The migration ‘crisis’ of the mid-2010s featured many familiar stories: Syrians fleeing the war that destroyed their homes; Central Americans escaping gang violence to find safety in the north; Eritreans fleeing a totalitarian regime that prohibits emigration; hundreds of thousands of Rohingya crossing into Bangladesh from Myanmar; and migrants from Sub-Saharan Africa leaving the lingering poverty of colonial exploitation to search for better opportunities elsewhere. This book seeks to broaden and deepen the story of migration in the twenty-first century by focusing on the experiences of the people from South Asia who have played a significant role in global migrations, but received less attention in academic and media accounts. Despite the international media's focus on people from Syria, people from Afghanistan make up the largest group stranded along the route through the Balkans after the closure of borders and construction of walls in 2015. In 2016, Pakistanis were the second largest group of refugees in Serbia (United Nations, High Commissioner for Refugees 2016). In the Middle East, people from South Asia make up the vast majority of the workers building skyscrapers, artificial islands, and stadiums for the 2022 FIFA World Cup. In the first half of 2017, the largest single group crossing the Mediterranean from Libya to Italy were not from the Middle East or Africa, but Bangladesh (Dearden 2017).

Indeed, if you look for it, the Bangladeshi population is visible in all of the major cities of Italy. In Rome, Bangladeshi men dominate the area around the Colosseum, selling selfie sticks, bottled water, and souvenirs to tourists. In Florence, many of the small convenience stores are run by Bangladeshis, as are the majority of the stalls selling leather goods and football jerseys at the Mercato San Lorenzo. In Milan, an Italian colleague noted that she had assumed that there were many Indian migrants, but many had turned out to be from Bangladesh. Even before the current wave of migration, Bangladeshis already made up the second largest non- European population in Italy (after Nigerians), with over 142,000 people living there with status. This population has tripled in just the past seven years and is projected to increase to 232,000 by 2030. It is also estimated that, as of 2009, at least 11,000 additional Bangladeshis were living in Italy without any legal status (Blangiardo 2009).