Sikh diaspora and Spain: migration, hypermobility and space

Abstract

ABSTRACTThe recent emigration from Indian Punjab has included Spain into the global Sikh diaspora. This group is selected to study the production of ‘diaspora space’ and the transformation of the territory included in it. To achieve this objective, we have focused on the historical migratory waves, the itineraries followed by immigrants and their internal mobility, which provides the essential mechanism for the expansion of diaspora space. Alongside this, an attempt has been made to delimit the extent of virtual space of diaspora through transnational communication links from Barcelona (the municipality with largest Sikh population in Spain) to rest of the world. The preliminary finding from the mixed methodology used in the research illustrated that the Sikh diaspora is a dynamic physical and virtual space, which is expanding firstly with intense immigrant flows from Punjab to new destinations, and secondly with the spread of advanced communication source like internet calling and other messaging services. Their appropriation of territory is visible in the form of Gurudwaras (Sikh temples) as a node of symbolic and communitarian network of the Sikh diaspora situated at different parts of Spain.