Nine thousand kilometers away. 400 euros for a flight from Naples to Dacca, with a stopover in Dubai. You cross the world but you get there. It takes you a whole day but you do it. And it’s not difficult at all. While all the spotlight is focused on the Mediterranean and on the crossings of desperation on death boats, the real flows of migrants arrive from other routes. The data brought by President Meloni to the Anti-Mafia Directorate on anomalies in the flows, especially from Bangladesh towards Campania, only surprise those who have not carefully observed the migratory phenomenon in the territories. They don’t disembark, the Bangladeshis (or Bangladeshis, or Bengalis: you can say it in any way), they board at the gates of their airports and arrive placidly as if they were tourists, enticed even by travel agencies, and pushed by their compatriots who have already made the transition previously and they prepare a welcome and placement for him, a bed and a job. We move in groups, we build communities.
Bangla Campania
Thus Bangla Campania was born, still marked on the maps as Palma Campania, which led the way in recent years. Out of 16 thousand people registered in the registry office of the small municipality east of Naples, over 2 thousand are from Bangladesh. To these must be added many others which are not actually noted in the municipal registers. It reaches over 3 thousand. To get an idea of the proportions, consider that in the whole of Naples there are fewer Bangladeshi residents than there are in Palma Campania. Throughout the Region, there are approximately 12 thousand residents from Bangladesh. Two thousand in Palma alone. How they chose this place is exactly linked to the dynamics of this type of migration. We move in groups, communities are formed. Family and territorial ties, in fact the blocks of the cities of origin are reconstructed. Thus Palma Campania became the Dacca of Neapolitan. But then the pattern radiated into the surroundings. TO Saint Joseph Vesuvian 2,174 Bangladeshis are residents, again more than Naples in a town that is not even a tenth of the capital. Another 900 y San Gennaro Vesuvianoanother 400 a Octavian. Here too, the terms of comparison are with other municipalities of the same size: 5 Bangladeshis live in Bacoli, 9 in Marano, 6 in Arzano. What determines such a significant disproportion of settlements? Of course, the work.
The textile
A dense network of tailors, even small ones, with improvised factories, serving both the big fashion brands and the textile archipelago of low-cost markets. The ideal place for laborers ready for grueling shifts and difficult living conditions. Thus the first Bangladeshi workers settled in, attracting others until today’s numbers were reached. The more textiles grew, the more Bangladeshi citizens increased: brothers, sisters, wives, children, cousins. Then, the jump. From workers to owners. It is estimated that at least 60% of Bangladeshi migrants, after a certain period of employed work, start their own business and recreate their own chain, which obviously attracts other compatriots. In the province of Naples, the Vesuvian system has also expanded to the Fratte area. TO Casandrino over 600 Bangladeshis reside, a Lump Nevano 483, a Sant’Antimo 375. Here too, the reference is to the factories. Textiles and footwear, small workshops that work for big brands. And here too the same circuit: first you are a worker, then you start your own business. Obviously, the community also organizes its own commercial network: shops run by Bangladeshis where Bangladeshis spend and where Bangladeshis work; restaurants of the same kind.
Exploitation
But don’t make the mistake of thinking that it is a story of self-determination and redemption. It is also a story of exploitation and illusion. Young migrants in Bangladesh are called remittance warriors. They are among those who transfer the most money to their countries of origin, contenting themselves here with living in extreme conditions of hardship. But the West is not told to him like this. The Dalal, the mediator, the equivalent of the smuggler for those attempting the sea journey, promises extraordinary prospects and asks for fees of 10 thousand euros to organize the visa, trip and landing, with the request from Italy of an employer who often he is a compatriot who has opened his own business. With the result that when these young people arrive they do not find Eden but rooms where 15 of them can sleep, laboratories where they can work 12 consecutive hours, and the first months only to repay the debts incurred to make the trip, and then work a lot just to send money to home. The foreign land the bidesh thus transforms into something very similar to the mother country, but they can’t even return. Whoever returns has failed. Those who return are to blame for not having succeeded. Whoever returns has no path. Thus you remain as prisoners of a destiny of poverty and fatigue that follows you everywhere, even in Bangla Campania.
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