Times of Work and Social Life: Bangladeshi Migrants in Northeast Italy and London

Taking inspiration from renewed scholarly interest in the role of time in migration, we compare the temporalities of work and social life among male Bangladeshi-origin migrants in northeast Italy and London. We draw conceptually on time geography and rhythmanalysis, and empirically on interviews with 40 Bangladeshi migrant men, to demonstrate the stark contrasts in migrants’ daily lives in the two settings and the impacts of moving from northeast Italy to London. More broadly, this article contributes to debates on the temporalities and rhythms of migrants’ everyday lives via comparative analysis. While in both settings capitalism inexorably shaped class dynamics through its command over flexible labor, there were also marked differences in the routinization of migrants’ work and social and family…