European inventory of
societal values of culture

Gardner - Global Migrants, Local Lives

Gardner, K. (1995) Global Migrants, Local Lives: Travel and Transformation in Rural Bangladesh. Oxford: The Clarendon Press. ISBN: 9780198279198

Long-term migration is one of the most essential factors in forming cultural identities in the modern world. Immigrant communities are usually studied in the context of the country people have migrated to. The author of this book, however, looks at the neglected ‘sending’ side of the equation. In the sending communities, out-migration has become a central economic and social resource - the route to social and physical mobility, transforming those who gain access to it. The author examines the cultural context and effects of the long-term migration from Bangladesh to Britain and the Middle East, drawing on her fieldwork in the Sylhet district, an area of exceptional migration. Major aspects of Bangladeshi life, such as land, family structure, marriage, and religion – all of which have been affected by heavy outmigration – are covered in detail, and the transformation of the social structure is mapped. Focusing on local ideology, this book shows how different groups constantly negotiate and contest local cultural meanings in the context of rapid economic change. At the heart of this important contribution to the anthropology of migration is a presentation of the dynamic nature of migration and the concomitant possibility of self-transformation it holds for migrant cultures.