That roughly works out to almost 41 million people. More than 2 million of these individuals either live in slums or are without any proper shelter. A dramatic influx of refugees from Myanmar means that people have no choice but to live in dangerous and over-crowded situations.
Health care conditions and services are lacking. According to the World Health Organization , the number of hospital beds per 1, people is just four. Though access to drinking water access is widespread, half of it fails to meet safety standards.
In addition, the only city in the country that has a sewer system is Dhaka, and it only serves 18 percent of the city. To obtain that visa I had to spend a lot of money. I then applied for political asylum. I was very afraid they would stop me at the border, but everything went well. There were similar differences even before emigrating to Italy. Both at lunch and at dinner, almost always with fish or vegetables. In our family we would not eat a lot of meat.
I ate a lot of lentils, beans Bangladeshi beans are a little longer than Italian beans and legumes. Woman 7 :. I had breakfast with a wrap and vegetables, with a cup of milky tea similar to a cappuccino.
At lunch I was almost always out, so I would eat meals in different restaurants. For dinner I would have almost always rice and meat, or rice and vegetables. We would use a lot of oil at home too. Food is imported directly from Bangladesh, thus eating habits can be maintained in Rome.
Religion also has a say about food customs, thus it is easier to shop at a Bangladeshi store, where food is prepared with respect for religious rules, and where there is no risk of contamination between foodstuffs that are allowed and those that are prohibited by religious norms. So the diet in Rome remains the same as that followed in Bangladesh, or rather it does not have to change. Woman 1 :. Here in Rome they can easily be procured, especially because I live with my husband in the Tor Pignattara district, which is full of Bangladeshi shops that import all types of spices from Bangladesh, as well as almost all types of fish frozen and vegetables fresh and frozen.
In order to buy some items, women have to go to non-Bangladeshi shops, then try to learn to cook food that is made in Italy and part of the Mediterranean diet.
Comparisons and assessments are made about the quality of the diet and the health of their children. Woman 2 :. Our son for instance does not eat Bangladeshi food, but prefers pasta in sauce or with tuna.
At home we eat both rice and pasta, and we avoid eating frozen Bangladeshi fish, due to the fact it is not safe. We think it is dangerous due to the chemicals they add to preserve it. So we prefer to eat Italian food, like pasta, bread, beef steaks, pizza, Italian fish seabass, sea bream, salmon , Italian fruit and vegetables.
As a result, you are forced to eat fish or vegetables that are not always fresh. Unfortunately, formaldehyde-based products are used to preserve them.
Although these substances are harmful, they continue to be eaten. Because of these substances, and air and water pollution, diseases have appeared in Bangladesh that nobody knew about 10 years ago.
Man 3 :. I think that the earth has been poisoned in Bangladesh. Man 7 :. We always eat Bangladeshi food. Outside I only have breakfast, which consists of a croissant and a cappuccino. Having these two diseases has now become commonplace in Bangladesh. I think that the reasons for these diseases are not just poisoned food, but unfortunately also what we breathe, all the smog and the dust. I have not yet contracted the disease, and I am careful about what I eat.
My wife also has high blood pressure, and has to have a check-up every three months, have a blood test and check her medicine dosage. My wife takes insulin twice a day. My mother also has high blood pressure, and my father has high cholesterol. I was thirty years old.
I have suffered a lot from this disease. Then with the financial help of some of my fellow countrymen, I went to a hospital in Germany, where they treated me and solved all my problems. Doctors prescribed a diet with healthy food and drinking a lot of water. I had a positive experience. When my second child was born I had learned some Italian. In both cases they were natural births, with no complications.
My children are both fine. The reasons for this depend on the fact that once they arrived in Italy they began to set up a family, thus their main activity has been looking after the children. Even women that had a good education have not managed to find a job, as their academic qualifications have not been recognised. There are also cultural and religious reasons.
This is more evident for those coming from rural areas. Woman 9 :. My husband thinks the same way as my father: women have to look after the family, and men have to work. And I agree with this idea.
No one is able to do the work they used to do back home, where in urban areas in particular persons with good academic qualifications were employed in the public sector, or were professionals. The men interviewed work in retail trade; depending on their financial situation, this may be a store, which they may own, or they may be street vendors, using trolleys and stalls.
They also work in catering, as assistant chefs or pizza makers. Upon their arrival in the new country they work to survive, beginning by selling umbrellas or other small items. In restaurants they start out as dish-washers, or waiters. The lucky ones manage to rise up the career path, and earn good money. Man 10 :. I used to wash dishes, then do the cleaning. I had to work 12 hours a day, from 8 a. Then I decided to sell some land I had in Bangladesh, had the money sent to Rome, and opened a shop of my own.
The women are generally happy, as they have managed to join up with their husbands, or to get married and come to Italy, they have had children, and live a tranquil life. I have two wonderful children, and I live the life I have always aspired to with my husband.
Woman 6 :. I am looking for a job, like care work, or domestic work. My university degree is not taken into consideration in Italy. I have a relative who emigrated to America and studied in Dhaka like me.
Now he is doing a job commensurate with the qualifications obtained in Bangladesh. I was an office worker, with a steady job and a monthly wage.
Everything I earn goes with the rent or buying food. We are not managing to put anything aside for the future. This allowed me to lead a decent life. Women living in the Tor Pignattara community basically maintain their religious and culinary traditions, they dress as they used to in Bangladesh and go shopping in shops run by Bangladeshis. In these conditions, especially when they have not learned to speak Italian, they spend their lives in their own home, and have contacts only with other Bangladeshi women.
They also say their husbands order them to lead a secluded life, and not to have contacts with the local population, be they Italian or other nationalities. Women living in Rome are the result of family reunifications, they are recently married and have small children. These children now go to nursery and infant schools.
If they want they can have contact with the mothers of other children. Those are the times woman 1 :. Bangladesh is a country that has existed for less than half a century, the result of sometimes violent clashes.
Shaw has a long established Bangladeshi community because they came to work in the former cotton mills. The last cotton mill closed in Korimunessa Begum arrived in the UK in to join her husband. She settled briefly in Hull and then moved to Oldham. She was unhappy in Oldham and told us:. I couldn't like those Bengalis [who were already living in Oldham] because they were dirty. I would tell my husband, 'Get a job and then we will get a house and move from this place.
I don't like Oldham. Although there were very few Bengalis in Shaw when she first moved there, she made friends with her White neighbours:. There were no Bengalis, so I felt lonely. I mixed with English people quite quickly. I learned the language and started mixing with them. I used to go to the shops alone… The other women couldn't speak English, so they were afraid to even open the door.
Stoke-on-Trent is a city in Staffordshire in England. It was once famous for its role in pottery making. Because of their very small numbers in the city, there was no breakdown of the Bangladeshi population. Azim arrived in the UK in and has been working in a restaurant in Stoke-on-Trent since then. There are a lot of Bengali families in this area. They have been here for a long time. I even know a family who have lived in this area for the last 30 years. There are many Indian restaurants.
There is nowhere in the UK where there is no Indian restaurant. Tower Hamlets The interviews. Skip to navigation Skip to content Bangla Stories. Navigation buy xanax. Other British Bengali Communities Rather than studying a particular place, we decided to look at restaurant workers and brides.
Shoeb Chowdhury Shoeb Chowdhury first arrived in Birmingham in but returned to Bangladesh as a child for his education. He told us: The situation in England in the early 70s was different. Blackburn A former mill town, Blackburn lies 21 miles north-west of Manchester.
Her husband spoke of the industrial history of the town: There were many textile mills. Laila Rahman told us the reason for moving to Blackburn: Houses were very cheap compared to London… We did what we could afford to do… This is a very small area. In recent years, however, the community has grown: There are many Bengali households but they keep themselves to themselves… There are more people but they mainly work in the restaurants… Pakistanis live in one place and Gujarati Muslims live in another.
Laila also spoke of the connections to other nearby Bengali communities: Many have relatives in Bradford. Like Oldham, Bradford was a former textile town, and was the site of 'riots' in Nurunnobi Miah Nurunnobi Miah arrived in Bradford in and worked in the local textile factories for 31 years, until his factory closed in Mostafa Kamal Mostafa Kamal arrived in Bradford in the early s.
He described the history of the South Asian community in Bradford: The Pakistanis came 15 or 20 years before the Bengalis. He also told us: I like Bradford because more than people from our village live here so I don't miss Bangladesh. Colchester Colchester in Essex lies 56 miles north-east of London. He told us: In Colchester, there were not many immigrants. He spoke of the development of the community: We were only three or four Bengali families… Later on our staff came, then their families.
He told us: My father didn't like me moving.
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