This contribution analyzes data collected during fieldwork from 2007 to 2016 in Rome (Italy), and partly in Dhaka and Narayanganj (Bangladesh), to ethnographically engage with Bangladeshi mobilities. Starting from the analysis of life-trajectories of certain urban middleclass migrants, the paper investigates the relationship between im/mobilities and power on different scales, taking into account both peoples’ subjection to regimes of mobility and other structural conditions, and their agency in pursuing projects that intertwine social and geographical mobility. Bangladeshis’ multi-scalar lives show that mobility and immobility are strictly interconnected, highlighting the persistent importance of relationship with places, and calling attention to possible affinities between widespread mobility and the neoliberal agenda.

Keywords: Bengal diaspora, Bangladesh, mobility, emplacement, anthropology of migration, transnationalism, ethnography, neoliberalism, mobility capital, urban anthropology