“I live in an environment where I don’t feel very happy”: voices, representations, and needs in the education of Bangladeshi families living in Venice

Bangladeshi immigration to Italy is a relatively recent phenomenon. While the first Bangladeshis arrived in the 1980s, this increased rapidly in the 1990s and 2000s, when some ethnic enclaves or ‘Bangla-towns’ started to emerge, especially near the large industrial districts of north-eastern Italy, such as Marghera and Mestre in the province of Venice, the industrial areas in the province of Vicenza, and Monfalcone in the province of Gorizia. This paper focuses on Bangladeshi citizens living in the Venice area, some of them part of transnational families, with relatives both in the UK and Bangladesh. It explores the demands and representations of transnational Bangladeshi families’ educational and cultural practices as they claim citizenship and renegotiate these practices within the host society.