Gendered migration infrastructure and socio-spatial rupture: Indian women’s migration experiences to the United Arab Emirates

Abstract

ABSTRACT Increasing cross-border mobilities for employment and livelihood opportunities has resulted in greater institutional and regulatory controls over migration. In this paper, through an analysis of the migration infrastructure for women between India and the United Arab Emirates, socio-spatial ruptures are discerned. The paper asserts that in addition to economic and political frameworks, social and cultural mores have been significant in shaping differentiated migration pathways for Indian women, which are conceptualised as, “gendered migration infrastructure”. Gendered migration infrastructure for Indian women is founded on normative understandings of domesticity and femininity and consequently, has made migration for women restrictive, circuitous and cumbersome. The failure and interruptions of migration infrastructure has occurred across borders and the differentiated migration pathways thus created lie at the intersection of formal regulations and actors (migration laws, recruitment and skilling organisations, state agents, border controls, civil society and bureaucracy) and informal intermediaries and practices (subagents, bypassing emigration procedures, irregular channels and corruption). By drawing on the narratives of Indian migrant women, the paper highlights the negotiations undertaken by migrant women and the impact of gendered migration infrastructure on their (im)mobilities, migratory experiences, and outcomes. Further, socio-spatial ruptures due to the COVID-19 pandemic created cracks in the migration infrastructure, deepening the precarities faced by migrant women. Overall, the paper aims to contribute to the literature on gendered migration and transnationalism in addition to shedding light on the migration of Indian women across income and legal categories, an under-researched topic currently.