This article examines Bangladeshi migration to Italy and discusses the reception of immigrants in Italy, the characteristics of Bangladeshi migrants, their channels of migration, the role of intermediaries in the migration process, the economic cost of migration and inflows of remittances.
The study is based on the 2009 Bangladesh Household Remittance Survey, which the International Organization for Migration conducted. In addition to survey data, the study also drew on qualitative interviews with migrants, returned migrants and activists of migrant organizations in Bangladesh in 2010 and 2011. The survey involved interviews with migrant households across the country through a nationally representative sample of migrant households from all six administrative divisions. The districts of the six divisions of the country were divided into two strata, with one stratum consisting of ‘more concentration of migrant’ households and the other stratum consisting of ‘less concentration of migrant’ households. Following this, clusters were formed with one or more mauzas (villages). In total, the survey covered 12,893 migrants; of them, 177 migrants were working in Italy. The study then focused its analysis on the experiences of these 177 migrants’ households.
The article highlights three main migration channels: i) irregular migration, ii) the quota system and iii) family reunification. Migration through irregular channels usually involves the use of more than one route in the migration process and often consists of a combination of air and land or air and sea travel or sometimes all three models. For the journey from Bangladesh to Italy, potential migrants typically fly to a nearby transit country first with a visa but later become irregular in an attempt to enter Italy through a land or sea route.
The services of adam baparis (intermediaries) are unavoidable for Bangladeshis in the migration process, whether their migration is regular or irregular. Prospective migrants require the services of several adam baparis located at both ends of the migration process—in Bangladesh and in Italy. In Italy, the intermediaries provide services to potential dependant visa or quota visa applicants. In Bangladesh, they also provide services to both groups of visa applicants in the area of passport application, air ticket booking and visa application. The article concludes that Bangladeshi emigration thus appears to serve a group of intermediaries who enjoy sizeable economic rewards from organizing and facilitating migration of labour internationally.
The article provides insights into the routes of immigration for both early and recent Bangladeshi immigrants to Italy as well as new information on the fees paid to intermediaries involved in the migrant smuggling process and the remittances generated from Bangladeshi migration to Italy. It thus makes a contribution to the body of knowledge on irregular migration from Bangladesh to Italy.
