This chapter focuses on those Italian-Bangladeshi families who, after first relocating from Italy to the UK, have now returned to Italy. Drawing on 20 in-depth interviews conducted between 2017 and 2022 with the returnees, the chapter specifically investigates the reasons for their return migration and the modalities of that return. The respondents reported various frustrations they found on relocating to the UK: the social downgrading and professional deskilling they suffered; the burden of job insecurity and the excessive flexibility of work shifts and generally decreasing their quality of life; the higher cost of living and their job placement in the UK; their dependence on welfare and the consequent control by the state; their disillusionment with the housing conditions in the UK; and their children’s dissatisfaction with their lives in this new national context. Once their expectations about the new British life context were frustrated, these disillusionments pushed them to retrace their steps and return to Italy.

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Retracing Their Steps: The Onward Migration of Italian-Bangladeshi Families to the UK and Their Return to Italy

  • Francesco Della Puppa,
  • Mohammad Morad

摘要

This chapter focuses on those Italian-Bangladeshi families who, after first relocating from Italy to the UK, have now returned to Italy. Drawing on 20 in-depth interviews conducted between 2017 and 2022 with the returnees, the chapter specifically investigates the reasons for their return migration and the modalities of that return. The respondents reported various frustrations they found on relocating to the UK: the social downgrading and professional deskilling they suffered; the burden of job insecurity and the excessive flexibility of work shifts and generally decreasing their quality of life; the higher cost of living and their job placement in the UK; their dependence on welfare and the consequent control by the state; their disillusionment with the housing conditions in the UK; and their children’s dissatisfaction with their lives in this new national context. Once their expectations about the new British life context were frustrated, these disillusionments pushed them to retrace their steps and return to Italy.