Men’s experiences and masculinity transformations: Migration and family reunification in the Bangladeshi diaspora in Italy

Abstract

This chapter analyzes the family reunification process of Bangladeshi migrant men in Italy. It illustrates how men’s identity models and masculinity patterns are being challenged and are undergoing changes. Men’s perspectives are the focus for an analysis of the changes happening in family relationships set in the migratory and reunification context. Using data collected through deep narrative interviews and participant observation, I analyze the social (re)definition of masculinity; how Bangladeshi migrants reuniting their family in Italy are (re)producing practices and identities; what kind of mutations happen in men’s authority, forms of “protection” and their “sense of honour” in order to protect/control family members and to satisfy their needs. During migration, which is usually accompanied by family reunification, migrants live through processes of constant rearrangement of family normative relationships between genders and generations (Suarez Orozco Carola et al. Family process, 4(41), 625-643, 2002); Parreñas, R.S. (2005). Children of global migration. Transnational families and gendered woes. Palo Alto: Stanford University Press; Yeoh et al. (Global Networks, 5(4), 307-315, 2005). These processes affect the self-perception, the way of being and feeling in the new family and social context. New family practices, decisions and expectations also modify gender identities and the manner in which migrant men renegotiate their identification with hegemonic masculinity (Connell, R.W. (1995). Masculinities. Sydney: Allen & Unwin.).