Placing the Future: Remigration, Citizenship and Relatedness among London’s Portuguese-Bangladeshis

Based on a longitudinal ethnographic research of Portuguese-Bangladeshis in London, the objective of this paper is to explore the relation between remigration projects and expectations in relation to the future.

After more than 20 years in Portugal, where many invested in businesses, reunited their families, and invested in their children’s education, while maintaining a close relation with their relatives in the desh (Bengali word for home, in this case Bangladesh), through economic and social remittances, several of the most prominent probashis (Bengali word for migrants) decided to remigrate to other European countries (to a certain extent feeling that they were beginning again) in the aftermath of the application of austerity measures and structural readjustment programs in Portugal. Since 2011, more than 300 Portuguese-Bangladeshi families remigrated to the UK, now as EU citizens and maintaining close links with Portugal.

These onward migration projects reveal expectations and strategies in relation to the future and imply changes in the channeling of tangible and intangible goods to Bangladesh, which have led to increasing tensions and conflicts within joint families (jouthko poribar or porivar). Through this case study, I want to explore the relation between remigration, ideas about the future and relatedness in transnational spaces.

All interested are welcome!