Building a Political Home: Bangladeshi Migrants and Local Solidarities in Rome’s “Banglatown”

Building on ethnographic fieldwork in Torpignattara, Rome, often referred to as “Banglatown,” in this thesis, I examine how Bangladeshi Muslim migrants, highly concentrated in the neighbourhood, address their struggles for a social and political foothold. I analyse how geographic, cultural, social, and legal borders shape what kinds of claims can be made, how, and by whom. I centre my analysis on political subjectivity, alliance formation, and the continuous work of translation across language, political style, and organisational culture. I trace how migrants work with neighbourhood-based actors of Rome’s extra-parliamentary left, which I understand as a milieu organised around street mobilisation, including party-based militants, self-managed social centres, and anarchist and autonomist collectives. I show how these relationships provide practical support for turning grievances into collective demands, sustaining public presence, and negotiating with local institutions, while also generating frictions that do not fully translate. I treat political participation here not mainly as electoral voice, but as the uneven ability to organise, make claims, reshape public space, and sustain collective action over time. I argue that these alliances can carve out limited but consequential avenues of participation, producing a fragile political home, a practical foothold of voice and recognition without full political membership, yet one that remains dependent on ongoing translation work and vulnerable to rupture.

Short Biography
Punny Kabir is a researcher in the field of anthropology with a focus on hybrid identities, migration, solidarity, integration, and diaspora politics. She is currently exploring the intersection of identity, political activism, and solidarity within the Bangladeshi migrant community in Rome as an a.r.t.e.s fellow at the University of Cologne. Punny holds an MA in South Asian Studies (major in anthropology) from Heidelberg University and both bachelor's and master's degrees in Mass Communication and Journalism from Dhaka University, Bangladesh.

Contact:  pkabir[at]smail.uni-koeln.de

Publication:

• Kabir, Punny (2021): Civic Engagement in Exile: Exploring Social Media Presenceof Dissidents From Bangladesh. In The International Journal of Press/Politics,194016122110472. DOI: 10.1177/19401612211047200.
• https://www.monitor-italia.it/lo-stato-delle-citta-n12/