The other “Bangla-Town”: Marginality in the center of Rome

Abstract

As neoliberal forms of governance marginalize immigrants in cities across the world, newcomers in turn challenge exclusion by emplacing urbanisms of survival and belonging. Most scholars of migrant urbanisms have focused on low-income, “marginal” districts that remain separate from “prime” spaces such as historic downtowns and financial headquarters. This article widens the focus on migrant urbanisms by considering the ways in which Bangladeshi immigrants inhabit Rome’s historic center, an iconic space designed to normalize—and capitalize upon—dominant expectations of “the appropriate.” Roughly 2,000 immigrants eke out a living in Rome’s center by selling trinkets to tourists. Drawing from observations and interviews with Bangladeshi vendors, this paper details how diverse sellers emplace their own Rome within Rome by working, hiding, praying, and relaxing in its iconic landscapes. Volatile, and yet persistent, the vendors’ volatile and persistent urbanisms of survival and belonging destabilize dominant logics of identity and call attention to prime spaces as potential arenas of insurgency.