Migration From Bangladesh to Italy and Spain

This paper is the result of research carried out as a SAMReN research fellow in Bangladesh between June and November 2005. It attempts to describe a relatively new migration flow from Bangladesh that has not attracted much academic study before. It attempts to analyse the geopolitical developments in both the source and destination countries that have led to this flow. It attempts to analyse the reasons behind the emergence of this migration pattern, the nature of the often clandestine migration routes and the people behind them. This research builds on research carried out in Madrid in 2004 and extends it on the basis of interviews with migrants, return migrants and experts in Bangladesh and extensive literature, internet and press research. Migrants from Bangladesh to Italy and Spain appear from previous studies in Madrid and Rome to come from a distinct socio-economic group; they are relatively well educated and relatively affluent. Here, this finding is tested in Bangladesh. The results appear to confirm that there is a 'socio-economic segregation' of migrants from Bangladesh, although the mixture of factors that motivate migration flows means that it is not a simple causal relationship. This group come from an emerging demographic in Bangladesh that can be loosely described as the 'middle class'. They have distinct ambitions and resources at their command and distinct migration patterns. In this sense they defy definition within the existing understandings of migration from Bangladesh. This paper hopes to identify and understand this group and their migration behaviour in order to include them in the literature of migration from Bangladesh.