Bengali Community in Birmingham

Where they come from

Bengal is a region of rivers and rich farmland in the east of the Indian subcontinent, now divided between Bangladesh and West Bengal. Most Bengali speakers in Birmingham have family roots in Bangladesh, especially the Sylhet region, while a smaller community comes from Kolkata and other parts of West Bengal.

The community in numbers

At the 2021 Census, out of a city population of 1,144,919, 13,903 residents gave Bengali, including Sylheti and Chittagonian as their main language. Main language figures leave out the many bilingual residents who use English day to day, so the number who speak the language at home is higher still.

Working for Birmingham

Bengali families built the restaurant trade that made Birmingham famous for curry, and today their children and grandchildren work as doctors, nurses, teachers, accountants, engineers, lawyers and civil servants. Bengali-run shops, travel agents and businesses serve neighbourhoods across the city, and the community has produced councillors and community leaders.

Much of the work that keeps Birmingham moving happens out of sight: the night shift on a hospital ward, the early start on a building site, the plumber who fixes a boiler on a winter evening, the teaching assistant who helps a child learn to read. People from every community in the city do these jobs, and Bengali residents are part of that everyday effort to make Birmingham a better place to live.

Culture and community life

Pohela Boishakh, the Bengali New Year in April, is celebrated with music, poetry and colourful clothes, and Ekushey, International Mother Language Day on 21 February, honours those who died for the Bengali language in 1952. The writings of Rabindranath Tagore and Kazi Nazrul Islam are treasured, and Durga Puja and Eid bring families together.

The story of the Bengali community in Birmingham is still being written, by students, workers, parents and pensioners who call the city home. It is a story of hard work, friendship and quiet pride, and Birmingham is richer for it.