In the context of dominant patriarchal gender roles, the discourse on domestic violence in (heter... more In the context of dominant patriarchal gender roles, the discourse on domestic violence in (heterosexual) families directs attention to women’s experience of abuse from their male partners. Introducing international migration in this equation, however, complicates the discourse. Focusing on immigrants who live with a degree of precarity (undocumented immigrant families, dependents, and immigrant families on temporary legal statuses), I argue that a more expansive and nuanced meaning of violence should be applied to immigrant domestic strife because the contexts in which international migration occurs has the potential to inflict harm on all members of the family, including men. The central argument is supported with ethnographic material and semi-structured interviews conducted with immigrant Sikh families in the United States and Punjab, India, analysis of news reports on abandoned Sikh husbands and wives as well as secondary literature. An integral part of the analysis involves reflection on the meaning of family violence in the context of international migration.
This is an essay published in the online magazine - Americankahani.com - based on my research on ... more This is an essay published in the online magazine - Americankahani.com - based on my research on immigrant Sikhs in the US. Please go to the site to find the article or you can send a request directly to me as well.
In this paper, I show that immigration consulting agencies in the Doaba region of Punjab, India, ... more In this paper, I show that immigration consulting agencies in the Doaba region of Punjab, India, mobilise the imaginary of the ‘West’ as a place to be successful and modern in order to sell their services. My focus is on the design of promotional materials created by the agencies that are well integrated into the visual landscape of this region. Thus I analyse this imaginary as presented in banners, posters, and signboards. The visual data is complemented with semi structured interviews conducted with staff and owners at the agencies, ethnographic observations as well as information gleaned from the agencies’ websites. The study is novel in its exploration of the visual environment in pre-migration contexts where international migration is portrayed as a central path to prosperity. It is exploratory in nature and raises many questions for future researchers to pursue.
In this introductory essay, I reflect on the connection between pedagogy and activism and introdu... more In this introductory essay, I reflect on the connection between pedagogy and activism and introduce the three contributors to this special section on the topic. More specifically, I chart key points in the history of sociology in the West asking readers to consider whether sociology has ever been value‐free. In the process, I invoke sociologists who thought it essential for integration of sociological thought and practice (albeit not necessarily in the form of activism), ponder the meaning of science and think about the meaning of an education in sociology. As part of the discussion, I also present my position on sociology, pedagogy, and activism.
I examine how immigrant Punjabi-Sikhs make sense of themselves as yellow cabbies in New York with... more I examine how immigrant Punjabi-Sikhs make sense of themselves as yellow cabbies in New York with two complementary frameworks-Hill Collins' "matrix of domination" and insights from the literature exploring the interplay between race and ethnicity. The cabbies discussed their immigrant status, non-whiteness, and social class as influential, emphasizing the effects of all three forms of marginalization as occurring simultaneously. They deployed "money" to frame this subordination and to negotiate dimensions of social location and identity. The transnational space they occupied emerges noteworthy too in their identity making. This analysis, based on interviews with 56 cabbies, advances scholarship on race and immigration/transnationalism, Asian and South Asian American identities, specifically research on immigrant Sikhs of lower socioeconomic status, attention on whom is scant.
Although the scholarship on social capital and immigrant economic incorporation has sufficiently ... more Although the scholarship on social capital and immigrant economic incorporation has sufficiently documented how immigrants mobilize social capital in their search for employment which often leads to the formation of immigrant niches, how social capital is processed after immigrants acquire employment and its significance for the preservation of immigrant employment niches is less well explored. This paper addresses this gap in the literature with a case study of immigrant Punjabi taxi drivers in the New York metropolitan area. In particular, this study shows how a group of immigrant Punjabi taxi drivers mobilized social capital via embeddedness in co-ethnic social networks and improved their working conditions – a process that must be considered in explanations of the Punjabi niche in the taxi industry for more than two decades. The study has implications for the relationship between social capital and the structure of the workplace or industry where immigrants are incorporated and its subsequent impact on immigrant economic trajectories. Further, this study contributes to the debate on the usefulness of ethnic communities for the adaptation of immigrant groups. Additionally, this research is relevant to the scholarship on the economic adaptation of South Asian (a subset of Asian Americans) immigrants, an understudied immigrant group in the United States.
In the context of dominant patriarchal gender roles, the discourse on domestic violence in (heter... more In the context of dominant patriarchal gender roles, the discourse on domestic violence in (heterosexual) families directs attention to women’s experience of abuse from their male partners. Introducing international migration in this equation, however, complicates the discourse. Focusing on immigrants who live with a degree of precarity (undocumented immigrant families, dependents, and immigrant families on temporary legal statuses), I argue that a more expansive and nuanced meaning of violence should be applied to immigrant domestic strife because the contexts in which international migration occurs has the potential to inflict harm on all members of the family, including men. The central argument is supported with ethnographic material and semi-structured interviews conducted with immigrant Sikh families in the United States and Punjab, India, analysis of news reports on abandoned Sikh husbands and wives as well as secondary literature. An integral part of the analysis involves reflection on the meaning of family violence in the context of international migration.
This is an essay published in the online magazine - Americankahani.com - based on my research on ... more This is an essay published in the online magazine - Americankahani.com - based on my research on immigrant Sikhs in the US. Please go to the site to find the article or you can send a request directly to me as well.
In this paper, I show that immigration consulting agencies in the Doaba region of Punjab, India, ... more In this paper, I show that immigration consulting agencies in the Doaba region of Punjab, India, mobilise the imaginary of the ‘West’ as a place to be successful and modern in order to sell their services. My focus is on the design of promotional materials created by the agencies that are well integrated into the visual landscape of this region. Thus I analyse this imaginary as presented in banners, posters, and signboards. The visual data is complemented with semi structured interviews conducted with staff and owners at the agencies, ethnographic observations as well as information gleaned from the agencies’ websites. The study is novel in its exploration of the visual environment in pre-migration contexts where international migration is portrayed as a central path to prosperity. It is exploratory in nature and raises many questions for future researchers to pursue.
In this introductory essay, I reflect on the connection between pedagogy and activism and introdu... more In this introductory essay, I reflect on the connection between pedagogy and activism and introduce the three contributors to this special section on the topic. More specifically, I chart key points in the history of sociology in the West asking readers to consider whether sociology has ever been value‐free. In the process, I invoke sociologists who thought it essential for integration of sociological thought and practice (albeit not necessarily in the form of activism), ponder the meaning of science and think about the meaning of an education in sociology. As part of the discussion, I also present my position on sociology, pedagogy, and activism.
I examine how immigrant Punjabi-Sikhs make sense of themselves as yellow cabbies in New York with... more I examine how immigrant Punjabi-Sikhs make sense of themselves as yellow cabbies in New York with two complementary frameworks-Hill Collins' "matrix of domination" and insights from the literature exploring the interplay between race and ethnicity. The cabbies discussed their immigrant status, non-whiteness, and social class as influential, emphasizing the effects of all three forms of marginalization as occurring simultaneously. They deployed "money" to frame this subordination and to negotiate dimensions of social location and identity. The transnational space they occupied emerges noteworthy too in their identity making. This analysis, based on interviews with 56 cabbies, advances scholarship on race and immigration/transnationalism, Asian and South Asian American identities, specifically research on immigrant Sikhs of lower socioeconomic status, attention on whom is scant.
Although the scholarship on social capital and immigrant economic incorporation has sufficiently ... more Although the scholarship on social capital and immigrant economic incorporation has sufficiently documented how immigrants mobilize social capital in their search for employment which often leads to the formation of immigrant niches, how social capital is processed after immigrants acquire employment and its significance for the preservation of immigrant employment niches is less well explored. This paper addresses this gap in the literature with a case study of immigrant Punjabi taxi drivers in the New York metropolitan area. In particular, this study shows how a group of immigrant Punjabi taxi drivers mobilized social capital via embeddedness in co-ethnic social networks and improved their working conditions – a process that must be considered in explanations of the Punjabi niche in the taxi industry for more than two decades. The study has implications for the relationship between social capital and the structure of the workplace or industry where immigrants are incorporated and its subsequent impact on immigrant economic trajectories. Further, this study contributes to the debate on the usefulness of ethnic communities for the adaptation of immigrant groups. Additionally, this research is relevant to the scholarship on the economic adaptation of South Asian (a subset of Asian Americans) immigrants, an understudied immigrant group in the United States.
I examine how immigrant Punjabi-Sikhs make sense of themselves as yellow cabbies in New York with... more I examine how immigrant Punjabi-Sikhs make sense of themselves as yellow cabbies in New York with two complementary frameworks—Hill Collins’ “matrix of domination” and insights from the literature exploring the interplay between race and ethnicity. The cabbies discussed their immigrant status, non-whiteness, and social class as influential, emphasizing the effects of all three forms of marginalization as occurring simultaneously. They deployed “money” to frame this subordination and to negotiate dimensions of social location and identity. The transnational space they occupied emerges noteworthy too in their identity making. This analysis, based on interviews with 56 cabbies, advances scholarship on race and immigration/transnationalism, Asian and South Asian American identities, specifically research on immigrant Sikhs of lower socioeconomic status, attention on whom is scant.
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