Die Veranstaltung findet statt im Rahmen des Studiengangs EMMIR ist aber für andere Studierende der Universität geöffnet. Für Fragen wenden Sie sich bitte an emmir@uni-oldenburg.de

Workshop
Thursday, 29 October, 10-13h
Friday, 30 October, 14-18h

Carried out by Dr. Manish Jha (Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai)

Outline
The module on Life and Labour of Migrants in India will be sub-divided into two sub-theses, i.e
1. Rural Poor and Urban Migrant: Issues of violence and Justice
2. Migration, Statelessness and Question of Citizenship

The first part will examine the situation of rural society, issues around land and livelihood, agrarian distress, caste and gender concerns. The movement from one rural setting to other prosperous rural areas, from rural to urban and experiences in the city space will be discussed. The dominant urban discourse influences migrant’s everyday life in the city spaces and contributes in keeping their life insecure, vulnerable and peripheral. Migrants' experiences of violence, injustice and denial of rights will be analysed during the discussion. On the other side, the phenomenon of migration can be extremely libratory from caste based discrimination and exclusion, from rural bondage and from stiffing hierarchies. More often, than not, migrants find their work in urban areas more dignified, less humiliating and more remunerative. The migrants also influences socio-political context of the receiving areas and through their remittances and improved status, they also make claims at source areas. The module will examine some of these issues. Besides, manifestation of masculinity, management of emotions and loneliness, etc. will be discussed.
The Second module looks into issues of conflict and situation of voluntary as well as involuntary (forced) migration. The conflict around access to natural resources, appropriation of land and minerals by market by displacing large number of population, protracted violence and disturbance due to ultra-left movement and state’s response, etc. lead to large number of forced migration. Another set of conflict emanates from communal violence, autonomy movement, border controversies, etc. The module would examine specific situation of conflict and resultant migration, their experiences with citizenship rights and/or denial of it and overall conditions of insecurity, illegality, statelessness. The module would interrogate new forms of political contestation that question the juridical framework of the nation-state and its institution of citizenship.

Obligatory Readings

Theme 1
• Ravi Srivastava & S.K. Sasikumar. An overview of Migration in India, its impacts and key issues. Migration Development Pro- Poor Policy Choices in Asia. (Page 1-18)
• Gidwani, Vinay and K. Sivaramkrishnan. 2003. Circular Migration and Spaces of Cultural Assertion. Annals of Association of American Geographers, Vol 93, No. 1, Pp 186-213
• Alpa Shah. The labour of love: Seasonal migration from Jharkhand to the brick kilns of other states in India. Contributions to Indian Sociology 2006 Pp 90-118
• Kundu, Amitabh and Lopamudra Ray Saraswati, ‘Migration and Exclusionary Urbanization in India’, Economic and Political Weekly, Vol. 47, Nos. 26 and 27 (June 30, 2012), Pp 219-27
• Ben Rogaly, Experiencing space–time: the stretched lifeworlds of migrant workers in India, Environment and Planning A 2012, volume 44, pages 2086 – 2100

Theme 2
• Willem van Schendel. Stateless in South Asia: The Making of the India-Bangladesh Enclaves. The Journal of Asian Studies, Vol. 61, No. 1 (Feb., 2002), pp. 115-147
• Madhura Chakraborty. Stateless and Suspect: Rohingyas in Myanmar, Bangladesh and India. MCRG Draft Paper. (Pp 1-15)
• Jason Cons (2012). Histories of Belonging(s): Narrating Territory, Possession, and Dispossession at the India- Bangladesh Border. Modern Asian Studies, 46, pp 527-558 .
• Rita Manchanda. Gender Conflict and Displacement: Contesting 'Infantilisation' of Forced Migrant Women. Economic and Political Weekly, Vol. 39, No. 37 (Sep. 11-17, 2004), pp. 4179-4186

Bionote
Manish K Jha is Professor and Dean, School of Social Work at Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai, India. His research interest and writings include Development and Governance, Poverty and Migration, Social exclusion, Human Rights and Human Security. He teaches Social Policy and Planning, Social Action and Movement and Community Organisation and Development Practice. He has been a recipient of Commonwealth Academic fellowship (2009) at School of Oriental and African Studies, London, UK; Erasmus Mundus fellowship (2011) at University College Dublin, Ireland; UKIERI visiting Fellowship (2013) at Durham University, UK and Palme Professorship (2013) in Gothenburg University, Sweden, etc. He has published in reputed national and international journals and in edited volumes. His recent book is Traversing Bihar: Politics of Development and Social Justice (Orient BlackSwan 2014). He is a member of Calcutta Research Group, a renowned research organization with pioneering work on Politics and Forced Migration. He is actively engaged with development practice; policy advocacy; and relief and rehabilitation work in post-disaster situations.