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Contribution short abstract:

This ethnographic study explores the precarious commoning between Bangladeshi migrants and Italian leftist groups in Rome’s Banglatown. Despite cultural and ideological differences, moments of solidarity emerge in collective struggles for social justice, revealing both unity and underlying tensions.

Contribution long abstract:

Focusing on the complex political landscape of the Tor Pignattara neighborhood—informally known as "Banglatown"—this research examines how Bangladeshi migrants engage in fragmented practices of solidarity, shaped by both internal tensions and external cultural differences with Italian society. While the community appears unified through shared cultural and religious practices, deeper fault lines emerge around class exploitation, gender roles, and varying degrees of religious conservatism. This paper explores the contested alliances between Bangladeshi migrants and Italian leftist and anarchist groups in the neighborhood. While both groups share common struggles against exploitation and marginalization, their solidarity is often strained by cultural, religious, and ideological differences. Bangladeshi migrants, driven by economic survival and community obligations, sometimes find it difficult to fully align with the progressive, secular values of their leftist neighbors. Conversely, Italian activists often grapple with the migrants' conservative social norms and internal hierarchies. However, these tensions are momentarily set aside through practices of commoning during demonstrations for Palestine, workers' rights, migrant protections, and against border controls—where shared political goals foster moments of collective action. This ethnographic study examines how these fragile yet strategic collaborations reveal both the possibilities and limits of cross-cultural solidarity in urban spaces marked by inequality and exclusion. The study seeks to offer insights into how migrant communities, devoid of linguistic, religious, cultural, and geographical ties to their new homes in Europe, leverage political activism as a strategy for survival and as a dynamic venue for negotiating their identity and asserting their presence in society.