Nuancing transnational movements: Reading vulnerability in on-screen representation of temporary labour migration

Abstract

Judith Butler observes that the organization of economic and social relationships, as well as the presence or absence of supportive infrastructures and social and political institutions, play a substantial role in shaping our vulnerability. In the age of globalization, we must adopt a nuanced approach to studying migration, which is informed by the diverse sociopolitical contexts of the phenomenon. Accordingly, an insightful evaluation of the migrant condition should be governed by a thorough understanding of the migrant’s legal, social and financial vulnerabilities, which can determine the possibilities of crisis (management) and security measures feasible in the immigrant environment. This article links the study of transnational movements with the socio-economic status of the migrant and the absence of essential sociopolitical infrastructures in the receiving country. While the former factor acts as the driving force behind economic migration, the two factors combinedly contribute to the migrants’ vulnerability in the new terrain and urge the subaltern migrants to affiliate with their homeland. This article analyses two Malayalam films depicting temporary labour migration, Take Off (2017) and C U Soon (2020), where the social and financial status of the individual predicate the migrant condition and determine the strategies of survival that s/he has access to. The article will be structured into three sections: the first section will look at the primary texts and examine the texts’ cogency in representing temporary labour migration. The second section will introduce the reader to the theoretical framework of vulnerability and precarity proposed by Judith Butler. Finally, the third section will discuss the primary texts in light of the theories discussed in the previous section and examine their ramifications on the bodily constitution of migrant life, thereby opening the possibility of adopting a revised approach to studying the phenomenon of migration.