Italian Bangladeshis migrated to the United Kingdom with the advent of Italy's manufacturing decline.[6] The majority of them settled within the British Bangladeshi community in Banglatown, East London.[4]

Demography

Most of the Bangladeshis in Italy hail from the districts of Comilla, Dhaka, Faridpur, and Noakhali.[3] 71.6% of them are male. 59% of the Bangladeshi population (15 years and older) is employed – a figure two percentage points higher than that recorded for the non-EU nationals in the country. The Bangladeshi community in Italy has an unemployment rate of 11%, slightly lower than the whole of non-EU nationals. The service sector absorbs over 70% of the workers belonging to the community. The percentage of Bangladeshis employed in industry is 22%. About 33% of Bangladeshis employed earn a monthly income below €800. Preponderant is the income class between €800 and €1,200, accounting for 48% of the community's employed.[7]


In Popular Culture

2019 marked the release of Italian blockbuster Bangla, which won awards for two consecutive years since its release. The film displayed the current situation of Bangladeshis in Italy, revolving around the life of a boy whose family planned to migrate to London.[8][9] Later on April 13, 2022, Bangla - La serie is released, directed by Phaim Bhuiyan and Emanuele Scaringi, a sequel of the film Bangla.[10]

See also

Further reading

References

  1. ^ a b "Engagement of Non-resident Bangladeshis (NRBs) in National Development: Strategies, Challenges and Way Forward" (PDF). United Nations Development Programme. November 2017. p. 27. Archived from the original (PDF) on 16 February 2022.
  2. ^ "La Comunitá Bangladese in Italia" (PDF). Ministry of Labour and Social Policies (in Italian). 2019. p. 6.
  3. ^ a b c Knights, Melanie (1996). "Bangladeshi Immigrants in Italy: From Geopolitics to Micropolitics". Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers. 21 (1): 105–123. doi:10.2307/622928. JSTOR 622928. PMID 12157827.
  4. ^ a b Clarke, Hilary (30 November 2015). "Italian Bengalis: Meet London's newest ethnic minority". The Independent. Archived from the original on 30 September 2021. Retrieved 1 December 2015.
  5. ^ Horowitz, Jason (2019-05-22). "Palermo Is Again a Migrant City, Shaped Now by Bangladeshis and Nigerians". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2021-04-24.
  6. ^ Chowdhury, Munjer Ahmed (13 June 2018). "For the children: European Bangladeshis' mass exodus to UK". Dhaka Tribune. Retrieved 17 August 2020.
  7. ^ "The Bangladeshi Community - Annual report on the presence of migrants in Italy" (PDF). Integrazione Migranti Vivere e Lavorare in Italia. Ministero del Lavoro e delle Politiche Sociali. 2016. Archived from the original (PDF) on 14 November 2018. Retrieved 13 November 2018.
  8. ^ "Bongo releases Italian movie 'Bangla' November 13". New Age. Retrieved 28 October 2020.
  9. ^ "IFFR reveals Tiger and Big Screen Competition line-ups". International Film Festival Rotterdam. 9 January 2019.
  10. ^ "Bangla - La serie". RaiPlay.
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