Amrita Datta

Bielefeld University · Department of Sociology

Uncertain Mobilities as a special dossier for Migration and Diversity journal originates from the workshop with the same name I organized at the Department of Sociology, University of Siegen in October 2022. The second day of the workshop witnessed participation from early career scholars, including doctoral and postdoctoral researchers, who presen...

In this paper, we are interested in the curious case of the Kerala nurses in Germany in the 1960s and '70s and their location in the context of gender-migration interface. These migrants challenge the myth of migration that migration is quintessentially a male-dominated space where women are largely represented as dependents. The moot point of this...

Migration is a calculated risk, but do uncertain risks affect migration decisions? Is lack of certitude a catalyst for new categories of migration? Is multigenerational immigration possible? What are the transnational elderly caregiving practices? – these are the questions this chapter aims at addressing. Preoccupation with risk and uncertainty in...

Maximum inoculation is arguably one of the most sustainable ways of containing the Coronavirus pandemic, as envisaged by the public health experts across the world. This implies a specific faith in science and technology, along with a social and medical trust in human bodies for generating immunities against a virus. Located at the centre of such u...

Why are they emigrating from India? Why are they choosing Germany? This chapter sets the tone of the book – with detailed discussions on why the Indians are leaving India and why they are coming to Germany. Through primary data collection from the field, I have brought to limelight the reasons that my participants have cited for their emigration-im...

This chapter focuses on the Indian women who are migrating either for work or education and arriving in Germany. In view of the steady rise in their numbers, most of whom are in their 20s and 30s, in this chapter I ask: why are Indian women immigrating to Germany? Are their migration motivations similar to the men? Through field work I learned that...

In this chapter, I discuss the shadow emigration pathways that Indians are exploiting to leave the country to escape from the political targeting of the authoritarian regime. They are doing so partly because the formalized frameworks like Scholars at Risk still does not consider the Indian government to be a threat to its people; consequently, seve...

In this chapter, I capture the translocal and transcultural practices of the Indian immigrants in Germany within the specific contexts of housing, politics, religion and food. Through a critique of methodological nationalism and locating my data in the practice theory, in this chapter I argue that everyday racism in Germany on the one hand and reli...

This is the concluding chapter with reflections and imaginations. This chapter focuses on the long-term prospects of the Indians in Germany. It grapples with several questions related to policy changes and structural challenges that Germany faces with reference to migrants in general and white-collar immigrants in particular. Policy shifts like fas...

Freedom comes in different forms and shapes. In the last chapter we discussed about freedom of physical mobility, freedom to walk at any time of the day, alone or with companion of one’s own choice. From that perspective of how access to free walk can emerge as a motivation of immigration to how creative freedom and political unfreedom define mobil...

In view of the growing popularity of Hindu nationalism in India, the purpose here is to ask if Hinduism and Hindutva can be considered as separate entities. In recent times especially under the BJP-led government, India, is witnessing the rise of a regime that negates and deliberately silences all non-majoritarian and dissenting voices. Its sole ag...

This paper intends to move beyond the common knowledge of how pandemic restricts mobility at large and provokes us to think about those for whom mobility restriction was a way of life much before the coronavirus arrived. Looking at shadow pandemic of gender-based mobility restrictions of women and non-male actors in conservative societies in South...

Book review from a feminist standpoint.

This paper revolves around the experiential journeys of Indian guest-workers in Germany with reference to the financescape 1-ethnoscape 2 interface. By 'journey', I aim to explore two main areas, namely the ethnic profile of the subjects and their professional profile which entangles the issue of their being part of the global economic exchange. Al...

This paper dissects the evolution of public sphere from Habermas' French culturscape to Bengal intelligentsia. It argues that the quintessential bengali 'adda' is the essential locale of public debate and deliberations that constitute the public sphere in Bengal and how the locale of 'adda' has evolved in the state over the years in response to eco...

his paper compares political history of India and Turkey through the prism of Erdogan and Modi as the heads of the two states, respectively. It critiques the rise of the right and argues that populism under neoliberal regimes is dangerous for democracy.

This paper explores the socio-cultural experiences of exclusion and inclusion for Indian guest workers in Germany facilitated by media, within the discourses of economic globalization and international migration of labour. It draws directly from Arjun Appadurai’s concept of ‘scapes’ coming together to constitute ‘disjuncture of flows’. Here ‘guest-...

This article argues that the Left regime in West Bengal, India lost its relevance because it failed to adapt and cultivated politics distanced from peoples' participation. As a result, they lost touch with the people at the ground and suffered from political arrogance.