Nammakam, wasta and the cultivation of differential mobility capital between South India and the Gulf
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 7921095 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Sanam Roohi (0000-0002-2483-841X, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2023 |
| Volume | 18 |
| Issue | 6 |
| Pages | 952-967 |
| Publication date | 2023-11-02 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Mobilities (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1745-0101 • E-ISSN: 1745-011X |
| Publisher | Informa UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1080/17450101.2023.2171803 |
| OpenAlex | W4320039122 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 4 |
| References cited | 59 |
This ethnographic study, which draws from critical mobility studies and puts it in a productive conversation with migration infrastructures literature, foregrounds the cultivation of and access to differential mobility capital by Rayalaseema inhabitants chain migrating to Kuwait. By fostering embodied and affective relations of trust with different set of actors throughout the migration trajectory, temporary migrants instrumentalise namakkam (trust) and wasta (connections), in both the region of origin and destination, to build their highly variegated mobility capital. In this way, they sustain a transregional licit, if illegal, visa-centered migration infrastructure. Migrants use their mobility capital to buy visas, prolong their stay and embed themselves in the migrant lifeworld of Kuwait, but its full value is realizable back in their region of origin, the socio-economically intractable Rayalaseema, to attain upward social mobility. Requiring considerable social, economic and affective investments over a long period, mobility capital is highly uneven and asymmetrical and often reproduces gendered, caste-based and racialized hierarchies even as it becomes a vehicle for social and spatial mobility for some migrants
Caste · Economic geography · Economics · Embodied cognition · Ethnography · Geography · Lifeworld · Mobilities · Political science · Social capital · Social mobility · Social reproduction · Social science · Sociology · Migration and Labor Dynamics · Migration, Refugees, and Integration · Socioeconomic Development in Asia
Democracy against Development
Impossible Citizens
Handbook of theory and research for the sociology of education
The (im)morality of mediation and patronage in south India and the Gulf
Itinerant labour
Migrant Dubai
Migration and Development Within and Across Borders
Making our Way through the World
Capital and mobility in the stepwise international migrations of Filipino migrant domestic workers
Bourdieu in Beirut
Ethiopian female labor migration to the Gulf states
The Social Organization of Hundi
Everyday Inclusions
Hai Gui or Hai Dai? Chinese Student Migrants and the Role of Norwegian Mobility Capital in Career Success
Mobilities I
Indian or Arabian
Migration Infrastructure
Relative Success of Male Workers in the Host Country, Kuwait
Reconsidering Migration and Class
Asian Women Workers in Kuwait
Liquid Debts
Education and social mobility
Introduction
Chain Migration Through the Social Network
Nakhudas and Nauvittakas
Mobility capital
Mobilities III
Mobilities II
Affective Infrastructure
City of Strangers
Brokerage in Cross-Border Mobility
Brokers, channels, infrastructure
The Boundaries of Interdisciplinary Fields
Migration infrastructures and the production of migrant mobilities
Multiple mobilities in Mexico's fertility industry
Towards a Politics of Mobility
The New Mobilities Paradigm
Major Problems in Minor Irrigation
Motility
Anticipating Future Capital
Go West Young Man
Social Capital
Opening the Black Box of Migration
Beyond labour migration
Introduction
From Golden Frontier to Global City
Muslim entrepreneurs in public life between India and the Gulf
Explanation is Not the Point
The mobility turn
Dispositions and Destinations
| Unique citing works | 4 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 1,33 |
| Citation span | 2023 - 2025 (3) |
| Citation velocity | recent |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 4 |