Bangladesh Diaspora
Project Goals
Globalization, Mobility, and Migration - Transnational Identity Networks in the Bangladesh Diaspora and Integration
The reasons for the global increase in migration are manifold. They include violent conflicts, the global labor market, poverty, and environmental degradation. Germany is an immigration society in which new social, cultural, religious, or political groups and identities are constantly forming. An expanded concept of integration no longer refers only to the integration of new immigrants into society, but to the inclusion of all social groups in a plural democracy of socioeconomic balance.
In an immigration society, new, often internationally networked forms of self-organization are emerging among old and new immigrant groups. Family and friendship structures, private financial transfers, continuous travel, the formation of associations, and the communication technologies of the Internet are constitutive elements of these self-organizations and the associated transnational social identity networks. These networks are based on competing or complementary cultural, political, and religious worldviews.
The project examines these organizations and identity networks in diaspora groups using the example of the Bangladeshi diaspora in Germany and other European countries. The internal socio-cultural and political dynamics in these groups, their perception, and evaluation of socio-cultural and political developments in the respective societies as well as the manifold effects of state 'integration policies' on these dynamics are analyzed. The specific migration experiences of diaspora groups that have existed for several decades, of newly arrived migrants with different professional qualifications and forms of professional self-employment, and of students and politically persecuted persons are also considered.
Publication of a 'Handbook - Social, Cultural and Religious Self-Organisations of the Bangladesh Diaspora'
The project offers self-organisations of the Bangladesh diaspora to present their own activities, plans and goals in a planned handbook published by the South Asia Institute. This handbook will give the public a picture of the diverse and very interesting activities of this diaspora group.