Transnational Families and Migrant Masculinities: The Social Institution of Male Adulthood and Family Reunification in the Bangladeshi Diaspora in Italy

This article is the result of a broader research project aimed at analysing the social construction of masculinity of Bangladeshi migrants to Italy. Specifically, the article focuses on the family reunification experience of Bangladeshi migrant men with their wives. Firstly, using some Bourdieusian perspectives, the article analyses the meanings of family reunification for migrants, how it constitutes a fundamental act of the institution of adult masculinity. Secondly, it investigates the meaning of this experience for the migrants’ fathers and fathers-in-law in Bangladesh and how it can shape their masculinity according to their embedded habitus and social class position.
KEY WORDS: migrant masculinities, family reunification, Bangladeshi diaspora, Italy, transnationalism