Vulnerable Masculinities? Gender Identity Construction among Young Undocumented Sikh Migrants in Paris

Abstract

This paper discusses the impact of immigration policies on the ways young undocumented Sikh migrants in Paris negotiate their masculinity. The current criminalization of labor migration from the global South in Europe is disrupting long established patterns of upward mobility through international migration, that entailed remitting money home, getting married and reuniting with one’s family in the host country and moving up the socio-professional ladder from low-paid jobs to self employment. Instead, the life of an increasing number of Sikh migrants in France and elsewhere is marked by irregular status and socio-economic vulnerability. In this context, undocumented Sikh migrants try to assert their gender identity in multiple ways, characterized by homosociality, the importance of manual labor, specific forms of male sociability marked by the cultivation of their body, while remaining firmly grounded in a Sikh/Panjabi religious universe through seva (voluntary service) and gurdwara attendance.

Punjabi masculinities and transnational spaces: Performance, choice and othering

“…The young Jat men I focus on come from a position of power and privilege in their home country-in terms of caste, gender, socio-economic status and other aspects of their social living (Chopra, 2009;Gill, 2012;Jodhka, 2006;Judge, 2015;Mooney, 2011Mooney, , 2013Walton-Roberts, 2003). Their journey as student-migrants is relatively easier and smooth as compared to other groups studied by researchers-such as undocumented migrants, individuals with precarious migrant status and refugees (Arthur & Flynn, 2011;Forbes-Mewett & Nyland, 2008;Moliner, 2020;Robertson, 2013;Robertson et al, 2018)-and a break in masculinity or emasculation might not have occurred for them in as notable a manner as other migrants. However, despite the positionality, migrant men still experience vulnerabilities in their masculinity when introduced to the new culture that they must learn to navigate and even overcome.…”