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Paper short abstract:

The study of Bangladeshi migrants in Rome and London shows how migration can be considered a project of good parenting and self-fulfilment entrusted to the new generations, leading to expectations and responsibilities that can generate unexpected results and frictions, widening the generational gap

Paper long abstract:

Usually associated with extreme poverty, overpopulation and environmental instability, the Bangladeshi diaspora demonstrates, however, its being rooted in the capacity to aspire and on the concept of future built on the basis of multiple stimuli, in the form of media images and ideas of a desirable life that circulates in our hyper-connected world.

Reversing the old idea of migrants as agentless individuals, moved by the forces of macrostructural powers, they seem to be able to imagine and position themselves in the present, using their agency to take advantage of the possibilities the globalised world offers, in order to complete the life project they designed for their future.

In the specific case-study, the internationalisation of education system, and the importance of English as the key language for education, fundamental to accessing the global labour market, strongly influenced both the trajectory of their migratory path, and the collective narration over the historical significance this specific language have had in a country that emerged as a nation-state out of a strong linguistic identity. A three-years ethnographic research project, carried out on the Bangladeshi community of Rome, made it possible to overcome the dominant perspective of a periphery attracted by the centre, and demonstrated to what extent the centre itself, in a world where local imaginaries are heavily affected by the global circulation of dominant models, indirectly contributes in reshaping regional collective identities and activate mobility strategies.