Torpignattara/Banglatown - Global Rome: Changing Faces of the Eternal City - page 77

ing and to elaborate on the reflections that this provokes within the theme of
identity politics.
Nevertheless, this “regeneration” process has the effect of overturning those
western values that portray migrant communities as occupying a marginal po-
sition, with a precarious social status and little money. if the idea of urban re-
generation is associated with the presence of the middle and upper classes, who
upgrade the area by bringing in new facilities and a token amount of new capital
(and pushing out lower classes and immigrants), then the economic and “moral”
rise of the bangladeshi community in the district, even if it functions by virtue of
the “identity” rhetoric of leaders who are well placed in relation to the diaspora,
puts a strain on that western “global hierarchy of values” (herzfeld 2004) which
expects migrants from developing countries to be globally marginalized, pas-
sive, and alienated from the main power centers. such a process goes well beyond
torpignattara and extends to the whole urban space in the era of global migra-
tion. if the concept of gentrification is associated by urban planners with selective
improvement that is created by middle- and upper-class westerners, how can we
interpret a process of regeneration that is acknowledged to be on the rise but has
been created by a diaspora from one of the poorest countries in the world?
as well as creating a short circuit in terms of dominant values, the process
underway in torpignattara opens up new dynamics in relations with the origi-
nal population, offering the prospect of scenarios that move from the implemen-
tation of hybrid practices to forms of cultural essentialization, but also include
conflict and resistance from both parties. all this also generates marked changes
in the original population: in some cases, they manage to defend their power
and authority, dictating the economic (e.g., renting of properties) and cultural
conditions of the district, whereas in other cases, they have to defend themselves
against the new owners of their houses and new practices.
in an earlier essay on torpignattara (broccolini 2009), i told the story of an
old greengrocery in banglatown, a historic shop run by a Roman and patronized
by a great many of the original inhabitants; when the shop was taken over by a
bangladeshi, it became visibly deserted. for some time, i have noticed that the
shop has returned to the Roman's ownership; in order to indicate to the original
inhabitants that the shop has been “repatriated” to italian ownership, the shop-
keeper has put a large notice outside the shop that says “under former manage-
ment.” This is an interesting reversal of values in commercial communication
(generally such notices say “under new management”), which presumes a code of
shared values (we Romans are back) and which we can take as the metaphor of a
form of wearied resistance on the part of the original residents, who fail to hide
their feelings about a new emerging form of marginality.
it is difficult to foresee how in the future the so-called second generation
of bangladeshi immigrants (at present still of school age) will understand the