Modern Migrations : Gujarati Indian Networks in New York and London

This book is a sTudy of Gujarati Indian immigrants in New York and London. Gujaratis are part of a long history of migration from a region that has been shaped by early modern and modern economic relations in trade and production, labor, colonialism, educational and professional exchange, and other globalized relations. As shown in this book, those relations demonstrate the historical integration and interaction of individuals, communities, institutions, and states across specific regions of the world where Gujaratis have migrated. Gujarati migrations do not simply represent traditional people moving from a developing country to a developed one, motivated by potential economic gain, as is so often assumed about immigrants from many parts of the developing world. To show how we can see these historical social ties and integration, which cause migration flows and social change, this study argues for a relational approach, which has for the most part been overlooked in migration studies. The relational approach to understanding social life emphasizes dynamic relations over static categories by focusing attention on the kinds of networks and valued goods, such as information, money, resources, and influence, that are exchanged within social ties producing even large-scale processes such as migration. The historical formation of these ties is visible in the social networks that immigrants use to migrate and in the ways in which their economic opportunities are structured by those networks. Many people might wonder how Gujarati Indians, a seemingly small and insignificant population from the westernmost state of India, can tell us something important about migration processes, in particular, and modernity, in general. Indeed, many of my colleagues shrugged their shoulders 1 Gujarati Indian Networks in New York and London When i firsT seT ouT To collecT the life histories of Gujarati immigrants in New York and London, many of them told me that they never expected to migrate to the United States or the United Kingdom. "I never thought that I would come to America," or "We never wanted to go to Britain," they told me. These immigrants' histories, although unique in their own way, had an almost predictable quality to them. Of course, all such stories benefit from hindsight in that they are reflective narratives carefully woven into coherent representations of identity, culture, and life circumstances. Yet, as I listened, it became clear that the stories of their lives, which are intimately intertwined with sociohistorical linkages and relations among India, East Africa, and Britain or between India and the United States, made their migration and occupational histories seem not only likely but even inevitable. The social ties they had to others already living in the United States or the United Kingdom determined where they migrated (for instance, Elmhurst, Queens, in New York, the port city of Mombasa in Kenya, or Wembley in Northwest London) and how they got there, thus confirming many studies of migration that focus on the role that social networks play in the lives of immigrants. Consider the story of Harshad, who was born in Kenya in 1955 as the youngest of six siblings. 1 In Harshad's generation, most Indians from his ethnoreligious community of Oswal Jains were born in Kenya. 2 Their fathers had migrated there at the turn of the twentieth century after a severe famine in their region of Gujarat resulted in economic hardship and disadvantageous social and economic changes in their class status. Kenya had long been central to Indian Although globalization seems like a recent phenomenon linked to migration, some groups have used social networks to migrate great distances for centuries. To gain new insights into migration today, Modern Migrations takes a closer look at the historical presence of globalization and how it has organized migration and social networks. With a focus on the lives of Gujarati Indians in New York and London, this book explains migration patterns through different kinds of social networks and relations. Gujarati migration flows span four continents, across several centuries. Maritsa Poros reveals the inner workings of their social networks and how these networks relate to migration flows. Championing a relational view, she examines which kinds of ties result in dead-end jobs, and which, conversely, lead to economic mobility. In the process, she speaks to central debates in the field about the economic and cultural roots of migration's causes and its surprising consequences. Explains migration patterns through different kinds of social networks and relations, with a focus on the lives of Gujarati Indians in New York and London.