Migrants in liminal time and space: an exploration of the experiences of highly skilled Indian bachelors in Amsterdam

Abstract

This paper sheds light on the relationship between individual agency, transnational social relations, geographic place, and cultural constructions of life phase and gender among highly skilled Indian migrants to the Netherlands. Amsterdam is attracting an increasing number of Indian migrants who work primarily in the fields of information technology, engineering and business management. The nature of this highly skilled work requires mobile, flexible workers, and therefore mainly attracts single men between 25 and 34. Their migrant experiences and choices are marked by a 'performance of liminality': migration is part of a coming of age ritual that both structures their lives and is structured by circumstances and agency. The experience of bachelors in particular can be understood as a 'double liminality' in that it is both temporary and spatial. Many of our bachelor informants felt they were 'betwixt and between' the socio-cultural expectations they grew up with and what they perceive to be Dutch or Western culture, and between those that pertain to childhood and to adulthood. They live on a metaphorical threshold, shaped by their masculine ideals, beliefs about 'Indian culture', their expected life trajectories, and their experiences in and expectations of the Netherlands and the city of Amsterdam.

Highly skilled migration between the Global North and South: gender, life courses and institutions

“…The paper by Kirk, Bal, and Janssen (2017) examines the bachelorhood stage of skilled Indian migrants in Amsterdam. The authors discuss how being young, single and not co-residing with family/friends in Amsterdam acts as a coming-of-age process.…”

“…Roohi's (2017) mainly discusses caste and ethnicity, but linked lives in kinship networks and endogamous marriage. Kirk, Bal, and Janssen (2017) look into the life-course stage of bachelorhood, but this stage is strongly related to masculinity. Furthermore, the bachelors work in a labour-market sector that requires mobile flexible workers and therefore mainly attracts young single men.…”

“…The papers by Leung (2017), Föbker and Imani (2017), Grigoleit-Richter (2017) and Roohi (2017) are most closely related to the theme of gender, identity and social inequality. The papers by Kirk, Bal, and Janssen (2017) and Kõu, Mulder, and Bailey (2017) fit best under the theme of life courses and linked lives. The main theme of the paper by Green and Hogarth (2017) is institutions and policy.…”

When "expatriation" is a matter of family. Opportunities, barriers and intimacies in international mobility

“…Related to these subjective frictions in professional and personal trajectories, two complementary issues emerged from these various articles: the temporal dimension of family mobility (e.g., transitions, ruptures, trajectories, life-course, stability) as well as the importance of reflexivity. The issues of timing, the tempos and rhythms of migration (Bissell, 2007;Griffiths, Rogers, & Anderson, 2013;Kirk, Bal, & Janssen, 2017), intertwine with the making of kin relations, family and gender roles. This temporal dimension and the making of one's own trajectory are also strictly connected to the opportunity for "reflexivity" (Archer, 2007(Archer, , 2009 triggered by the experience of migration (Bell & Domecka, 2017).…”

Caste, kinship and the realisation of ‘American Dream’: high-skilled Telugu migrants in the U.S.A.

“…Increasingly, men search for 'right' partners whom they can take to the U.S.A. on dependent visas, but who have better possibilities of finding a job there post migration. For this, they prefer women who not only have professional degrees, preferably an engineering or medical one, but are already employed in reputable firms in India (see also Kirk, Bal, and Janssen 2017;Kõu, Mulder, and Bailey 2017). The idea of double American income is very lucrative for many families with a son in the U.S.A. who search for not only well-qualified brides but also look for girls who have the potential to easily convert their work experience in India into finding jobs in the U.S.A.…”