Work, Family and Integration: Indian Migrant Farmers in Northern Italy (Migration, Minorities and Modernity, 6) 9819955807, 9789819955800

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Migration, Minorities and Modernity 6

Meenakshi Thapan

Work, Family and Integration Indian Migrant Farmers in Northern Italy

Migration, Minorities and Modernity Volume 6

Series Editors Thomas Geisen, Trier, Germany Zvi Bekerman, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem, Israel Pat Cox, SSWCC, University of Central Lancashire, Preston, UK

This series explores the often complex relationships between migration, society and democracy. With a focus on local and regional aspects, the studies presented in this series discuss migration itself, including questions related to forced migration and resettlement, and offer new insights on the connections between established groups and newcomers in modern societies, especially with regard to their potential impact on social and democratic development. The scope of the series encompasses distinct fields such as migration/minorities and democracy, migration/minorities and law, migration/minorities and social organisation, migration/minorities and education, migration/minorities and the labour market, migration/minorities and high-tech capitalism, migration/minorities and racism, in addition to the intersections of these distinct fields with each other, for example: migration/minorities, citizenship, law, and democracy. This series adopts an international and interdisciplinary approach to seek better understandings of the complexity of migration/minorities and reveal the fruitful outcomes of migration/minorities as well as examine more interwoven and problematic issues of migration/minorities, societies and democracies.

Meenakshi Thapan

Work, Family and Integration Indian Migrant Farmers in Northern Italy

Meenakshi Thapan Rishi Valley Education Centre Rishi Valley, Andhra Pradesh, India

ISSN 2522-0713 ISSN 2522-0721 (electronic) Migration, Minorities and Modernity ISBN 978-981-99-5580-0 ISBN 978-981-99-5581-7 (eBook) https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-99-5581-7 © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2023 This work is subject to copyright. All rights are solely and exclusively licensed by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed. The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. The publisher, the authors, and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, expressed or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made. The publisher remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. This Springer imprint is published by the registered company Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. The registered company address is: 152 Beach Road, #21-01/04 Gateway East, Singapore 189721, Singapore

‘The reasons for mobility, with the pandemic, have not diminished. On the contrary, it has itself produced further inequalities between guaranteed and unsecured, between genders, and between generations. And it has aggravated the previous ones, setting the conditions for migration, in particular, to resume in a big way’. Stefano Allievi (2021) Professor of Sociology, University of Padua, in an interview with Claudio Paravati, Director of Confronti World. (https://confrontiworld.net/2021/12/ we-will-return-to-our-travels/)

For my good friends Stefano Gandolfi and Chiara Scavia without whom this work would not have been possible

Acknowledgements

The study of migration has increased over the years, and this work is one strand in the multipronged approach to understand why people move, their dreams and their journeys, and their search for the elusive life that they aspire for. This book has been a long time in the making. Apart from a prolonged distance from the field, limited access to new material has added to the delay. Subsequently, I have conducted many online interviews during the COVID-19 pandemic when I resumed work on the manuscript, and this has generated a deeper understanding of the issues involved and of the new challenges being experienced by both migrants and the host community. Fieldwork in Italy was initially conducted with financial support from the EU FP 7 EuroBroadMap project directed by Prof. Claude Grasland at the University of Paris 7 at Diderot, with the support of a number of researchers at the University of Paris 7, including Prof. Catherine Quiminal. The collected material is part of Work Package 3 on Migrants and Borders in the EU FP7 EuroBroadMap project. Both Prof. Grasland and Prof. Quiminal were influential in developing and shaping a nuanced understanding of the issues involved in understanding mental maps of Europe, from a very diverse and intersectional perspective. I have also benefitted from the EU-funded European Studies Programme (2010– 2012) at the University of Delhi, which enabled me to conduct further fieldwork in Europe. This programme opened up a new window of studying Europe for Indian students and professors who were able to conduct fieldwork in different settings in Europe. It was an excellent programme that allowed a deeper understanding of Europe for many young students and has shaped their consequent research trajectories in different ways. I am indebted to Prof. Philippe Fargues for the opportunity to visit, as Robert Schuman Fellow (2012–2013), and the Migration Policy Centre at the Robert Schuman Centre of Advanced Studies, European University Institute (EUI), Fiesole, Florence, where I had the opportunity to develop this work. The beautiful setting of this university and the excellent work on migration being conducted by leading scholars, such as Philippe Fargues, Anna Triandafyllidou, and Andrew Geddes, among others, at the EUI provided the perfect setting for working on this subject. I thank Prof. Andrew Geddes at the Robert Schuman Centre for Advanced Studies, ix

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Acknowledgements

EUI, for granting permission for the inclusion of material from the two reports that were part of the Carim-India Project at the Migration Policy Centre, EUI (2011–2013). This material is included in Chaps. 3 and 5 in this book. I thank Prof. Gopal Guru, Editor, Economic and Political Weekly, for granting permission to include material from my paper on ‘Imagined and Social Landscapes. Potential Immigrants and the Experience of Migration in Northern Italy’ published in the Economic and Political Weekly, Volume 48, Issue No. 38. (27 September 2013). I am also indebted to Routledge, Taylor and Francis for granting permission for the use of material in Chaps. 4 and 5. I thank my dear friends Stefano Gandolfi and Chiara Scavia of Rete Intercultura, Fidenza, for their invaluable help in organizing meetings with a vast crosssection of respondents in Emilia-Romagna and Lombardy. Their continued friendship and support have sustained this project in more ways than one. I am grateful to Prof. Maitrayee Deka for her assistance in fieldwork in Italy and in India in 2010, and for her warm friendship over the years. I also thank Profs. Kristina Myrvold, Laura Hirvi, and Knut Jacobsen for inviting me to the excellent conference on Young Sikhs in a Global World in Lund in 2013 where I learned a great deal about Punjabi and Sikh migrants in Europe. In particular, conversations with Dr. Barbara Bertolani, and her work on the subject, have enriched my understanding of Sikhism in Italy and the relationship between migrants, religion, and the state. I am grateful to Profs. Deborah Reed-Danahay, Sabrina Marchetti, Kathryn Lum, and other participants at the Migration Policy Centre workshop (at the EUI) on ‘Understanding Migration, Integration and Cultural Policy in Europe’ on December 10, 2012, for their insightful comments and feedback, which have helped in the revision of this work. I also thank participants, for their comments, at workshops at the University of Rouen, France; Martin Chautari, Nepal; Department of Sociology, University of Delhi; Robert Schuman Centre at the European University Institute, Fiesole; Rajiv Gandhi Institute of National Development, Sreeperumbudur; and National Institute of Advanced Studies, Bengaluru, where earlier versions of this work have been presented. I must acknowledge the generosity of the Centre d’etudes—Inde/Asie du Sud, at the L’Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales, in granting access to the library GED at Campus Condorcet, Paris, in May 2022. I am particularly grateful to Prof. Loraine Kennedy who helped me gain access and to Dr. Emanuela Garatti who provided unstinting assistance in finding books and articles in this very new space. Friends Sally Anderson, Barbara Bertolani, Ester Gallo, Paola Rebughini, Chinmay Tumbe, Karen Valentin, and other scholars have been partners in this journey of understanding migration and its consequences. The work of the late Abdelmalek Sayad, whom I had the good fortune to meet at the Centre of European Sociology at the Ecoles des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales, Paris, in 1989, has been particularly insightful. I thank all of them for their scholarship and insights that have influenced my own understanding and taken me forward in my work.

Acknowledgements

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At Rishi Valley, I have received support and assistance for the finalisation of the manuscript from Santhi Narasimhan to whom I am indebted. At home, I remain ever grateful to George for his untiring patience, enduring affection, and much, much more. Rishi Valley, India September 2023

Meenakshi Thapan

Contents

1 Introduction: Migration and Food Production in Emilia-Romagna . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1.1 Intent of this Study . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1.2 The Context for Emigration: Punjab, India . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1.3 The Context and Setting: Emilia-Romagna, Italy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1.4 Making Parmesan Cheese in Emilia-Romagna . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1.5 The Field: Emilia-Romagna . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1.6 Fidenza and its Environs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1.7 Methodology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

1 2 5 10 15 19 22 25 29

2 Migration, Transnationalism, Culture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2.1 Dialectics between the Nation-State and Immigrants . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2.2 State Policies and their Impact on the Flow of Migrants . . . . . . . . . . 2.3 Transnational Mobility and Transnationalism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2.4 Gender Relations in Migration: Hybridity and Agency . . . . . . . . . . . 2.5 The Dynamics of Mobility . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2.6 Imagined Landscapes, Fulfilled Dreams? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2.7 Concluding Comments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

33 34 37 39 48 52 55 62 63

3 Social Isolation, Uncertainty and Change: Women’s Experience of Mobility and its Consequences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3.1 Punjabi Women in Emilia-Romagna . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3.2 ‘Doobta dil’ (sinking hearts): Strategising to Cross the Divide . . . . 3.3 ‘Kuchh kho gaya hai’ (something is lost): Young Girls and Social Exclusion in High School . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3.4 Difficult Circumstances, Changing Contexts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3.5 Concluding Comments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

69 71 73 80 82 84 86

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Contents

4 The Dilemmas of being Young and an Immigrant: Family, Belonging and Freedom . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89 4.1 Youth, the Family, and the Experience of Double Exclusion . . . . . . 90 4.2 Absent Spouse: The Intensity of Familial Separation and Loss . . . . 99 4.3 Freedom and Familial Loss: ‘Mujhe azadi se bahut pyar hai’ (I have a deep love for independence) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102 4.4 Concluding Comments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104 References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105 5 Pathways of Integration: Individual and Collective Strategies for ‘Co-integration’ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.1 Complexities and Paradoxes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.2 Italy is like a ‘meethi (sweet) jail’ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.3 Building Cosmopolitan Sociability through Religious Institutions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.4 A Fractured Social Fabric: the Migrant as a Soulless Inmate . . . . . . 5.5 Concluding Comments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

107 111 114 122 133 134 136

Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139

About the Author

Dr. Meenakshi Thapan is a trustee of the Krishnamurti Foundation of India and currently the Director of Rishi Valley Education Centre in rural Andhra Pradesh. She has earlier taught briefly at the Rishi Valley School and later conducted her doctoral field research within this school community, resulting in the publication of her first book, Life at School: An Ethnographic Study (Oxford University Press, 1991, 2006). Subsequently, she has been a highly accomplished academician, based at the University of Delhi, both in the Department of Education and later at the Department of Sociology, Delhi School of Economics. She has travelled widely, teaching, speaking and contributing to university departments all over the world. She is the recipient of a number of prestigious awards, apart from being the author of numerous books, research papers and articles in several prominent publications. She was series editor of a five volume series on Women and Migration in Asia (SAGE, 2005–2008) and is currently series editor of Education and Society in South Asia (Oxford University Press, 2018–ongoing). Prior to joining Rishi Valley Education Centre in 2019 as its Director, Dr. Thapan held the positions of Professor of Sociology and Director, Delhi School of Economics as well as Head of the D. S. Kothari Centre for Science, Ethics and Education at the University of Delhi.

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List of Figures

Fig. 1.1 Fig. 1.2 Fig. 1.3 Fig. 1.4 Fig. 1.5 Fig. 1.6 Fig. 1.7 Fig. 1.8

Map of India Indicating Punjab . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Districts in the State of Punjab (India) Prone to Irregular Emigration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Immigrants Residing in Italy on 1 January, 2023. Period 2010–2022. Values in Thousands . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Distribution of the Indian Population Legally Residing in Northern and Central Italy. Data as of 1 January, 2021 . . . . . . . . Indian Workers in Different Sectors of Economic Activity in Italy. Data as of 1 January, 2021 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Immigrants from India by Gender in Emilia-Romagna 2014–2021 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Location of Fidenza and its Environs, Emilia-Romagna . . . . . . . . . Immigrants from India by Gender in Fidenza 2014–2021 . . . . . . . .

6 8 12 16 19 22 22 25

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List of Tables

Table 1.1 Table 1.2 Table 1.3 Table 1.4 Table 1.5 Table 1.6 Table 1.7 Table 1.8

Destinations of Migrant Members of MHs in Rural Punjab (in %) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Protected Designation of Origin (PDO) Cheese Production in Emilia-Romagna (2021) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Distribution of Indian Population per Region (1.1.2021) . . . . . . . . Classification of the Provinces of Emilia-Romagna sorted by number of Indian Residents (1.1.2021) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Growth of Indian Migrants in Emilia-Romagna (2014–2021) . . . Indian Migrants in relation to Foreigners in Fidenza District (1.1.2021) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Indian Migrants in Fidenza District (2014–2021) . . . . . . . . . . . . . Indian Migrants by Gender in Fidenza District . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

9 18 20 21 21 23 24 25

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Chapter 1

Introduction: Migration and Food Production in Emilia-Romagna

Working on migration,1 I have been fascinated by the movement in the South Asian region of Punjabi Hindu and Muslim populations from Pakistan to India and vice versa, of Bengalis from the region now known as Bangladesh to Assam and other regions, of workers from Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand, and from Kerala to other parts of India, and indeed the world. Several works have documented these transitions and travels, with their accompanying highlights and travails, in some detail.2 These movements have largely taken place voluntarily except for Partition of India in 1947 that has been the largest mass movement in the region based on a forced decision in the particular circumstances that prevailed at the time.3 More recently, migrant workers within India faced a devastating situation due to the Covid19 pandemic, and the subsequent lockdown of the county, when they were forced to return from urban spaces to their villages and home towns, often walking long distances. This has been the most recent repetition of a phenomenon considered by many similar to the mass movement at Partition.4 More intimate to my personal experience, my mother was born in the small village of Melowal, in Sialkot district, Punjab, now in Pakistan. It was a Sikh populated village in large measure. As her mother passed away twenty-two days after giving birth to her, she was brought up for the first seven years of her life in Patiala in Punjab by her father’s sister. She then went to Lahore, now in Pakistan, to study at Queen Mary’s boarding school. With Partition, she moved back to India with her father, and the rest of the family, and completed her schooling at the same school, later in old Delhi. When she married my father, who served in the Indian Army, she moved 1

Thapan (2005), Thapan et al. (2016). See for example Irudaya Rajan (2011, 2016, 2017), Mishra (2016). 3 In this context, see Talbot and Singh (2009), Butalia (2015), Mahn and Murphy (2018) for some studies of Partition and its aftermath. 4 For excellent nuanced analyses of the impact of Covid-19 on internal migrants in India, see for example, Irudaya Rajan et al. (2020), Khanna (2020), Bhagat et al. (2020), and most recently, Nizam et al. (2022). 2

© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2023 M. Thapan, Work, Family and Integration, Migration, Minorities and Modernity 6, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-99-5581-7_1

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1 Introduction: Migration and Food Production in Emilia-Romagna

from town to town with him, wherever his assignments took him. After setting down in a rural area close to what is now known as Gurugram, near Delhi, and living in Delhi, she finally moved to the Philippines, to live with my brother, and spent the last nine years of her life there. Her life reflects continuous movement from one region to another, within the same region, within a nation, sometimes she travelled to the peripheries of the country, at other times, to the deep interiors, and finally, moving outside the country. She was not a migrant but her story of movement is representative of human life. We often move because of circumstances, but we also move because we make a choice to move for better livelihood opportunities, as do the migrants within India, in search of employment, better education for their children, or for lifestyle choices. It is well known that emigrants from the Punjab with little means often sell their land, or pawn their jewellery, to move out of the country in whatever manner, through proper channels, or irregular means, in search of the ever elusive wealth that they imagine awaits them.

1.1 Intent of this Study This work examines the social and cultural factors that influence immigration by Indians (primarily from Punjab) to northern Italy and their lived experience there. Potential emigrants and their aspirations that shape migration are an aspect of the study. Possible and prevalent outcomes of such immigration is also the basis of analysis. These are not isolated or disconnected factors, and the relationship between aspirations, immigration and its outcomes are all linked, most significantly, with economic factors that drive the immigration in the first place. There is an imagined future to which the potential migrant aspires and which cannot be brushed aside as the mere imagined landscapes of the desperate immigrant’s mind. The degradations and miseries that have been brought about in different parts of the world by a form of ‘predatory capitalism’ cannot be wished away or transformed overnight. We inhabit a complicated world, marked by social, economic and political divisions that exclude many of us: ‘we have to learn and become able to dream other dreams’ (Stengers, 2003, as cited in Pine, 2014: S96). No doubt we make the world and we need to fight for the kind of world we wish to inhabit. This involves the aspiration for change through mobility, primarily for economic gain and better livelihood opportunities. Most studies of migration concentrating on the experiences of the immigrants tend to highlight the cultural and social factors which are important in the migrants’ lives but which are grounded primarily on economic aspects. Van Hear (2019) argues that we must give the socio-economic characteristics of migration more importance than they have been given in the literature on diasporas, for example, which has focused more on cultural aspects and on identity. International migration is not for the very poor and ‘there is a hierarchy of destinations that can be reached by migrants, according to the resources—economic and network-based—that they can call upon’ (2019: 129). Undoubtedly, social class remains very important to the trajectory that a migrant takes on his or her migration journey. Simultaneously, economic factors drive

1.1 Intent of this Study

3

the migration: why do immigrants seek out migration? It is primarily for economic reasons, to better their life chances and especially, those of their children. Why do they find it relatively easy to find employment for example in the farming and service sector in northern Italy? Perhaps, due to the lack of availability of human resources for certain kinds of work in the destination country merging with the economic aspirations of the incoming migrants. This impels migration and work in the formal or informal labour market and it is important to understand this aspect of labour migration. At the same time, the impact of migration on family life, identity and on other aspects of migrants’ lived experience is also significant to this study. The focus is on both work and identity, two sides of the same coin in the migrant’s experience who is in search of economic upliftment and simultaneously experiences a crisis of identity. Work and identity therefore constitute twin processes of everyday life that influence integration in the host society. The family is central to the migratory project, both within the country of origin as well as in the host society and is therefore central to our understanding of work and identity. ‘Work’ is the nature of work a migrant is able to find in a new country of location. My research is focused on Punjabi workers, largely irregular immigrants in a particular region in Italy, who have found work through family contacts, friends, word of mouth, or sometimes through local ‘agents’. Their lives, their experience, at work and in the family, and their social environment, is the subject of this study that is geared towards an understanding of the lived experience in the context of the prevalent socio-economic reality. This work examines the mobility patterns of these migrants who occupy a niche in the labour market, which not only influences their livelihood preferences but also fuels plans for migration among their families and communities back in Punjab. Mobility is thus an important focus in the context of the work on transnationalism that is central to the discourse on migration. The effort is to unpack the transnational linkages that migrants imagine, experience and endure, not only in the context of the materiality of livelihood opportunities and income generation in Italy but also through affect as potential immigrants, and then as migrants, in a territorial and imagined space. At the same time, the work seeks to develop an understanding of issues around the hybrid or mixed identity that second generation Indian youth experience. I seek to understand the fraught experience of being migrant, young and belonging to several cultures at the same time. It is about the quest for freedom and independence that underlies the aspirations of Indian (largely Sikh and Punjabi) youth in northern Italy who simultaneously seek belonging and integration both into the family and into the Italian social landscape. The family provides emotional sustenance, security and well-being in an alien space. It is simultaneously the source of difference and inequality. In that sense, the family is a constraining inasmuch as it is an enabling agency. This often results in an anxiety-ridden and complex situation. Youth, especially young women, seek to rebel against, and desire and pursue autonomy and independence and yet, assert their need for immersion in familial life. Uncertainties and anxieties about identity (or its loss) fuel a reassertion of cultural tropes that portray identity in marked and vexed ways, notably through the institutions of marriage and religion. This has consequences for Indian women who have mostly

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1 Introduction: Migration and Food Production in Emilia-Romagna

emigrated to Italy through marriage and carry the cultural baggage of patriarchy and gender norms with them into new spaces. The dilemma of social isolation and uncertainty is most starkly understood by migrant women in their fraught experience of being excluded in both the domestic sphere as well as in the social worlds they inhabit. I examine the multiplicity of experience in bounded urban spaces as well as in rural farms in the region. The changes that women experience in their everyday lives, largely through interaction with Italian social workers, medical practitioners and others, lay the grounds for their education in the local language, culture as well as result in movement out of traditional ways of imagining themselves as gendered subjects. In relationships with the majority (or host) community, Indian farmers, and members of their families, seek to build relationships based on trust, friendship and a spirit of egalitarianism. I focus on the individual and collective strategies of civic engagement for forms of integration that seek to move out of ‘subordinate integration’ (Ambrosini, 2001) to more assertive acts of engagement that promise gain, acceptance and recognition in one way or another. I also seek to understand the initiatives by local citizenry as well in the process of integration and the mutual recognition and acceptance of diversity. These experiences are located at the intersection of class, gender and ethnic diversity. The emphasis on lived experience enables a closer understanding of the migrants’ experience in transnational contexts as well as of the processes through which it is enriched, and through which they come to terms with the multidimensional and multilayered experience that is both enabling as it is distressing. Migrants’ experiences are multilayered and are constituted by a condition of heterogeneity. The problematic of heterogeneity is located in multiple situations to bring out the complexity of migration as a social process that cannot be understood under a singular concept or phenomenon. The optic of ‘heterogeneity’ at one level unveils the plurality of definitions that are used to conceptualise migration in the global context. At another level, heterogeneity sums up the experience of migrants in an alien country. Heterogeneity as such is not just a heuristic device to understand ‘transnational’ migration but it somewhere also initiates a subaltern framework that emphasises the gendered, class and ethnic experiences of being a migrant in contemporary Europe. Heterogeneity is also expressed through the frame of negotiations and strategies used by migrants in the process of finding a place in the social and cultural life of their existence. Negotiation is not taken here as an inevitable unequal compromise but as a process through which a situation is created and through which the migrant assures her own survival. Heterogeneity is a reality for the migrants; it makes the context of the migrant unique in contesting the macro discourse that is officially or unofficially framing them either through policies, laws or through differential cultural practices.

1.2 The Context for Emigration: Punjab, India

5

1.2 The Context for Emigration: Punjab, India The primary concern in this work to understand mobility is to examine migration from the Punjab region in north India to parts of northern Italy, especially the EmiliaRomagna region where they have more or less taken over the making of the world renowned Parmesan cheese. The state of Punjab is located in the northwestern part of India bordering Pakistan (Fig. 1.1). Although many of the Indian migrants may not traditionally be farmers, despite their claims to the contrary, their migration and livelihood goals draw them into this sector of the labour market in Italy. Young Italians no longer view this as valuable work while traditional Italian dairy farmers want to continue the family projects of dairy farming and cheese making. In addition, the Indians’ hard work, commitment and perseverance make them ideal ‘farmers’ for their Italian hosts. Migration out from the Punjab to the developed western countries, Australia and East Africa has been a tradition among the Sikh and Hindu communities in the Punjab.5 The tendency to move is part of the culture of migration that prevails in the communities in this region. Singh and Tatla refer to this as the propensity of Sikhs for example to ‘return’ to their ‘most permanent tradition—that of roaming’ (2006: 33). Other scholars emphasise more recent political and social trends in the Punjab as compelling factors that influence decisions to emigrate. Chopra (2011), for example, discusses the importance of prevailing social and political conditions in Punjab and argues that in Punjab it is difficult to disassociate ‘the urgency to send young men abroad’ from the ‘transformative politics of Khalistan’ (2011: 5). Gallo and Sai (2013) refer to the ‘hurt memory’ of different historical episodes, such as the military storming of the Golden temple in Amritsar or the riots against the Sikh community in 1984, that is built into the diasporic consciousness of the community around the world. It is also the case that many Sikh youth fled Punjab as Punjab became a ‘battleground for young Sikhs when the central police and other armed forces unleashed anti-Sikh pogroms and, in particular, targeted rural youth in orchestrated encounters’ (Garha & Domingo, 2018: 38). Such episodes no doubt have resulted in the emigration of Sikhs in larger numbers post-1984 but it is not clear whether this is indicative of the breakdown of trust between communities and the memories of hurt and violation or of a culture of migration that influences families to send at least one member out of the home on a migratory project. As Mahipal Singh, now an agent in Milan, tells me: ‘There was a general wish of the family for me to go out. In Punjab in every household, there are family members who go out for better opportunities. It is like a tradition’. An agent suggested that Mahipal should come to Italy. His father himself who was known figure in the community wanted that his sons should do ‘something good’ with their lives. This ‘doing good’ lies essentially in the migratory project on which profound value is placed and which is deeply imbedded in Punjabi culture. 5

See for example the work of Nanda et al. (2022), Singh and Tatla (2006). See Thandi (2012: 13ff) for a concise presentation of the history of migration from Punjab to Europe.

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1 Introduction: Migration and Food Production in Emilia-Romagna

Fig. 1.1 Map of India Indicating Punjab

At one time, Punjab was India’s richest state. It is now 14th in the list of richest states (by Gross Domestic Product [GDP]) in India,6 and is also the source of most of India’s illegal immigration to the West. There are several factors responsible for immigration from Punjab. A recent economic survey (2021) shows Punjab to be among the top five states for highest unemployment figures. In 2018–2019, its unemployment rate was higher than the national average. Punjab recorded 7.4% 6

Source https://www.worldlistmania.com/list-richest-states-by-gdp-india/ (accessed on August 12, 2022).

1.2 The Context for Emigration: Punjab, India

7

unemployment rate (urban and rural) while the all India ratio was 5.8 for the same period. At the same time, the survey mentions that access to the ‘bare necessities’ are very high among Punjab as compared to several other states.7 It is an agricultural state where agriculture is the mainstay of about 50% of the population but the contribution of agriculture in the State Gross Domestic Product (SGDP) decelerated to 28% (in 2016) in which 9% is contributed by dairy—the main subsidiary occupation with agriculture. This explains the enormous gap between farm and non-farm income (Chinna, 2016). Based on National Sample Survey Organisation (NSSO) and the Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS) data for or the period 2004–2005 to 2017– 2018, Satinder Singh and Jatinder Singh (2022) argue that ‘the employment avenues generated by non-farm sectors (industry and services) during the reference period remained insufficient to absorb the workforce leaving agriculture sector’. This has resulted in an enormous loss of employment opportunities, which primarily affected youth in the state. Undoubtedly, families in the agricultural sector are most affected by unemployment and seek out emigration as a solution. The education scenario at the school level has also been somewhat bleak in Punjab with high dropout figures for children in elementary and secondary schools. In 2002– 2003, the combined dropout figure for primary, middle, and senior secondary schools was almost 48.10% (Aggarwal & La China, n.d.). According to the last all India school education survey (in 2009) by the National Council of Educational Research and Training, Delhi, girls’ enrolment in rural areas at the primary stage is as low as 46.08%, the lowest in the country. In urban areas, Chandigarh has minimum girls’ enrolment at 45.40%.8 These abysmal figures, albeit only for girls, show us how dire the education scenario is in Punjab. The National Institution for Transforming India (NITI Aayog) prepared a School Education Quality index (SEQI) grounded on categories such as outcomes including learning outcomes based on quality, access outcomes, infrastructure and facilities-based outcomes, and equity outcomes as well as governance processes influencing outcomes.9 Based on the SEQI, NITI Aayog concludes that Punjab is 9 among all states of India on the index, with a score of 59.06. The highest score on the SEQI is with the state of Kerala at 82.17.10 In addition, substance abuse among youth in Punjab is well known and difficult to control. Some estimates claim that over 80% of youth in the age group 15–35 years consume drugs in one form or another.11 Emigration appears to be a strategy that hopes to address all these concerns as familial concerns are a strong push factor among Punjabi and Sikh immigrants from Punjab. 7

Source https://indianexpress.com/article/india/economic-survey-2021-punjab-unemploymentbasic-necessities-7167854/ (accessed on August 12, 2022). 8 Source https://ncert.nic.in/pdf/programmes/AISES/8th_AISES_Concise_Report.pdf (accessed on August 26, 2022). 9 Source http://social.niti.gov.in/education-index (accessed on August 26, 2022). 10 Source http://social.niti.gov.in/edu-new-ranking (accessed on August 26, 2022). 11 A recent four-year study found that ‘heroin was the most abused drug as it was used by 653 (67%) of the participants while 146 (15%) used other opiates’. For further details, see: https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/chandigarh/heroin-most-abused-drug-in-pun jab-finds-four-year-study/articleshow/77363051.cms (accessed on August 26, 2022).

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1 Introduction: Migration and Food Production in Emilia-Romagna

Fig. 1.2 Districts in the State of Punjab (India) Prone to Irregular Emigration. Source Saha 2012 (as cited in Aggarwal & La China, n.d.)

Apart from economic and familial considerations, the prestige attached to migrants because of their wealth bestows them with a status unmatched in the Punjabi community. Going abroad for work, sending money back home, building ostentatious houses in the village, and displaying their wealth through their sartorial choices, jewellery and other forms of striking display add to their status in the community. These factors add to their propensity towards irregular emigration, against all odds (Fig. 1.2). Distinct from the route of regular migration, Indians, particularly from the Punjab, are also a source of irregular emigration to developed countries. As pointed out by Singh et al. (2021) India receives the highest remittances, ‘amounting to U.S.$ 83 billion, which constitute about 2.8% of India’s GDP in 2019’. The state of Kerala has the highest share of remittances (40%) followed by Punjab at 12.7% (Singh et al., 2021: 2). This propels aspirations for greater wealth among the local population in Punjab and is another impetus for emigration. Irregular immigration is used when legal routes fail or potential migrants are ineligible for them. Attempts for illegal immigration are supported by a strong network of family and fellow community members across Europe, and this has intensified the aspirations of successive generations to leave their villages in Punjab for greener pastures elsewhere. The illegal exodus to Europe started in the 1990s with the large scale emigration of unskilled labour (Garha, 2020a). According to some estimates, approximately ‘20,000 youths from Punjab attempt irregular migration annually. About 84% of irregular migrants

1.2 The Context for Emigration: Punjab, India Table 1.1 Destinations of Migrant Members of MHs in Rural Punjab (in %)

9

Particulars

Overall

FHs

European countries

57.1

56.3

NFHs 58.3

Arabian countries

17.9

12.5

25.0

Southeast Asian countries

10.7

15.6

4.2

Canada

5.4

9.4

0.0

U.S.A.

3.6

3.1

4.2

Multiple

5.4

3.1

8.3

Note MHs (Migrant Households), FHs (Farm Households), NHs (Non-Farm Households) Source Singh et al. (2021: 7)

belong to the rural areas, while urban areas constitute only about 16%’ (Singh et al., 2021: 3). Irregular migration is well organised and has very efficient international illegal networks spread out in countries of origin, transit and destination. In her report on illegal immigration by Indians, Nicola Smith notes, that in Italy, ‘unauthorized Indian migrants were about 30% of the total estimated Indian population of 170,000 in 2012’ (2014). One such irregular method includes ‘donkey flights’ by which potential migrants managed to obtain a tourist visa for a Schengen-zone country in order to enter the United Kingdom through nefarious means (Smith, 2014).12 There is no doubt that irregular immigration has been rampant in Punjab as between 2002 and 2011 alone, there were 6000 criminal cases registered on the complaint of potential migrants or their family members (Singh et al., 2021: 2). There is often a relationship between the agents and employers in the country of destination, as my sources also indicate, working against immigrants and often resulting in dire circumstances for them once they arrive in the so-called ‘promised’ land. In an excellent study of migrant households in Punjab from the districts where irregular migration is most prevalent, Singh et al. (2021) observe that the highest rate of irregular migration is to European countries. See Table 1.1. The routes and destinations in Europe are apparently more porous and hence easier to access whereas Canada and USA have tighter immigration controls in place although the route through Mexico remains one for irregular immigration from Punjab into the US. Apart from the economic, familial and status reasons earlier mentioned as the main causes for emigration, Singh et al. also point to the inability of potential migrants to qualify in language tests which is compulsorily required for migration to developed countries. This appears to be the prime reason for irregular immigration in 71% of the surveyed households (Singh et al., 2021: 8).13 It is important to note however that once irregular migrants enter the country 12

The term ‘donkey flights’ is a Punjabi idiom implying hopping from place to place. It is possible that immigrants would apply for a tourist visa to a European country and then ‘leap-frog’ into the UK (Smith, 2014). 13 Singh et al.’s nuanced study (2021) further concludes that it is not only the young unmarried men who take this route of irregular migration but also older married men who do so. Moreover, it

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1 Introduction: Migration and Food Production in Emilia-Romagna

of destination, they are usually absorbed into the informal labour market, albeit working with lower wages and longer working hours. They have, however, been able to realise their dream of being an immigrant, employed, and very shortly, in a position to send remittances home. Once they settle down, and attain a measure of prosperity, they invite their family members under reunification laws and also attain legal status through the amnesty programmes that may be conducted from time to time, especially in the case of Italy.

1.3 The Context and Setting: Emilia-Romagna, Italy A study of migration to Europe from the countries under the Colombo process indicates that a significant increase took place in the decade 2000–2009. It has in fact been suggested that three European Union (EU) sub-regions have gained in prominence in their ability to attract migrants from the Asian region: Northern Europe, mainly Finland and Sweden, Mediterranean countries: Portugal, Spain and Italy and the Czech Republic and Poland as well (Platonova & Urso, 2011). Italy appears to be the main destination for migrants from the Philippines and India. Furthermore, the primary reasons for Asians to obtain the first permit in the European Union in 2010 were education and work. Three tracks have been delineated: ‘(1) nationals of Pakistan and Vietnam come more than others for family reunification; (2) immigrants from China and Korea come for educational reasons; and (3) while Indians and Filipinos primarily arrive for employment’ (Platonova & Urso, 2013: 147–148). This clearly points to the need for economic gains through livelihood opportunities among Indian immigrants in Europe. While such studies point to the preponderance of Asian migrants in Europe, there is a sharp distinction between the highly skilled and professional migrants and others with low skills. While the high-skilled and professional migrants have been welcomed in the developing countries of the west and Australia, it is in the Gulf region and in Malaysia and other countries in eastern Asia that migrants with low skills have been accepted with considerable ease and regularity in the 1980s and 1990s. The history of immigration in Italy, it has been suggested, may be divided in two parts. The first phase is linked to the first development of the phenomenon, and was marked by ‘an atmosphere of emergency’ as Italy was unprepared for the inflow of people. The second phase is characterised by ‘the propensity to create a stable system and by a strong need of social and political cooperation’ (EMN, 2012: 16). This aim has not yet been realised. At the same time, there is an increasingly large influx of immigrants from EU and other non-EU countries into Italy: ‘The number of immigrants (both EU and third-country nationals) reached half a million in 1987. Ten years later, they were over one million. In the following years the number of is rampant largely among the uneducated, less skilled and unemployed youth of rural Punjab. It is also a ‘forced’ route for many migrants who fail to make the cut through regular channels and this route complements regular channels of migration rather than replacing it.

1.3 The Context and Setting: Emilia-Romagna, Italy

11

immigrants continued to grow: 1.5 million in 2002, 2 million in 2004, 3.5 million in 2006, nearly 5 million in 2010’ (EMN, 2012: 16). This steady influx of immigrants has meant that Italy now has to grapple with the situation and devise ways and means to dealing the ‘problems’ that immigration brings in its wake.14 Figure 1.3 indicates the rising number of immigrants in Italy every year (2010–2022), as compared to the declining citizen population. As citizens of the EU freely move about the EU in search of economic opportunities, the playing field in the labour market sends out different messages to citizens from outside the EU. There are limited mobility opportunities for them and they ‘may enter on the basis of economic migration (managed migration), family reunion and on humanitarian grounds’ (Biffl, 2012: 1). Costs of integration include such special measures for integration as in schools, the labour market (for example, education and training), and in already pressurised areas such as housing, health care and welfare services (Biffl, 2012: 1). Such concerns are in addition to the existing negative attitudes and stereotypes prevalent among native populations towards third country nationals that do not allow easy routes towards integration. As a consequence of such policies, and the over emphasis on high-skilled immigration, most low-skilled migrants seek to enter the informal economy through insertion into the lowest segments of the economy. It is argued that low-skilled migration has a ‘long tradition’ in Europe going back to the guest-worker migration of the 1960s and 1970s, followed by chain migration and family reunion. In the 1980s and 1990s, large numbers of refugees, with low educational levels, followed (OECD, 2008 as cited by Biffl, 2012: 6). It is significant that the countries of southern Europe, late destinations for migrants, have the largest share of unskilled migrants: 70% of Portugal’s workforce is unskilled, followed by Spain at 48.5%, Italy at 45.7% and Greece at 38.8% (Biffl, 2012: 6). Migration policy in these countries has therefore tended to be more open to this category of migrants due to the demand for them in sectors of the economy that are hard pressed for native workers. It has in fact been pointed out that since the 1980s, the principle of the ‘economic legitimation of immigration’ which views immigrants primarily as ‘economic factors, with relatively little regard for social and humanitarian considerations’ has been followed in Italy (Caponio & Graziano, 2011: 106). According to Caritas and Migrantes (2008), the employment rate for foreign immigrants in Italy was 67.1% whereas it was 58.1% for Italians. At the same time, the unemployment rate was 5.9% for Italians with 8.3% for foreign citizens (Caritas & Migrantes, 2008: 105). Immigrants in Italy in 2012 were unemployed at 12.1%, four points higher than Italian citizens (Caritas & Migrantes, 2012). ISTAT data from the Labor Force Survey indicate that the unemployment rate among foreigners residing in Italy is still particularly high in 2021 (14.4%), 5.4 percentage points higher than that recorded among Italians (9.0%). In the first quarter of 2022, the unemployment rate of foreigners fell to 14.0% (Caritas & Migrantes, 2022). The situation has deteriorated over the past two years perhaps due to the Covid-19 pandemic. 14

For a nuanced understanding of Italy’s evolving migration state capacity until recent times, see Mickinski (2022).

Fig. 1.3 Immigrants Residing in Italy on 1 January, 2023. Period 2010–2022. Values in Thousands. Source Processing Applications Data Science—Studies and Research Department of ANPAL Services on EUROSTAT (Population) and ISTAT (Indicators demographics) (Ministry of Labour and Social Policies, 2022)

12 1 Introduction: Migration and Food Production in Emilia-Romagna

1.3 The Context and Setting: Emilia-Romagna, Italy

13

In Italy, although the entry of labour migrants has largely been unauthorised in most cases, they fill in job shortages in large numbers. It is an undisputed fact that immigrants are essential to the survival of the Italian economy primarily due to the low birth rates and the apprehensions about meeting the social security demands of meeting a rapidly ageing population (Calavita, 2005: 48). As a result, Italy has sought immigration in the past and there are now more than 5.3 million immigrants, including more than 500,000 foreign residents who are in an irregular position (Fondazione ISMU, 2011, as cited by Ambrosini, 2012: 4). Most immigrants to Italy are concentrated in the northern and central regions of the country with the majority of the immigrant population coming from outside the European Union especially Africa, followed by eastern and central Europe. The second largest Asian communities in EU are in Italy with the Indians (145,164) and Pakistani (90,185) (EMN, 2012). There is thus an enormous presence of migrants in Italy, who are viewed by the local population as both being essential in certain sectors of the labour market, such as agriculture, but also as causing grave ‘security’ risks through their infringement on the welfare benefits such as housing, health care and education. These aspects of the migrants’ presence in their midst are fuelled by politicians and their agents who seek to maximise their political gains through a focus on ‘security’ issues which are fictions created for public consumption. The repeated emphasis in the popular media serves to increase fears that the Italian ‘race’ itself is under threat and, along with European culture, may soon be overcome by large and increasing numbers of migrants in Italy and indeed in Europe as a whole (Ambrosini, 2012: 4). In the 1990s and 2000s, there was a codification of the first immigration laws in Italy that has a dual edged character: on the one hand, they allowed migrants the right to education and health service but simultaneously reduced the possibilities for family reunifications and legally penalised individuals who were found to be ‘illegally’ in Italy (Gallo, 2012: 3). The two major legal provisions are the TurcoNapolitano Law (1990) and the Bossi-Fini Law (2002). As a consequence of efforts to control the inflow of immigration, the Bossi-Fini Law is a severely anti-immigrant law that seeks to police and control immigration, with a very negative view of most immigrants (especially irregular immigrants) as criminals and an unnecessary part of Italian society. This law inhibited opportunities for obtaining a residence permit to migrants who already held a regular job in Italy and the possibility of family reunification. This has severely impacted many Sikhs and Punjabi Hindus who may be in an illegal situation if they suddenly lose their job, and are unable to find another, despite being in Italy for more than twenty years. At the same time, Italy has another legal provision Sanatoria that allows a number of migrants, who are on the national territory illegally, to regularise their position and to obtain a residence permit.15 Italy’s generous sanatoria or amnesty programme, based primarily on the 15

As stated on the website, ‘Sanatoria is an extraordinary measure that regularizes foreign people who are in Italy without documents. It’s not done every year but in exceptional cases…In the case of foreigners, regularization means that a person without regular documents obtains a residence permit. This act of regularization is also called ‘amnesty’ (sanatoria)’. https://italiahello.it/en/art icolo/sanatoria-regularization-of-foreign-workers/# (accessed on August 24, 2022).

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1 Introduction: Migration and Food Production in Emilia-Romagna

need for workforce in the lower sectors of the economy, has resulted in several undocumented or irregular immigrants from India to gain acceptance, legitimacy and have access to various welfare programmes. In May 2020, Italy’s Covid-era regularisation scheme for irregular workers was introduced by the Minister for Agriculture, Teresa Bellanova, as part of the ‘Decreto Rilancio’ or ‘Relaunch Decree’—Italy’s economic pathway for responding to the pandemic. The scheme was limited to agriculture, fisheries and livestock, and the domestic and care sectors. The aim was to fill in not only the distressing labour shortages in these sectors but also help prevent the spread of Covid-19 by enabling the workers to have access to more sanitary living conditions, better labour conditions, and public health care facilities (Fox-Ruhs & Ruhs, 2022). However, the scheme was criticised on many grounds, including the temporariness of the relief being provided to the worker who would be once again in the same situation after the expiry of the six-month permit period. There is no doubt a conflict between the political aims of some political parties and the economic needs of the labour market that appears to have resilience and adaptation in the absorption of immigrants especially at the lower ends. This dual approach to immigrants does not augur well for immigrants who are both considered useful in certain slots of the labour market and at the same time, are not welcome in the social and collective spaces that are inhabited by migrants and others in urban and rural territories. However, the traditionally left-wing northern regions of the country have been far more receptive towards all immigrants in general and towards the Indian immigrants who work primarily in the dairy farm sector in the region. There have been no strikes by farmers in Emilia-Romagna, as has been the case in southern Italy, because the dairy sector is economically a more weighty business as compared to the production of food, fruit or vegetables in the south. In northern Italy, farm owners usually provide basic living conditions, good wages, and other benefits to ensure satisfaction to the workers. In a sense, we may conclude that the owners are perhaps more wealthy in the north and provide better work conditions to their employees (Interview with Ferrante, a farm owner). Employment patterns of Indians that prevailed in the 1990s included predominantly those of agriculture (farm labourers), the food processing industry (cattle raising and food production), the tanning industry, circuses (service jobs) and to a much less extent, domestic work and low-skilled services (Bertolani et al., 2011: 135). Most of the farm labourers who originally arrived in the province of Latina in Lazio in the 1980s and 1990s found work in Latina, Rome and Viterbo where the main method of employment was that of ‘undocumented labour’ (Compiani & Quassoli, 2005: 150). They slowly moved upwards with the help of family and kin networks to the regions of Emilia-Romagna and Lombardy where they were offered better work conditions and wages. ‘Secure employment’ in this sector has resulted in Indian immigrants remaining here without seeking to move out towards industry or other services (Bertolani et al., 2011: 136). The strength of their social networks in general has contributed to their upward mobility. In the 2000s, the Indian immigrants have strengthened their position and consolidated their gains and benefitted by the reconstitution of family life, health care, social and other services in the region. The dairy farming sector in the region has come to be increasingly dominated by men

1.4 Making Parmesan Cheese in Emilia-Romagna

15

of Indian origin who are perceived to be good workers with cows. This leads to the conclusion that the ‘productive field’ of dairy farming has resulted in the Indians carving out an ‘ethnic niche’ for themselves, ‘access to which takes place almost exclusively as members of kin-networks’ (Bertolani et al., 2011: 144). Indian immigrants in Italy do not fall into the highly educated category of the population. Garha (2020a, b) finds that 20% of Indian immigrants in Italy were illiterate (in 2011) and almost 40% had an education below the secondary level. At the same time, 62% of the total Indian immigrant population (over 15 years old) was economically active, and only 10% were unemployed and looking for work (Garha, 2020a, b). The availability of low-skilled employment in the north-western part (Lombardy region) resulted in a third of the total number of Indian immigrants in Italy living there (ISTAT, 2016, as cited by Garha, 2020a, b). The second main concentration was in the Emilia-Romagna and Veneto regions in the north-eastern parts of the country. Based on ISTAT data (2021), Fig. 1.4 emphasises these regions as having a high concentration of Indians. Comparatively less Indian immigrants were settled in the Lazio region, in central Italy or in the southern parts of the country (Garha, 2020a, b). All this points to the larger concentration of Indian immigrants in the northern part of the country. In fact, Garha’s work informs us that ‘provinces of Mantua and Cremona, with a very prosperous dairy and cheese industry, also had a significant proportion of Indians in their total immigrant population, i.e. 17.9% and 16.8%, respectively’, followed by Brescia, Bergamo, Vicenza and Parma regions who have a significant proportion of Indian immigrants in their total immigrant population (Garha, 2020a, b). The Punjabi Hindus and Sikh Indians in Emilia-Romagna are therefore the focus of this study.

1.4 Making Parmesan Cheese in Emilia-Romagna Northern Italy is renowned for the making of parmesan cheese. Parmesan is a hard, granular cheese that is typically grated before it releases its aroma and is known as the aristocrat of Italian cheeses. The first written record of Parmigiano dates back to 1200. Recorded history of this celebrated cheese tells us that a notary deed, drawn up in Genoa in 1254, mentions caseus parmensis. It appears that during the fourteenth century, the Benedictine and Cistercian abbeys maintained a monopoly on the production of the already renowned cheese by exporting it throughout Italy, reaching as far as the Mediterranean ports. In 1344, Giovanni Boccaccio writes of ‘parmigiano grattugiato’ (grated parmesan) over ‘maccheroni e raviuoli’ (macaroni and ravioli) in the Decameron, hinting at how this aged cheese might have been used at the time.16 Over the years, Benedictine agricultural and commercial production expanded, bringing Parmigiano also to Modena, a town in Emilia-Romagna. But, from the 16

https://www.consorziovaccherosse.it/en/2016/03/the-history-of-parmesan-cheese-parmigianoreggiano-our-history/ (accessed on August 7, 2022).

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1 Introduction: Migration and Food Production in Emilia-Romagna

Fig. 1.4 Distribution of the Indian Population Legally Residing in Northern and Central Italy. Data as of 1 January, 2021. Source Based on ISTAT data from Ministry of Labour and Social Policies, Italy (2021: 7)

sixteenth century onwards, it was marketed in the whole of Europe. Cheese ‘moulds’ for making it arrived in Germany, France and Flanders, where it is cited by the best chefs of the day. However, a need for safeguarding its production arose alongside its fame. In fact, on 7 August 1612, the Duke of Parma drew up a formal denomination

1.4 Making Parmesan Cheese in Emilia-Romagna

17

of origin, establishing the places which could use ‘Parma’ in their product’s name.17 Only in 2002, though, did the European Court of Justice finally grant it ‘Designation of Origin’ status, making it illegal for anywhere in the world outside the provinces of Parma and Reggio Emilia in the northern Italian region of Emilia-Romagna to use the name ‘Parmigiano-Reggiano’, and its derivative, ‘Parmesan’.18 Genuine Parmigiano-Reggiano is produced in the Emilia-Romagna region: an area of hills and valleys, framed by two rivers, the Po and the Reno, encompassing the provinces of Parma, Reggio Emilia, Modena and part of Bologna and Mantova. The cheese Grano Padano is largely produced in the Lombardy region.19 The connection between the cheese and the land where it is produced is strong: Parmigiano-Reggiano is made today as it was made nine centuries ago, when Benedictine monks began production of the cheese in this area; the maestri casari, the modern-day cheesemakers, continue to use the same ingredients, repeat the same gestures and work with the same passion to craft a product that is a symbol and pride of the Made in Italy brand in the food sector. The only difference is that in the contemporary scenario, Sikh or Punjabi farmers have replaced local Italians working on the farms. The youth unemployment rate in Italy, measuring job seekers between 15 and 24 years old, points to 21.2% in 2022, the lowest since August 2008.20 The employment rate for Indians in Italy is 55.5%, with men at 83.5%, with a 0.5% increase in 2020 over 2019. For Indian women, the employment rate is 15.8%, with a decrease of 0.5% as compared to 2019 figures (Ministry of Labour and Social Policies, Italy, 2021: 17). Despite the high unemployment figures, young Italians are no longer interested in hard manual labour. A senior official in Cremona administration (in Lombardy), Dalido Malaggi, said in an interview, ‘The production of cheese in our region would have had many problems as our youth were not willing to work in farming if it had not been for the presence of Sikhs. It was an occupation which was traditional and typical of northern Italy but with the local workforce dwindling it was fortunate that the Indians came to fill the labour gap and save the cheese making economy’.21 Immigrants from India found a role for themselves in a sector in the economy that Italians do not wish to lose due to high sales in the domestic as well as international market. Apart from domestic consumption, the worldwide export of Grana Padano PDO cheese (second to the celebrated parmesan) and Parmigiano-Reggiano PDO was 104,243 tons in 2021. This is up from 80,616 tons in 2014. Even during the Covid

17

https://www.consorziovaccherosse.it/en/2016/03/the-history-of-parmesan-cheese-parmigianoreggiano-our-history/ (accessed on August 7, 2022). 18 https://caravanmagazine.in/photo-essay/parmesan-goes-indian (accessed on August 7, 2022). 19 Lombardy produces 147.372 tons of Grano Padano cheese as compared to 17.844 tons of Parmigiano Reggiano. https://www.clal.it/en/index.php?section=quadro_lombardia) (accessed on November 18, 2022). 20 Source National Institute of Statistics (ISTAT). From https://tradingeconomics.com/italy/unempl oyment-rate (accessed on August 5, 2022). 21 ‘The Sikh immigrants behind “Italian” cheese’. Film by Journeyman TV. (2015) https://www. youtube.com/watch?v=EyRLuuYWT-Y (accessed on August 10, 2022).

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1 Introduction: Migration and Food Production in Emilia-Romagna

Table 1.2 Protected Designation of Origin (PDO) Cheese Production in Emilia-Romagna (2021) PDO cheese

Production (tons)

Milk used (tons)

Parmigiano Reggiano

147,070

1,874,879

Grana Padano Total Emilia Romagna’s milk deliveries

22,676

309,393

169,747

2,184,272 2,096,654

The quantity of milk used in PDO cheese making was calculated using the average weight of a wheel and the average yield of each cheese Source https://www.clal.it/en/?section=quadro_emiliaromagna (accessed on November 16, 2022)

pandemic years (2019–2020), worldwide exports ranged from 96 to 99 thousand tons (Table 1.2).22 The quantity of milk used in PDO Cheeses produced in Emilia-Romagna is greater than the total deliveries of milk in the region because some dairies in Mantua (Lombardy region) deliver a consistent amount of milk to cheese factories in EmiliaRomagna. Emilia-Romagna produces 16% of Italian milk (Jan–Aug 2022). The economy in the region therefore thrives on the dairying and cheese making sector. Figure 1.5 shows us that Indians are prominent in the agriculture sector in Italy, with 40.3% working in this sector (Ministry of Labour and Social Policies, Italy, 2021: 17). The variation indicates that fewer Indians have moved to the agriculture sector, as indeed in the other sectors, in 2020, as compared to 2019. This could be due to the Covid-19 pandemic which restricted all forms of international travel. As earlier mentioned, the dairy and cheese making farms are preponderant in the region under study with many Indians employed in them across Emilia-Romagna and Lombardy. The fact that the Indian immigrant community has found a niche in the dairy and cheese sector is mainly due to the lack of participation by the Italian labour force. Another important consideration is the prevalent perception by employers of the Indian community, especially Sikhs and Hindus from Punjab: Indians especially Sikhs, it is generally understood, primarily have a farming background, ‘respect’ cows and are hardworking, trustworthy and committed to their work. According to one recent newspaper report, these farmers from Punjab are now the ‘backbone’ of the dairy industry in the region. An Italian employer in fact asserts that the Indians have made this into their ‘casta’ (a form of strong identity) or caste and are fiercely protective of their position in the stronghold of dairy farming in northern Italy. They resent the entry of other migrants, from Morocco, Albania or Senegal, for example, in the industry and often replace workers or allow the entry of new workers only from their own regions in Punjab, thereby perpetuating their hold over the occupation as well as the popular perception about their suitability for the job.

22

Source https://www.statista.com/statistics/544430/volume-of-grana-cheese-export-worldwideitaly/ (accessed on August 11, 2022). For the Lombardy region, see https://www.clal.it/en/index. php?section=quadro_lombardia.

1.5 The Field: Emilia-Romagna

19

Fig. 1.5 Indian Workers in Different Sectors of Economic Activity in Italy. Data as of 1 January, 2021. Source Based on ISTAT data from Ministry of Labour and Social Policies, Italy (2021: 20)

1.5 The Field: Emilia-Romagna Italy has not always been on the destination map for immigrants from India but there has been a significant upward flow in recent years. This is due to the relatively easier entry as compared to other European countries such as Germany and France as well as the several amnesties that have regularised irregular workers. The first migrants, according to Bertolani, ‘arrived in the late 1970s: they were above all “pioneers”, who separately tried the luck with the hope to be able sooner or later to enter UK, Canada or USA. In this period Italy had open frontiers and had no adequate immigration laws; it became above all a transit path, while migratory flows tended to be oriented elsewhere’ (Bertolani, 2013). However, once Indian migrants arrived in Italy, they tended to settle down quickly with the help of familial and kin networks and gained employment in one form or another, often working for low wages to start with. Many of them now view Italy as their final destination.23 There were a total of 165,512 Indian nationals in Italy, 2021 (see Table 1.3). Based on data from the Eurostat website, Italy records the largest increase in first residence permits (2021).24 Among the top 10 citizenships granted permits in the EU in 2021, employment was the main reason for permits issued to Indians (41% of all first residence permits).

23

For a comprehensive review of immigration to Italy in its political and socio-cultural contexts, see Grillo and Pratt (2002). See also Ambrosini (2010), Ambrosini and Caneva (2012). For a consideration of aspects of Punjabi migration to Italy, see Bertolani (2012, 2013, 2015, 2020) and Bertolani et al. (2011). 24 https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/en/web/products-eurostat-news/-/ddn-20220809-2 (accessed on November 17, 2022).

20

1 Introduction: Migration and Food Production in Emilia-Romagna

Table 1.3 provides the break-up of the Indian population in Italy based on 2021 data. The largest number of Indian immigrants in Italy reside in Lombardy followed by Lazio and the Emilia-Romagna regions. Their propensity in this region as well as their main form of employment in the dairy farm industry led to my interest in this particular group that has been a relatively low researched area in Italy. Emilia-Romagna is one of the richest and most advanced regions of Italy with a total population of 4.4 million. There are nine provinces among which falls Parma with a population of 449,628 people. At the end of 1999, 2,830 Indians, of whom 1,159 were women constituted 2.6% of the grand total of non-EU ‘resident foreigners’ in the region of Emilia-Romagna (Italian official statistics, as cited by Grillo & Pratt, 2002: 6). In 2021, the figure has risen to 18,595 of whom 8,265 are women (see Table 1.4).

Table 1.3 Distribution of Indian Population per Region (1.1.2021) Region

Male

Female

Total

%

% on total foreigners

% variation on previous year

1. Lombardia

27,117

22,153

49,270

29.8

4.14

+6.4

2. Lazio

20,703

11,950

32,653

19.7

5.14

+15.8

3. Emilia-Romagna

10,330

8,265

18,595

11.2

3.31

+5.8

4. Veneto

10,156

6,932

17,088

10.3

3.35

+9.3

5. Cantpania

5,456

2,820

8,276

5.0

3.32

+4.0

6. Toscana

3,568

3,286

6,854

4.1

1.61

+6.5 +10.2

7. Piernonte

3,574

2,354

5,928

3.6

1.42

8. Calabria

2,952

1,450

4,402

2.7

4.73

+0.7

9. Puglia

2,857

1,422

4,279

2.6

3.18

+8.6 −1.4

10. Marche

2,148

1,812

3,960

2.4

3.04

11. Friuli Veneeia Giulia

1,597

1,209

2,806

1.7

2.44

+7.6

12. Trentino-Alto Adige

1,656

983

2,639

1.6

2.50

+11.2

13. Liguria

1,147

1,068

2,215

1.3

1.48

+11.9

14. Sicilia

1,125

803

1,928

1.2

1.04

+4.4

973

622

1,595

1.0

1.72

+4.8 −4.4

15. Umbria 16. Basilicata

669

275

944

0.6

4.29

17. Abruzzo

543

389

932

0.6

1.13

+5.9

18. Sardegna

354

242

596

0.4

1.21

+1.0

19. Molise

315

173

488

0.3

4.21

−6.7

36

28

64

0.0

0.76

0.0

97,276

68,236

165,512

3.2

+8.0

20. Valle d’Aosta Total Italy

Source ISTAT data from Ministry of Labour and Social Policies, Italy (2021)

1.5 The Field: Emilia-Romagna

21

In the Emilia-Romagna region (Table 1.4, above), we find the highest Indian population in Reggio Emilia, followed by Parma that includes the town of Fidenza and its surrounding areas. We can see that 25% of the total Indians in Italy are located in the Parma municipality. In addition, Indians in this municipality are almost 7% of all foreigners with an increase of 7.7% from the previous year. This indicates that Indians are drawn to this region primarily due to employment opportunities in the dairy sector. I thus chose to focus on this particular municipality (including Fidenza and its environs) for my research with the Indian immigrant farmer community. In Table 1.5, we find a steady growth of Indian migrants in Emilia-Romagna with a slight dip in 2017 and 2018. This may be due to migrants perhaps moving to other parts of Italy, or some other reason in connection with their employment. In Fig. 1.6, we can see a steady increase in numbers of Indian migrants in recent years as well as a decrease in the gender gap. We now focus on Fidenza district which I selected for my study. Table 1.4 Classification of the Provinces of Emilia-Romagna sorted by number of Indian Residents (1.1.2021) Province

Male

Female

Total

%

% to all foreign

% variation previous year

1. Reggio Emilia (RE)

3,068

2,733

5,801

31.2

8.71

+4.1

2. Parma (PR)

2,631

2,058

4,689

25.2

6.97

+7.7

3. Modena (MO)

1,573

1,238

2,811

15.1

2.94

+1.5

4. Piacenza (PC)

1,426

1,054

2,480

13.3

5.81

+7.9

5. Bologna (BO)

944

645

1,589

8.5

1.26

+8.2

6. Forli-Cesena (FC)

217

166

383

2.1

0.84

+6.7

7. Ferrara (FE)

191

162

353

1.9

1.01

+13.9

8. Ravenna (RA)

173

157

330

1.8

0.72

+1.9

0.9

0.41

+24.2

3.3

+5.8

9. Rimini (RN) Total region

107

52

159

10,330

8265

18,595

Source Processing data from www.tuttitalia.it

Table 1.5 Growth of Indian Migrants in Emilia-Romagna (2014–2021) 2014

2015

2016

2017

2018

2019

2020

2021

Female

7,436

7,596

7,636

7,551

7,442

7,452

7,873

8,265

Male

9,861

9,841

9,817

9,546

9,348

9,318

9,710

10,330

Total

17,297

17,437

17,453

17,097

16,790

16,770

17,583

18,595

Source Processing data from www.tuttitalia.it

22

1 Introduction: Migration and Food Production in Emilia-Romagna

Fig. 1.6 Immigrants from India by Gender in Emilia-Romagna 2014–2021. www.tuttitalia.it

1.6 Fidenza and its Environs Fidenza is a municipality and district in the province of Parma in the Emilia-Romagna region (see Fig. 1.7). The District of Fidenza now includes 11 municipalities: Busseto, Fidenza, Salsomaggiore Terme, Soragna, Fontanellato, Fontevivo, Noceto, San Secondo P.se, Roccabianca, Sissa-Trecasali, Polesine-Zibello. See Table 1.6 for the distribution of Indian migrants in relation to foreigners in the district.

Fig. 1.7 Location of Fidenza and its Environs, Emilia-Romagna. Source https://www.wandering italy.com/images/emilia-romagna-map.png

1.6 Fidenza and its Environs

23

Table 1.6 Indian Migrants in relation to Foreigners in Fidenza District (1.1.2021) Indians

Total foreign

%

Busseto

532

964

55.19

Fidenza

361

4,076

8.86

48

2,906

1.65

Soragna

183

556

32.91

Fontanellato

139

949

14.65

Fontevivo

114

893

12.77

Noceto

112

1,359

8.24

San Secondo P.se

120

752

15.96

Roccabianca

140

385

36.36

Sissa-Trecasali

144

854

16.86

194

438

44.29

2,087

14,132

14.77

Salsomaggiore Terme

Polesine-Zibello Total district

Source Processing from data in www.tuttitalia.it

Fidenza district is well known for the large number of dairy farms and in 2021, the Indian population constituted the second largest segment of the non-EU ‘stranieri’ (the absolute largest would be of Romanian origin with 2,248 people) population in Fidenza district: i.e. 2,087 Indians out of a total of 14,132 foreign persons, of whom 938 are women (www.tuttitalia.it). In 2004, there were only 589 people of Indian origin in the district, moving to 1,082 in 2008 and to 1,725 in 2012 (www. tuttitalia.it). This high growth is a result of movement due to strong kin networks and the proclivity of Indian immigrants to help in the employment and migration strategies of kin (see Table 1.7 and Fig. 1.8). Most of the men are employed in the dairy sector. There are around 350 factories in the provinces producing parmesan cheese and approximately 3000 dairy farms provide milk to these factories. There are around 1000 farms in Emilia-Romagna that have up to 150 cows and hire at least one Punjabi migrant each for milking the cows (Source Interview with Ferrante, a dairy farm owner). Women immigrants show a lower level of mobility as compared to men and this is due to their mobility being linked to family reunification, which necessarily allows for a gap in the movement of men (who generally come first), followed by women (Table 1.8).

2014

56

19

54

24

45

38

85

Fontevivo

Noceto

San Secondo

Roccabianca

Sissa-Trecasali

Polesine-Zibello

1776

997

109

51

76

31

77

796

84

44

46

27

48

26

78

79

17

107

240

Source Processing data from www.tuttitalia.it

Tot. Indians

779

42

80

Fontanellato

95

87

17

13

151

292

Soragna

108

Salsomaggioie T.

226

Fidenza

Tot. district

2015

2016

2017

2018

2019

2020

2021

1803

1007

100

59

59

45

69

47

80

86

19

139

304

838

82

51

54

26

60

23

71

83

18

107

263

1852

1014

96

66

58

51

70

49

82

86

20

145

291

815

88

49

47

29

49

31

64

78

16

123

241

1776

961

93

70

49

54

50

49

75

84

13

152

272

816

85

54

51

28

46

35

65

78

18

127

229

1769

953

80

72

52

51

52

58

78

87

16

157

250

847

86

64

53

40

51

35

58

88

18

127

227

1824

977

91

79

60

61

56

51

72

88

17

166

236

919

97

59

64

52

49

39

68

91

19

144

237

1971

1052

99

85

66

59

58

50

83

87

24

194

247

938

93

58

66

52

50

48

63

86

20

161

241

2087

1149

101

86

74

68

62

66

76

97

28

200

291

Female Male Female Male Female Male Female Male Female Male Female Male Female Male Female Male

Busseto

Fidenza district

Table 1.7 Indian Migrants in Fidenza District (2014–2021)

24 1 Introduction: Migration and Food Production in Emilia-Romagna

1.7 Methodology 1,400 1,200 1,000 800 600 400 200 0

25

female male

1

2014

2

2015

3

2016

4

5

2017

2018

6

2019

7

2020

8

2021

Fig. 1.8 Immigrants from India by Gender in Fidenza 2014–2021. Source Processing data from www.tuttitalia.it Table 1.8 Indian Migrants by Gender in Fidenza District 2014

2015

2016

2017

2018

2019

2020

2021

Female

779

796

838

815

816

847

919

938

Male

997

1,007

1,014

961

953

977

1,052

1,149

Total

1,776

1,803

1,852

1,776

1,769

1,824

1,971

2,087

Source Processing data from www.tuttitalia.it

1.7 Methodology In Europe, Italy is third, after Germany and the UK, for the number of migrants present in the country. According to an immigration report by Caritas and Migrantes (2019), around 5.3 million foreign citizens legally reside in the country, almost nine per cent of the overall resident population. Over half of foreign residents in Italy live in the country’s north (57.5%), followed by central Italy (25.4%) and the south (roughly 12%). Of the almost 56% who live in the north, the region of EmiliaRomagna has 547, 537, or 12.3% of the total population, the highest concentration among all regions.25 This fact is essential to my choice of region for this study. I was also fascinated by the location of so many Indians, primarily from Punjab, working in dairy farms in this region. In addition, I was fortunate to contact two Italians working with a cultural organisation, Rete Intercultura, that at the time of fieldwork, actively worked for the integration of immigrants in the larger community in Fidenza in Emilia-Romagna. They helped me locate and meet many Indian farmers in the region, their families, as well as visit different places and educational settings in the region. My close connections to these two Italian activists, who were closely working with immigrants from different nations, was very helpful in having an overall perspective on migrants in the region. In addition, their positive presence and camaraderie with immigrants in the field enabled me to gain easy access to 25

https://www.caritas.it/pls/caritasitaliana/V3_S2EW_CONSULTAZIONE.mostra_pagina?id_ pagina=8406&rifi=guest&rifp=guest (accessed on August 19, 2022).

26

1 Introduction: Migration and Food Production in Emilia-Romagna

Punjabi farmers and their families. Italian professionals working with Indian immigrants in different social service sectors were also approached by these two friends for interviews and discussions on different and sometimes rather complex issues. Fieldwork was conducted in Italy between 2009 and 2013 and continued in an online mode until December 2022.26 Immigrants of Indian origin in and around Fidenza and Parma in northern Italy were selected for this study according to location, gender, social class, age and educational background.27 Pseudonyms have been used for all interviewees. Almost all those Indians who were interviewed for this study have minimal education and work experience prior to their immigration to Italy through other countries in Europe. They have a variety of stories of entry, the difficult and arduous journey, the lack of financial resources, the exploitative and greedy ‘agents’ who arrange for their documents for large sums of money, and always, a life of struggle and enormous strain bordering on despair and loneliness, especially for the women, very few of whom are employed outside the home. I was very absorbed in their narratives and often felt that I was part of the story being told because it was so intimate to their experience. I uncovered the personal stories of loss and belonging, and the arduous journeys undertaken by many of these farmers to reach Italy, including being duped by agents, both Indians and Italians, depicting the physical crossing of borders in imagination and through affect. I could totally empathise with them about their situation and their need for better livelihood opportunities in Fidenza than what was available back home. The social isolation faced by the homebound Punjabi woman was the most poignant and difficult to comprehend as many of these women appeared to be strong in their belief of what they could do for their children. Sometimes, they wept in my presence because of their inabilities to integrate with the host population, or their difficult domestic situations, or their lack of engagement with the world outside their windows. In my earlier visits to the region in 2010–2011, the situation was particularly fraught for women who could not speak Italian and wanted to keep a cautious distance from the host community. However, recent online interviews with younger and slightly better educated Punjabi women suggest a different side to the story. These young women, many of them who have grown up in Italy, or are newly arrived from India, have ambitious ideas and visual their future without fear or prejudice towards others in the larger fabric of their social lives in Fidenza. Fidenza, and its surroundings, was especially focussed on as it is well known for the large number of dairy farms where Indians are employed in large numbers. Those with very little formal education are employed in the agriculture sector, primarily dairy farms, slaughterhouses, and small factories in the largely rural and small towns of Emilia-Romagna. They have lived in Europe for between 15 and 25 years depending on the trajectories for migration undertaken by them. I met and 26

The collected material is part of Work Package 3 on Migrants and Borders in the EU FP7 EuroBroadMap project 2009–2011 funded by the European Union. Funding from the European Studies Programme at the University of Delhi (2010–2012) enabled me to conduct fieldwork in Italy and complete the work. I remain indebted to both. 27 Immigrants of Indian origin who are entrepreneurs, engineers, lawyers and other highly skilled professionals were also interviewed but do not constitute the category of immigrants that substantiate the analysis in this work.

1.7 Methodology

27

interviewed 30 men between the ages of 35 and 60. Interviews and focus group discussions were also conducted with 50 school going students (aged 15–18 years) and other youth (18–21 years). I met several women as well: some were engaged in factories, or in laundries, or working in small boutiques or shops. Most were homemakers and unemployed. I made several visits to the region of a week to two–three weeks each time, spending every day meeting a cross section of the Indian farm worker community, NGOs working with immigrant populations, immigrant associations, employers, school teachers and administrators, students of Indian origin, both boys and girls, and women at home, in the Sikh gurudwara and Hindu temples. Interviewees in high schools and vocational/training schools were selected on the basis of the school to which I was able to gain entry in different towns. I also interviewed a young woman in Vicenza who runs the only non-formal organisation I encountered for the welfare of Indian women. In addition, I met and interviewed more than 40 Italian people including social workers, teachers, doctors, employers, trade union officials, police officials, members of local governments, church functionaries, translators, cultural mediators, NGOs of different kinds and others. For the work on potential migrants in India, fieldwork was conducted at different sites in Delhi. The variety of sites in Delhi for meeting and interviewing potential immigrants, such as embassies, visa centres, language schools, university cafes and other spaces in Delhi University, were selected in order to identify two clear subcategories among those youth (between the ages of 17–25) who seek to emigrate: those seeking better life-chances and those seeking higher education. Those seeking better opportunities belonged to small towns and rural regions in Punjab and Rajasthan, while those in search of higher education in Europe are from different parts of urban India enrolled at the time in language schools at the University of Delhi, Jawaharlal Nehru University and private language schools in New Delhi. This fieldwork is based on the premise that a disparate group of 27 potential migrants constitute a category based on their initial impetus to seek to emigrate out from India for educational and for livelihood opportunities in the same way as 50 immigrants of Indian origin in northern Italy constitute a category for analysis. The category of potential migrants is hugely diverse, from different parts of India, rural/urban, well-educated/less educated, men/women, university students/ low-skilled labour, skilled and educated job hunters, and dependent women seeking migration with partners. What is common to the potential migrants under study is the fact that they have shared aspirations: to seek a transformation in their lives. The category of immigrants of Indian origin in northern Italy is also a heterogeneous group of men and women both in terms of their background and their experience. The two categories are however disparate in terms of their positions in both the country of origin as well as in the destination country because of their markedly differing characteristics: potential migrants are those who are yet only aspirants to the status of the immigrant, awaiting their visa and other travel documents, or part of an educational system that may open up opportunities for them to seek out travel to Europe. Their legal status is ensured as they are still in the country of origin and they are not outsiders in alien contexts. Immigrants of Indian origin in Italy, on the other hand,

28

1 Introduction: Migration and Food Production in Emilia-Romagna

are often uncertain about their legal status, about forms of available employment, and have a particular lived experience of being the ‘other’ in an alien context. My own position as an Indian woman professor no doubt enabled me to access different worlds with relative ease: I was able to interview Indian men and women in Punjabi and Hindi as well as interview Italians, many of whom spoke English or with the help of an interpreter. At first, the Punjabi community was suspicious, asking me if I had been sent by the government of India to understand their problems and help in their resolution. Or perhaps, they asked, I was working for the Italian government. They were eager to know my position on their situation in both Punjab and in Italy, and I assured them of my sympathetic ear to their problems. They spoke to me with no restraint once they understood that I did not represent any official category of personnel and I was able to attain a similar comfort level with the Italians I met. The themes that emerged from our conversations focused on the Punjabi men’s lived experience as migrants, on their engagement with work and their employers and with the family in Punjab. Their focus was primarily on their economic projects as workers who sought the best opportunities for their children, more than other members of the family, including the women in the household. Their circuitous routes in search of migration appeared as a necessary condition of their identity as migrants and appeared to form the basis of their lives in Italy. Being a migrant entailed initial struggle, numerous difficulties and challenges, and finally, the possibility of having a ‘good’ life for their children, if not for themselves. Punjabi youth were particularly open in expressing their views and sharing their experiences. They focused primarily on familial relationships and on ensuring a good economic future for themselves. They were eager to share their experience of feeling trapped within the household and, simultaneously, of having the comfort of familial life in difficult circumstances. At the same time, they expressed their eagerness to learn the language, to be able to ‘fit in’ and open up opportunities for themselves. My most moving encounter was with the women: I had the experience of Punjabi women opening up their hearts, sharing their emotions with their tears flowing, and sometimes, they just held my hand in silence. All the Indian men, women and youth I met were ready to share their experience and it was as if they were awaiting this chance to talk to someone, outside their immediate circle of friends and family, about their situation in Italy. I was humbled by this experience of complete trust and faith in an unknown researcher who no doubt spoke their language, but was a stranger. I hope this trust has not been betrayed in this work. I must emphasise the hugely enabling role of my two Italian friends, Chiara Scavia and Stefano Gandolfi, who not only helped me to meet a vast cross section of Punjabi farmers, their families, Italian professionals and service providers, but also provided an overarching perspective on the situation of immigrants in the region. They surpassed their critical role as conventional ‘key informants’ in the field, working closely with immigrants on the ground while simultaneously facilitating my meetings, taking me around the countryside and introducing me to various key stakeholders, including the Bishop of the Catholic church in Fidenza! The meeting ground I observed between many

References

29

Indians and my Italian interlocutors convinced me that I had the perfect opportunity to observe, interact and understand what was happening in Fidenza and in the Emilia-Romagna countryside.

References Aggarwal, V., & La China, F. (n.d.). Irregular Punjabi migration to Belgium: Case study. European Institute of Asian Studies. Retrieved August 26, 2022, from https://www.eias.org/wp-content/ uploads/2016/04/Punjabi-Migration-FINAL-Web-Version.pdf Ambrosini, M. (2001). La fatica d’integrarsi. Immigrazione e lavoro in Italia (The effort to integrate. Immigration and work in Italy). Il Mulino. Ambrosini, M. (2010). Richiesti e respinti. L’immigrazione In Italia. Come E Perche. Milano, Il Saggiatore. Ambrosini, M. (2012). ‘We are against a multi-ethnic society’: Policies of exclusion at the urban level in Italy. Ethnic and Racial Studies, pp. 1–20. https://doi.org/10.1080/01419870.2011.644312 Ambrosini, M., & Caneva, E. (2012). Local policies of exclusion. The Italian case. Accept pluralism. National case studies-political life. Final country reports on concepts and practices of tolerance addressing cultural diversity on political life. EUI, RSCAS. Bertolani, B. (2012). Transnational Sikh marriages in Italy: Facilitating migration and negotiating traditions. In K. A. Jacobsen & K. Myrvold (Eds.), Sikhs across borders. Transnational politics of European Sikhs (pp. 68–83). Bloombury Academic. Bertolani, B. (2013). The Sikhs in Italy: A growing heterogeneous and plural presence. In G. Giordan & W. Swatos (Eds.), Testing pluralism. Globalizing belief, localizing gods (pp. 75–93). Brill. Bertolani, B. (2015). ‘Punjabis in Italy: The role of ethnic and family networks in immigration and social integration. In S. Irudaya Rajan, V. J. Varghese, A. K. Nanda (Eds.), Migrations, mobility and multiple affiliations: Punjabis in a transnational world (pp. 319–337). Cambridge University Press. Bertolani, B. (2020). Women and Sikhism in theory and practice. Normative discourses, seva performances, and agency in the case study of some young Sikh women in Italy. Religions, 11(91), pp. 1–22. https://doi.org/10.3390/rel11020091 Bertolani, B., Ferraris, F., & Perocco, F. (2011). Mirror games. A fresco of Sikh settlements among Italian local societies. In K. A. Jacobsen & K. Myrvold (Eds.), Sikhs in Europe. Migration, identities and representations (pp. 133–162). Ashgate. Bhagat, R. B., et al. (2020). The COVID-19, migration and livelihood in India: Challenges and policy issues. Migration Letters, 17(5), pp. 705–718. Biffl, G. (2012). Labour market integration of low skilled migrants to Europe: Economic impact. Paper presented to the conference on Managing Migration and Integration: Europe and the US, University of California, Berkeley, March 9. Butalia, U. (Ed.). (2015). Partition. Zubaan Books. Calavita, K. (2005). Immigrants at the margins. Law, race and exclusion in Southern Europe. Cambridge University Press. Caponio, T., & Graziano, P. R. (2011). Towards a security-oriented migration policy model? Evidence from the Italian case. In E. Carmel, A. Cerami, & T. Papadopoulos (Eds.), Migration and welfare in New Europe: Social protection and the challenges of integration (pp. 105–120). Policy Press. Caritas & Migrantes. (2008). Dossier Statistico Immigrazione 2009. Roma: IdoS. Caritas & Migrantes. (2012). Dossier Statistico Immigrazione 2013. Roma: IdoS. Caritas & Migrantes. (2019). Dossier Statistico Immigrazione 2020. Roma: IdoS.

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Caritas & Migrantes. (2022). Rapporto Immigrazione 2022. https://www.caritas.it/xxxi-rapportoimmigrazione-caritas-migrantes-2022/ Chinna, S. S. (2016, September 30). The problem of unemployment in Punjab. Retrieved August 12, 2022, from https://www.outlookindia.com/website/story/the-problem-of-unemployment-inpunjab/297227/ Chopra, R. (2011). Militant and migrant. The politics and social history of Punjab. Routledge, Taylor and Francis. Compiani, M. J., & Quassoli, F. (2005). The milky way to labour market insertion: The Sikh ‘community’ in Lombardy. In E. Spaan, F. Hillmann, & T. van Naerssen (Eds.), Asian migrants and European labour markets: Patterns and processes of immigrant labour market insertion in Europe (pp. 138–158). Routledge. EMN (European Migration Network). (2012). The fifth EMN Italy report (pp. 1–70). Ministry of Interior Department Civil Liberties and Immigration, Central Directorate Immigration and Asylum Policy with the support of IDOS/Centro Studi e Ricerche, Rome. Fox-Ruhs, C., & Ruhs, M. (2022). The fundamental rights of irregular migrant workers in the EU. Understanding and reducing protection gaps. Policy Department for Citizens’ Rights and Constitutional Affairs Directorate-General for Internal Policies PE 702.670 - July 2022. Retrieved May 17, 2023, from https://www.europarl.europa.eu/RegData/etudes/STUD/2022/702670/IPOL_S TU(2022)702670_EN.pdf Gallo, E. (2012). Creating Gurdwaras, narrating histories. Perspectives on the Sikh diaspora in Italy. South Asia Multidisciplinary Journal, 6, pp. 1–16. Gallo, E., & Sai, S. (2013). Should we talk about religion? Migrant associations, local politics and representations of religious diversity: The case of Sikh communities in Central Italy. In J. Mapril & R. Blanes (Eds.), The best of all gods. The sites and politics of religious diversity in Southern Europe (pp. 279–308). Brill. Garha, N. S. (2020a). Punjabi irregular immigration to Italy and Spain: Causes and consequences. South Asian Diaspora, 12(2), pp. 195–211. https://doi.org/10.1080/19438192.2020.1793449 Garha, N. S. (2020b). Indian immigration to Italy: Concentration, internal mobility and economic crisis. South Asian Diaspora, 12(1), pp. 51–72. Garha, N. S., & Domingo, A. (2018). Migration, religion and identity: A generational perspective on Sikh immigration to Spain. South Asian Diaspora, 11(1), pp. 33–50. https://doi.org/10.1080/ 19438192.2018.146470 Grillo, R., & Pratt, J. (Eds.). (2002). The politics of recognising difference. Ashgate. Irudaya Rajan, S. (Ed.). (2011). Migration, identity and conflict. India migration report, 2011. Routledge, Taylor and Francis. Irudaya Rajan, S. (Ed.). (2016). Gender and migration. India migration report, 2015. Routledge, Taylor and Francis. Irudaya Rajan, S. (Ed.). (2017). Gulf migration. India migration report, 2016. Routledge, Taylor and Francis. Irudaya Rajan, S., Sivakumar, P., & Srinivasan, A. (2020). The COVID-19 pandemic and internal labour migration in India: A ‘crisis of mobility.’ The Indian Journal of Labour Economics, 63, pp. 1021–1039. https://doi.org/10.1007/s41027-020-00293-8 Khanna, A. (2020). Impact of migration of labour force due to global COVID-19 pandemic with reference to India. Journal of Health Management, 22(2), pp. 181–191. Mahn, C., & Murphy, A. (Eds.). (2018). Partition and the practice of memory. Palgrave Macmillan. Mickinski, Nicholas R. 2022. Delegating Responsibility. International Cooperation on Migration in the European Union (Chapter Four: Coordination in Italy). Ann Arbor, University of Michigan Press. Ministry of Labour and Social Policies, Italy. (2021). La Comunità Indiana in Italia (Indian community in Italy) (pp. 1–28). Retrieved December 10, 2022, from https://www.integrazionemigranti. gov.it/AnteprimaPDF.aspx?id=3245 Ministry of Labour and Social Polices, Italy. (2022) XII Rapporto Annuale Gli Stranieri nel Mercato del Lavoro in Italia. (XII Annual Report Foreigners in the Labour Market in Italy) (pp. 1–28).

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Mishra, D. K. (Ed.). (2016). Internal migration in contemporary India. SAGE. Nanda, A. K., Vernon, J., & Irudaya Rajan, S. (2022). Passages of fortune? Exploring dynamics of international migration from Punjab. Routledge, Taylor and Francis. Nizam, A., Sivakumar, P., & Irudaya Rajan, S. (2022). Interstate migration in India during the COVID-19 pandemic: An analysis based on mobile visitor location register and roaming data. Journal of South Asian Development, 17(3), pp. 271–296. https://doi.org/10.1177/097317412 21122000 Pine, F. (2014). Hope: Space, time and imagining the future. Current Anthropology, 55(S9, Crisis, Value, and Hope: Rethinking the Economy (August 2014)), S95–S104. Platonova, A., & Urso, G. (2011). Recent migration from the Colombo process countries to the European Union. Background paper, Asia-EU Dialogue on Labour Migration, Brussels, 8–9 February 2011 Platonova, A., & Urso, G. (2013). Asian immigration to the European Union, United States and Canada: An initial comparison. Journal of Global Policy and Governance, 2, pp. 143–156. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40320-012-0018-8 Saha, K. C. (2012). Irregular migration from India to the EU: Punjab and Haryana case study (Carim-India Research Report 2012/28). San Domenico di Fiesole (FI): Robert Schuman Centre for Advanced Studies, European University Institute. Singh, G., & Tatla, D. S. (2006). Sikhs in Britain. Zed Books. Singh, K., et al. (2021). Irregular emigration from Indian Punjab: Nature and causes. South Asian Diaspora, 14(1), pp. 73–90. Retrieved August 25, 2022, from https://doi.org/10.1080/19438192. 2021.2007450 Singh, S., & Singh, J. (2022). Employment scenario in Indian Punjab: Some disquieting features. Journal of Development Policy and Practice, 7(2), pp. 158–179. Smith, N. (2014). ‘Donkey flights’ illegal immigration from the Punjab to the United Kingdom. Transatlantic Council on Migration. Washington DC: Migration Policy Institute. Retrieved August 25, 2022, from https://www.migrationpolicy.org/sites/default/files/publications/BadAct ors-DonkeyFlights-FINALWEB.pdf Talbot, I., & Singh, G. (2009). The Partition of India. Cambridge University Press. Thandi, S. S. (2012). Migration and comparative experiences of Sikhs in Europe: Reflections on issues of cultural transmission and identity 30 years on. In K. A. Jacobsen & K. Myrvold (Eds.), Sikhs across borders. Transnational practices of European Sikhs. Bloomsbury. Thapan, M. (Ed.). (2005). Transnational migration and the politics of identity. Series on women and migration in Asia (Vol. 1). SAGE. Thapan, M., Singh, A., Sreekumar, N. (2016). Women’s mobility and migration. Muslim women migrants in Jamia Nagar, Delhi. In D. K. Mishra (Ed.), Internal migration in contemporary India. SAGE. van Hear, N. (2019). Diaspora and class, class and diaspora. In R. Cohen & C. Fischer (Eds.), Routledge handbook of diaspora studies (pp. 129–137). Routledge, Taylor and Francis.

Chapter 2

Migration, Transnationalism, Culture

This book is about movement and mobility. It is also about work, family and identity. From time immemorial, movement has been an essential part of everyday life.1 Movement is undoubtedly influenced by social class, economic trajectories, familial relationships, affect, ideas, imaginaries and other aspects of being in the world. At the same time, there are multiple power dynamics that shape movement across borders. We need to also consider the question as to whether all movement is linked to migration. Voluntary movement could be for lifestyle changes, tourism, medical reasons or economic upliftment, among other causes. Forced movement is usually the consequence of war, violence and strife in the country of origin. It could be temporary, circular or return migration, but often it is of a permanent kind. There is a motivation for migration and a determination to seek out another life, elsewhere, often enduring great physical and emotional challenges. What sustains migrants during their difficult journeys and how is their mobility connected to their dreams, desires and emotions? In particular, what is the complex and ‘tangled’ life of a migrant all about? It has been suggested that mobilities are usually ‘tangled mobilities’, which is a ‘dynamic, unfolding process in which elements, components, and forms of mobility exist alongside, intersect with, and overlap one another in complex ways, resulting in statis and movements across different life dimensions (social, legal, intimate, sexual, digital, and temporal)’ (Fresnoza-Flot & Liu-Farrer, 2022: 4). Such a view allows us to understand the intersecting complexities inherent in migrant mobilities, straddling different worlds simultaneously, as well as demonstrating how individuals exercise agency in different ways through the entanglements that are present in their shifting states. An intersectional approach and transnationalism therefore become significant

1

In his celebrated work on migration, Tumbe (2018) documents the Indian experience with mobility, both internally and with an international focus. Voluntary migration has been part of Indian history since the nineteenth century. The organised migration of indentured labour was perhaps the beginning of migration from India to other parts of the world. This was transformed into the ‘kith-kin based’ approach to migration which Tumbe considers the ‘hallmark’ of what he calls the ‘Great Indian Migration Wave’ (2018: 62).

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to understand migration, both from the perspective of the country of origin as well as from that of the receiving society. Hope for a future free from precarity, economic despair and hopelessness is what compels emigration. In this sense, migration is ‘a symbol and an enactment of hope and of faith in the future and an act of or a reaction to hopelessness, despair, and acute loss in the present’ (Pine, 2014: S96). Usually, the practice of emigration is based on the testimonies of family and members of the community. Testimonies in the words of migrants from the Punjab, for example, allude to a life of luxury, streets paved with gold, excellent living conditions and manifold employment opportunities. Aspirations for a better life with greater livelihood opportunities are fuelled among potential migrants who begin to dream about a life in salubrious surroundings with endless opportunities for personal growth and familial change. This work takes into account the aspirations for an imagined landscape and simultaneously focusses on the imaginaries, anxieties and challenges encountered by Indian immigrants, primarily from Punjab, in northern Italy. At the same time, the work focusses on those aspects of peoples’ lives that bespeak of individual acts of agency embedded in struggle, negotiation and dilemmas about their double edged existence in a society quite different to where they came from. It is also important to pay attention to the role of the state that has a well-defined and largely regulatory role, significant to immigration aspirations, patterns, and outcomes. This includes state policies and practices in both the countries of origin and destination. These policies are not without bias or definitions of national borders and boundaries and of who may be considered eligible to enter and who may be excluded or find it difficult to enter.

2.1 Dialectics between the Nation-State and Immigrants Migration in the contemporary context came to be analysed under multiple concepts and terminologies, some of which are associated with a unique problematic that specifically arises in the context of the nation-state. In other words, in the late twentieth and twenty-first centuries there is not only a rise in the movement of people, inter alia there is simultaneously an urgency to record the consequence and implication of such movements as there came about distinctive notions of the migrant and the locals/citizens. Sayad (2010) has argued that the history of emigration and immigration exhibits ‘certain constants’ (emphasis in original) that inhere in and through the state. These may be social, economic, juridical and political and constitute a common basis, which is ‘both a product and an objectification of “state thought” (2010: 165). Examining immigration and studying a particular case allow us to both examine and reflect upon the state as well as to interrogate the state and state practice. On the one hand, the state controls and executes regulations through its agents, while simultaneously, the migrants impacted by these rules, engage with, resist and strategise in their journey of becoming and being a migrant.

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Sayad’s work has its origins in Bourdieu’s social thought. While state thought is critical to the formulation, planning and execution of the migration project, it is not necessary that states are ‘centrally and intricately involved in the valorization, conversion, and legitimization of different types of capital for migration purposes’ (Kim, 2018: 263). There is an elaborate network of processes to unpack and deliver such forms of capital as the state has the ‘power of nomination, certification, and accreditation’ such as through the passport, visa, resident status, citizenship system. Capital is therefore not a straightforward distribution of resources and the accumulation or conversion strategies employed by migrants to access these resources but it is unevenly distributed resulting in ‘material and symbolic stratification in multilayered social fields, generating positional struggles among migrants and non-migrants to reproduce or transform the existing structure of domination’ (Kim, 2018: 263). Every single experience of the migrant emanating from his or her migratory project therefore is grounded in these multiple social fields from which the migrant draws and further reproduces the domination by succumbing to the master narrative through employment strategies, normative behaviour, resistance and also integration in the destination countries. These practices are located the interrelationship between the host and the migrant community and the brewing sentiments of mistrust and threat especially for the host countries. Appadurai (2006), Hall and Paul du Gay (1996), Delphy (2005), Cohen (2006), among others, have examined this aspect of migration in some depth. There are a multiple set of processes for understanding how the ethnic bearing of the nation-state is associated with an ethnos in a dialectic relationship with any kind of ‘difference’ which is seen as threatening as there is always the fear of ‘difference’ which might affect the homogeneity of the nation-state. In the context of migrants, this difference appears to be a threat in the long run as argued by Appadurai (2006) in invoking the concept of the ‘fear of small numbers’. This is the dilemma of the modern nation-state that never provides a transparent agenda to integrate the migrants. The anxieties and dynamics of immigrant control and integration thus become mediated through their polarisation and complexity. The transnational context is politicised at another angle as most migrants are citizens of the developing nations moving to the first world. Fanon (1967) and Bhabha (1996), for example, have examined how migration from the third world to the first world is a much more complicated process involving acculturation, a largely debatable concept whereby the migrants are expected to inculcate the culture of the host country. A nagging concern with regard to migration to the developed world is often the association of it with a colonial legacy and the conditions under which migrants move and settle which is not apolitical. South Asian migrants, the majority of whom are Indians, are seen to be positioned within this broader discourse of colonialism and the white man’s burden for ‘civilising’ the natives (Puwar, 2003). It is true that the subject positioning of the migrant in the destination country is determined by the frames provided by the host community (Brah & Coombes, 2000). In the context of ‘transnational’ migration the narrative of the migrant, even if it arises

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juxtaposed with the dominant discourse, cannot be ignored in terms of its functionality. Migrants, far from being quelled by the dominant community, are seen to actually attach exclusive meaning to their existence and surroundings (Kabeer, 2000). Bringing out only the dominating and coercive side of the host country especially the judiciary and the state machinery would not reveal the potentialities ingrained in the migrants and the strategies they employ that place the migrant in an agentive context (Poros, 2008). It is for this reason that this work focusses on the individual strategies and collective pathways of integration opened up by both migrants and members of the host community in a particular context. The complexity of migration as a social process cannot be summarised under a singular concept or phenomenon. When one emphasises the lived experience of the migrant, it cannot be analysed merely through an antagonistic paradigm of the migrant and citizen but through the layered meanings, experiences and attachments that the migrants come face to face with. One way to do this is through understanding ethnicity and religion in the context of migration (Abramson, 1979). The categories are sharpened as the coupling of ethnicity and religion is meaningful only through the context of difference. If a nation has only people with a similar culture following a similar religion, then talking of ethnicity is irrelevant as one would not be aware of the distinctions in the first place. However, even though the migrant is mostly typecast under traditionalism arising both from their ethnic location of being from another culture and, more commonly from an inferior one, yet there are myriad ways through which the migrants experience this difference (Abramson, 1979). The degrees of othering can be experienced differently for diverse sets of migrants coming from the same geographical location in terms of how some may get converted and change adjusting with the alien culture, some might be in sociocultural exile where the individual finds belonging in an ethnic structure but experiences a kind of marginality with respect to any other ethnic culture. Some might become socio-cultural traditionalists having stronger links with the homeland. Migrants, although regularly coming under a collective formulation by the destination country, consciously and unconsciously experience and perceive new realities very differently. This in turn underscores the fact that to understand the complexities of transnational migration one has to locate oneself in an alternative discourse, that of the migrant herself and understand the complexities inherent in her experience. This situation is far more complex in the case of forced migrants who are inevitably compelled to move due to political instability, war or violence. Forced migration refers to the coerced movement of people from home or home region, often connoting violent coercion. It has evolved out of the narrower field of refugee migration (Hathaway, 2007). Forced migration can be due to political factors like war, ‘ethnic cleansing’ or due to natural calamities. Zolberg et al. (1989) focusing on refugee flows, especially on account of violence, identify three categories of refugees: activists involving opponents with the political elite, dissenters and rebels; individuals belonging to specified groups singled out for violence; and victims who are caught up randomly in the cross fire or exposed to ‘generalised violence’. In recent years, civil war and violence in countries in the Middle East and Asia have resulted in displaced migration. The current war in Europe has resulted in millions of

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Ukrainian refugees entering Europe, seeking refuge and asylum. A number of factors dictate the level of such kinds of migration and the degree to which it is forced. These have to do with the diasporic group, the homeland and the host country (Heleniak, 1999). The size, history, rootedness and geographical location of the diasporic group has a lot to do with forced migration. Heleniak (1999) quotes the instance of the Russian diaspora and how it is usually concentrated in the capital regions of foreign lands, increasing the probability of conflict and subsequent displacement. It is also important to examine the attitude of the homeland towards the diasporic community in understanding refugee status. If a country is well connected to its diasporic community, then, the interchanges build stronger links between the host and home communities. On the contrary, a dislocated community may be deracinated. Finally, the context of the host country and its attitude towards ethnic migrants and degree of social inclusion has a lot to do with forced migration. The plight of Syrian refugees post the war in Syria is a case in point. More than a million refugees from Syria are in Europe and it is presumed that they will not be going back as the unrest rages on and it is no longer a safe place. The question remains as to how they are considered in Europe, as citizens, many of whom have learnt the local language, found jobs, and achieved a modicum of integration or as refugees, still with an uncertain status in the host community.2 It is also well documented that eastern Europe has indicated an unwillingness to accept Syrian refugees and more recent reports find differences in the way Europe has handled the refugee influx from Ukraine as compared to those from Syria.3 These conclusions are part of the dynamics of mobility that are experienced differently by varied categories of migrants in host societies, depending on state policies that may favour one group over another, based on race, religion or ethnicity.

2.2 State Policies and their Impact on the Flow of Migrants The role of the state is undoubtedly crucial in understanding the migration process both through structural constraints and the individual agency that it provides in terms of the zones of negotiation and strategic intervention. One context through which the role of the state is evident is that of the nation-state and its sense of closure and the other in the context of globalisation and the need for labour. The immigration policy in most European countries can be understood within these two dynamics. On the one hand, labour migrants are a dire necessity, primarily to solve an increasingly persistent demand caused by the shortage of certain types of worker in a diversified and segmented labour market. At the same time, ‘in the eyes of the public, politicians and the media, immigrants are presented as a “problem” which has somehow to be 2

For further analysis, see https://foreignpolicy.com/2021/03/25/are-europes-syrians-still-refugees/ (accessed on October 17, 2022). 3 See for example https://news.gallup.com/poll/209828/syrian-refugees-not-welcome-eastern-eur ope.aspx; https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/europe-racism-ukraine-refugees-1.6367932.

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“solved”’ (King, 2020: 192). This double bind, in which a migrant finds herself, is enabling, in an economic sense, but troubling when migrants may be singled out for being inappropriate in terms of the cultural and social contexts in which they may be located. When migrants are looked upon as suspicious entities, with alien cultures and traditions, forms of othering kick in. These may be individual or collective strategies of exclusion but the state is a colluding partner, and often perpetrator of forms of exclusion, through a lack of inclusive policies and practices on the ground. As now is well known, the success of state policies has to be understood from two points: one, where, due to the widespread presence of migrants, especially illegal ones, the state finds it difficult to control and locate them, and another whereby the state has a hidden agenda (Castles, 2007). One of the ways through which this hidden agenda is understood is that although the majority of citizens are anti-immigrants, the entrepreneurial class together with the government are aware of the need for immigrants to fill in the jobs which the local citizens are not ready to take on. Moreover, many European countries have an ageing population. This has led the EU to take exclusive policies on immigrants which is reflected in the European Commission’s statement in 2000: ‘It is clear from an analysis of the economic and demographic context that the “zero” immigration policies of the past 30 years are no longer appropriate’ (as cited in Laczko, 2002: 599). This saw Germany among other countries changing its stand on immigration despite mass discontent. At the same time, it is common knowledge that illegal immigration has been on the rise since 2001. The numbers for smuggled people are much higher than it was in 1990. Irregular immigration has increased in Europe, in 2021, by 57% as compared to 2020, and by 38% as compared to 2019 (International Centre for Migration Policy Development, ICMPD, 2022). There are illegal and clandestine border crossings, use of falsified documents and also instances of staying put even when a tourist or student’s visa expires.4 This has shown the inability of the EU to develop successful immigration policies and programmes. The Amnesty programme undertaken in a few European countries such as Italy tries to transform illegal migrants to legal ones in a bid to fulfil labour needs and maintain civil society mechanisms. At the same time, the regularisation of irregular migrants is a temporary phenomenon and enables regularised migrants to have a stronger legal position to enforce their rights. However, it does not do away with labour exploitation or discrimination in access to various public services. Their position therefore continues to remain precarious and uncertain. The duality of policies comes to the forefront considering that the legal routes are open for selective migrants mostly in the present context of highly skilled labour. The resilience of the migrant, however, lies in the fact that in spite of strong policing on certain types of migration, especially concerning lower skilled immigrants, they have been able to find alternative ways of entry into Europe. Despite the structural role of the state, it is therefore no longer possible to view society through a fixed lens as a composite entity with nationalist borders. These borders are porous in the 4

For an analysis of irregular migration to Europe, see for example Heckmann (2007); and in the context of Punjabi irregular immigrants, see Garha (2020).

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experience of people who move and seek incorporation in other societies. And yet, they simultaneously continue to maintain ties not just through sending remittances, or stories about their life outside, but by maintaining strong emotional and cultural links with countries of origin. These find expression through cultural, religious or social institutions, events and activities. These ‘multi-layered, multi-sited transnational social fields’ include both those who move and those who stay behind. Levitt and Glick Schiller argue: ‘the incorporation of individuals into nation-states and the maintenance of transnational connections are not contradictory social processes’ (Levitt & Glick Schiller, 2007: 182). Such an approach becomes important in understanding the lived experience of migrants as well as in the context of the expectations about the integration of migrants in countries of destination.

2.3 Transnational Mobility and Transnationalism There has long been movement of people across countries, continents and regions for various purposes like trade, expedition and marriage (Brennan & Shlomowitz, 1994; Harris, 1995). Undoubtedly, migration has been shaping lives in different ways for several hundred years. It has also been suggested that people and their cultural practices are not confined to a fixed territory but are parts of multiple spatial networks and temporal linkages (Glick-Schiller & Salazar, 2013: 186). People are therefore not territorially fixed or sedentary beings; they move, for seasonal work, for education, for better employment opportunities, for tourism or retirement, and for a host of accompanying reasons. In 2010, there were 214 million international migrants, equivalent to three percent of the global population (United Nations Population Division, as cited by King et al., 2010: 13). This figure in 2019 stands at 272 million international migrants who comprise 3.5% of the global population (United Nations, 2019). By 2020, the total number of international migrants has increased to 281 million comprising 3.6% of the world’s population (International Organization for Migration, IOM UN Migration, 2020). Europe hosts the largest number of international migrants (82 million) with Germany having the largest share (13 million), France (around 8 million) and Italy (6 million). India is the lead country of origin of migrants with 18 million persons living abroad (United Nations, 2019). While international migration has no doubt grown, it is not really diverse as migrants from a range of non-European origin countries have ‘concentrated in a relatively small and shrinking pool of prime destination countries’ largely located in the Gulf, western Europe, and North America (de Haas et al., 2019: 893). International migrants from India constitute 30% of the total pool of international migrants and nine million of these are largely concentrated in the GCC region, now known as the Cooperation Council of the Arab states in the Gulf (ILO, as cited by Khanna, 2020). This brings out the ‘asymmetric nature of economic globalization processes over the past decades’ as immigration policies tend to privilege the skilled and wealthy while continuously increasing immigration hurdles for the less skilled, refugees or

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non-regional migrants (de Haas et al., 2019: 893). At the same time, India is the highest recipient of remittances globally with over US $ 62.7 billion received in 2016 (ILO, as cited by Khanna, 2020). This places India in a somewhat unique position of having a high percentage of international emigrants who play an important role in the country’s economy and yet face difficult and complex situations at their workplace and living conditions in the societies they now inhabit. Internal migration is a far more complex phenomenon to measure as countries vary in size as do definitions of ‘who’ is a migrant. Nonetheless, the United Nations Population Division estimated 740 million internal migrants in the world in 2009 (United Nations Population Division, as cited by King et al., 2010: 14). This is a huge figure that needs to be understood carefully, taking different countries into account, such as China, where the largest movement takes place internally from the rural provinces to the large cities and industrial townships. In India, internal migration is critical to the economy. According to the Census of India (2011), there were approximately 100 million migrants working in different occupations within India which is about 20% of the work force (Khanna, 2020). Seasonal migration tends to be ignored in this process when migrants cross over borders for short periods of time, linked to seasonal forms of employment. Temporary migration, circular migration and other forms of increasingly diverse mobility that allows workers, students, tourists and others the possibility of traversing borders back and forth, are not sufficiently documented. The literature is replete with studies of permanent migration, especially across international borders, that throw up questions of diasporic spaces, belonging, and identity politics which nonetheless exist in other forms of migration as well. The focus of studies of internal migration has been on the factors that drive migration, the consequences of such migration for both migrants, the sectors that fuel such migration, employment networks of migrants, as well as on gender and age differentials, among other factors.5 Labour migration is the most widely prevalent form of migration, as it is connected to both the need for labour in host countries and simultaneously to the aspirations of migrants. As Piore argued in 1979, due to the higher levels of education, ageing population levels, and the decrease in willingness by natives to do manual agricultural or industrial jobs, immigrants find employment in low paid vacant slots (Piore, 1979). Low income in such jobs, from the destination country perspective, may be appealing to immigrants who are seeking to maximise their income, status and wealth on the basis of their position and status in origin countries. At the same time, immigrants from Punjab seek to improve not only their own status and position in origin countries, but, more importantly, aspire to vastly improve the life chances of their children through better education and work opportunities in an international setting. This is the prime reason for immigration by lower- and middle-class educated low-skilled immigrants from Punjab in Italy and indeed from other regions in India. Analyses of international migration have been concerned with several different kinds of issues. There has been an effort to understand the patterns, flows and trends in migration but also to understand the practices and customs that do not end with the act 5

In India, see for example the work of Mishra (2016), Tumbe (2018), Irudaya Rajan et al. (2020).

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of migration. There is an analysis of migration as an ongoing process focusing on the eventual consequences and complexities emerging due to the movement. Within this broader paradigm, one could talk of the concepts of diaspora and transnational migration that encompass international migration. Diaspora, a popular concept, earlier tried to capture the idea of migration and the kind of implications it carries for migrants, as a group, once they landed in a foreign country coming in touch with the host community. Etymologically having a political connotation, referring to the displacement of the Jews by the Romans, between the seventeenth century and the 1960s the term has become banal and came to be ‘designated to geographically dispersed people’. Other diasporas that have been recognised are ‘colonial diasporas’ (of the British and the Portuguese), ‘trading diasporas’ (such as, of the Lebanese), and ‘labour migration diasporas’ such as those of indentured Indian workers in the nineteenth century (King et al., 2010: 36). One of the criticisms of the term diaspora has been its inability to portray the nuances of the migrant’s relationship with the home land and recent work associates the concept with an a-historicity as it tends to view transnational communities through an unchanging consciousness (Gayer, 2007). More recently, however, diaspora studies have begun to emphasise the experiences of the migrants both at the host country and the inter-linkages with the homeland in an abstract metaphorical sense through memories or imagination together with more tangible correspondence such as the remittances sent back home.6 Transnational migration on the other hand focusses on the movement of people not just through physical space from one country to another but also focusses on the backward linkages whether this is through economic remittances, or other forms of social and cultural capital. Transnational migration is also about migrants’ emotions and seeks to incorporate the sense of belonging which is created in the new home through images, artefacts and memories from the home land. More concretely, the home land is connected through remittances and visits which further facilitate recent migration from the native land. Continuous political engagement through diasporic forms of belonging and challenging the status quo in the home land is another aspect of transnationalism playing out in the lives of the migrants who seek to contest and challenge political norms back home. I argue in this work that transnationalism is not only through the multiple ties that bind migrants to different countries and different lives but also about how host societies view ‘others’ in a cultural space they claim their own. Transnationalism is therefore not only about the connections between migrants and practices in dual or more spaces, but also importantly about their interaction and relationships with members of host societies who engage with them in different contexts as employers, medical practitioners, social workers and others. It is therefore very much dependent upon the migrants’ experience of transnationalism as constituted in the ‘here and now’ of the multiplicity of experience. With a focus on youth, and gender, this work seeks to unravel some of the multiple understandings of culture and identity that emerge from the predicaments in which both the migrants and their Italian hosts 6

See the collection of essays in Knott and McLoughlin (2010) for approaches to understanding diaspora and connected themes.

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find themselves. Transnationalism therefore refers to ‘the cultural specificities of global processes, marked by the multiplicity of uses and conceptions of “culture”, as well as of “identity”’ (Frykman, 2001: 14). ‘Culture’ no doubt is at the basis of the quest for integration and there is an effort to eliminate cultural difference through institutions, forms of social interaction, the provision of services and civil society initiatives.7 This of course raises questions about cultural difference, cultural inclusion and exclusion, affinity and alienation. The questions that this work seeks to address are whether cultural diversity is contained and constituted within a homogenous understanding of culture, in the sense of their unique culture, as opposed to ours, or whether it is possible to enable an understanding of ‘culture as dynamic, heterogeneous, changing, and transformative’ (Grillo, 2008: 32) and thereby of cultural diversity, not as lip service to multiculturalism, but as a celebration of diversity, within the cultural framework of traditions, languages, rituals and very different ways of being.8 Contra the work of Glick-Schiller (2007) that argues against ‘methodological nationalism’, I do indeed focus on the community of Indians, not as a homogeneous entity, but as a diverse group who come together at different times, and in a variety of spaces, to constitute themselves (whether in the Sikh or Hindu temples, in markets, in their own or one another’s homes, or their workplace) and thereby affirm their collective identities, as belonging to a particular though diverse ethnic group. It is understood that this self-constitution of the community as a distinct group with appropriate markers of language, religion, ‘culture’, and behaviour is partly in response to the experience of ‘difference’.9 An emphasis on ‘difference’, however, in no way elides our understanding of how gender is a marked category in itself or how normative standards are applied to those who are more powerful, here, the members of the host society.10 This is no way bestows an essentialising character on their constitution as they are simultaneously engaged in a process of engagement with others, as individuals and in the collective, outside their particular communities, and this is as much a part of their individual and collective trajectories as is the celebration of their particular cultural identity. In fact, I would like to argue that culture as ‘a medium of social interaction’ … ‘confers agency within a field of sociality and power relations’ (Werbner, 2012: 215). This argument facilitates the view that culture, ‘in conferring agency, is a field of transaction and relatedness’;…that as a ‘discursive imaginary of selfhood, identity, subjectivity and moral virtue constitutes a field of power’ (Werbner, 2012: 216, emphasis in the original). The cultures of migrants are therefore significant, ‘a force generating social conflict, defensive mobilization, and 7

This however brings about, as Sally Anderson argues, ‘the obligation to participate in society squarely, yet differently, on the shoulders on both “older” and “newer” members of this society’ (Anderson, 2011). 8 I am not here referring to multiculturalism, its benefits and its uses, that has been questioned by scholars around the globe. See for example the work of Taylor (1994). 9 As argued by Avtar Brah, ‘difference in the sense of social relation may be understood as the historical and contemporary trajectories of material circumstances and cultural practices which produce the conditions for the construction of shared identities’ (Brah, 1996: 118). 10 See Choo and Ferree (2010) for a further understanding of the fetishisation of ‘difference’.

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creativity’ (Werbner, 2012: 216). In this way, they cannot be dismissed as being a mere essentialisation of a particular ethnic group but must be viewed as a medium for expressing agency and value among members of a community as well as with other communities, as this work argues.11 The family in this work is central to the definition of the migrant’s identity as an engaged member of the society in which she is located as well as produces the conditions for her to stand as a different ‘other’. Women’s abilities and aspirations for cultural integration in themselves are understood by host society members but from within a bounded ethnic space that is viewed as an impediment to integration. I also examine the spaces and practices within which interaction with the host community is located and negotiated and how together such interaction constitutes society in everyday life that is marked by inequality, struggle and contestation. Members of the Indian community, especially women, who are socially isolated and therefore the most vulnerable, push in different ways to bring about and express this cultural exchange which they see as being crucial to being ‘understood’ and in a sense, appreciated and valued by the host society. This brings gender into the forefront of our analysis: how do men and women from immigrant communities come to inhabit and experience migrant bodies and selves in transnational spaces through encounters that are steeped in emotions as much as they are framed in social and legal structures of domination and injustice? Emotions are somewhat excluded from understanding how forms of capital are strategically appropriated or converted by migrants into seeing and understanding themselves as different persons. They strive to step out of their identities as Punjabi Indians and merge with another culture both at work and in social spaces. Such a context is fraught with emotional turmoil and its consequences. This needs to be recognised and examined in understanding how identities move and shift in transnational contexts. Emotions are therefore intimately connected to the experience of migration. Following Sara Ahmed, I argue that emotions are crucial in aligning ‘some subjects with some others and against other others’ (2004: 117). Emotions thus circulate between individual and collective bodies and signs and are expressed through the multitude of experience that frames the encounter between subjects and collectives. This however is not to suggest that emotions are located in the private worlds of individuals and are therefore ‘inside’ and are expressed ‘outside’; rather, ‘they create the very effect of the surfaces or boundaries of bodies and worlds’ (Ahmed, 2004: 117). Sara Ahmed argues that it is important to understand that attachments based on emotions are complex phenomena and primarily depend on the ways in which ‘subjects respond to others within everyday spaces of inhabitance, where bodies both move and dwell’ (Ahmed, 2001). This statement is of particular value and purpose while trying to understand the everyday world of immigrants in difficult contexts and social worlds. 11

This view about culture as closed and bounded and, at the same time, being open and outward looking is similar to Glick-Schiller et al.’s construction of ‘cosmopolitan sociability’ as ‘consisting of forms of competence and communication skills that are based on the human capacity to create social relations of inclusiveness and openness to the world’ (Glick-Schiller et al., 2011: 402).

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Emotions move in and out of boundaries, conjure up borders based on feelings of difference and hate, fear and marginalisation, alienation and aloneness, affinity and inclusion. Understanding ‘emotional dynamics’ in migration contexts (Svasek, 2012: 3) is therefore critical to understanding how migrants experience themselves and others, in changed familial situations, work relations, and an overall scenario that provides some kind of financial security and simultaneously carries with it the experience of alienation and exclusion. It is among the immigrant youth that there are possibilities for change as they appreciate and realise, in a deeply psychological and visceral sense, the importance of being an integral part of the host society. Their future lies in the present context and, while they may have an attachment to the past, their gaze is directed to the present and the time to come. They push the boundaries of acceptance by paying keen attention to learning the local language, seeking out friendships with young Italians, understanding cultural customs, food, other local rituals, and try to free themselves of the shackles of tradition that bind them to the past. The hierarchical family structure is increasingly being challenged by migrant youth, particularly by young women born or raised in Italy, that results in ‘intergenerational tensions’ (Bertolani, 2020: 2). Seeking wider acceptance in the host community, the young often find themselves trapped between their somewhat conservative existence within the family, and their lives outside the familial home. This work documents such dilemmas as well as brings out the potential for change as they emerge through their aspirations for the future. Among different types of migrants in the international context, there is a category of ‘millennial’ migrants.12 Millennial migrants include those youth (born in the 1990s and later) who are educated and seek out further education at institutions of higher education in countries that offer greater employment opportunities. It is migration with a risk as it is not certain if the higher education will lead to successful employment in the destination country but it is increasingly viewed as a migration route for educated youth in South Asia.13 The category also includes professionals from South Asia, China, Singapore, and other countries, qualified to work in the international technological or finance domains, and who are often successful in gaining employment in this sector in developed countries. Among the professionals and students, the complexity of the migrants’ social world is not revealed in as much detail as their migration is usually of a short term and is not necessarily based on the setting up of a household. Establishing a household opens up a range of new networks such as building relationships with the outside world through work, education, family ties in a foreign land and the internal sphere is significant for the reproduction of native culture (Appadurai, 1997). This in turn brings out the urgency among the migrants to compose a cultural whole in terms of 12

Garha and Domingo (2018) refer to this category as the ‘millennium generation’. These include students who use the route of higher education abroad for migration, or professionals who seek employment primarily in Europe, Canada and the US. 13 See for example Brooks and Waters (2021), Valentin (2015, 2022) for analyses of the increasing trend of higher education as a migration route.

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preserving their original culture that constitutes the collective of migrants in a foreign land. However, it is incorrect to deny that class dynamics do not at all exist among the migrants as there have been numerous instances whereby the more affluent migrants have moved out to more elite and well-established neighbourhoods and have taken up highly paid jobs. Moreover, some of the second-generation migrants receiving university education are in possession of social and cultural capital that is able to provide them with better social status than that of their parents (Mohammad-Arif & Moliner, 2007). These forms of social and cultural capital are further used by the youth to transcend the social status of their parents through various strategies. No doubt, the vicissitudes of life uproot people and create cultural diversity in any society (Abramson, 1979). The causes of these are historically multiple: religious persecution, economic exploitation, political upheaval and ethnic genocide. If one employs this classification for the South Asian context then the cause for motion, more than political difference, has been an urgency to look for better opportunities specifically in economic terms (Meijering & Hoven, 2003). Some studies, for example Raghuram (2006), have pointed out that the desire for migrating to Europe for economic gain is more common among unskilled and semi-skilled labour. Those in the skilled sector are seen to make a move to Europe primarily to improve their professional standing. Raghuram (2006) discusses the case of South Asian female doctors in Europe and emphasises that for these women the reason behind migration to London is an effort to improve their career prospects. The study by Meijering and van Hoven (2003) on Indian IT professionals in Germany argues that IT professionals move to Germany as it proves to be a lucrative career choice apart from giving them better monetary gains. It appears that both unskilled and skilled labour including professionals move for better livelihood opportunities, one perhaps for more direct economic gain, and the other for professional career advancement in addition to economic advantages. It is difficult to generalise the inter-relationship between a specific locality and the kind of labour it can proliferate. For example, Hyderabad, or Bangalore, in South India, two of the hubs of the IT industries are seen as sending large numbers of IT professionals to European countries (Biao, 2008; Upadhya, 2006). Migrant nurses from Kerala are present in large numbers in Europe and other parts of the world (George, 2005; Hintermann & Reeger, 2005; Percot, 2006). Unskilled and less educated farmers and workers from Punjab find employment in the agriculture and service sectors especially in countries in southern Europe (Garha 2020a, b). Migrants are not always highly skilled and low-skilled and semi-skilled labour migration is commonplace. Usually it has been seen that most migration to Europe from developing countries, including South Asia, specifically in the past has been more with regard to low-skilled or unskilled labour. In the UK, the earlier migration in the latter half of the nineteenth century and the initial decades of the twentieth century, attracted migrants from pre-independent India to the region in and around Southall because of the presence of heavy industry that demanded labour. The native population were not keen to take up arduous jobs, and as a result, migrants from East and West Punjab found employment in low-skilled jobs. The colonial past has been seen to be contributing to the opening up of Indian migration to Europe. The

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horde of hardworking Indian workers who were helping the British army during the First World War was discovered by company owners as an important labour pool and subsequently they were employed in the heavy industries in the UK in particular (Vertovec, 2007). In the context of Italy and Spain, Garha’s recent work (2020a) points to the work possibilities for Indian immigrants as lying primarily in the service sector and agriculture due to their low-skilled or semi-skilled status. As earlier noted, there is a large category of illegal migrants moving across Europe. There were 199,900 irregular border crossings in Europe in 2021, indicating an increase of 58% over 2020. These include crossings using the sea route as well as the land route.14 Illegal migrants may be classified into three basic types that may have subtypes or variations (Heckmann, 2007). The first category is of those who illegally or clandestinely cross borders. The second category is of the increasing number of migrants who seemingly migrate in a legal way by using falsified documents, legal documents one is not entitled to, or by putting legal documents to illegal use. The third category comprises those migrants who are ‘re-migrating’ and staying in a country once the legal status is expired. Heckmann (2007) and Castles (2007) argue that illegal migration arise in the gaps, whether in the gaps provided by the policies of migration, gaps left in the implementation and the existence of dualities. Most European countries including France, Germany and Italy were not very keen to accept migrants till about the late 1990s when the migration policies slackened. As the legal avenues of migration were not adequate, large numbers of migrants used illegal modes to enter Europe to get jobs (Laczko, 2002). The available legal provisions for migration like the guest worker system in Germany and Italy has been misused by temporary legal migrants. The category of illegal migrants is fast increasing and it is difficult to track them down. The fact that migrants everywhere in Europe are using different strategies to cross national boundaries either by buying ‘smuggling services’ or through self-organisation have led the European Union to reconsider their migration policies and make provisions for new legal routes to migrate. Generally, it is observed that most illegal migrants are either low-skilled or unskilled labour who exploit various mediums to gain entry into Europe. There are instances of illegal migrants pretending to be asylum dwellers by taking the sea route to Europe. There is a misuse of the guest workers system, as once the duration of legal work is over, migrants do not return to their homeland and become illegal migrants in the host country. The bond system ensuring that guest workers would return to their homeland after completion of a stipulated time of work is not effective considering that the migrants can leave the guest worker job halfway and get engaged in other contractual work (Epstein et al., 1999). A more feasible way to settle the problem of illegal immigrants would be to give legal status to all illegal migrants who do not return to their homelands. The Amnesty programme is one such effort which makes provision to give legal status to illegal migrants. There exists the problem of integrating the increasing number of illegal migrants and to give them legal status as there are no fixed jobs or routes that this elusive plural category of illegal migrant 14

Source https://ec.europa.eu/info/strategy/priorities-2019-2024/promoting-our-european-waylife/statistics-migration-europe_en#developmentsin20192018 (accessed on December 5, 2022).

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follows. Illegal migrants show that the migration process is inevitable and that no country can have a closed boundary to the extent of stopping different categories of migrants. A number of studies have recorded Punjabi migrants in the low-skilled labour intensive jobs in European countries including Britain and Italy. Gallo (2006) has pointed out how the Punjabi migrants, due to their ‘rugged masculinity’, find employment in hazardous and tough jobs in comparison with Malayalam-speaking men (from Kerala). The latter are perceived to be feminine and find it difficult to procure employment and sustain themselves in physical jobs and hence look for semi-skilled jobs in the domestic sector like driving or gardening. Ballard (1990), Brah and Coombes (2000) and others note that the Punjabis were the earliest migrants who got absorbed in industrial menial jobs due to the propensity of the Punjabis for these jobs. Similarly, other low-skilled migration from South Asia to Europe has included workers in the agricultural and restaurant sectors (Jacobsen & Myrvold, 2011). Class distinctions between skilled and unskilled labour and the differences that arise in diverse contexts are also present. Societies value migrants who bring wealth with them, or are well qualified professionally and make a visible contribution to the economy. Skilled and highly skilled labour are generally from middle and upper middle classes and these labour forces are seen to migrate for a shorter period and return home at some point (Meijering & van Hoven, 2003). On the contrary, there is a greater pattern among low-skilled labour migrating in larger numbers and settling down in Europe. This was seen by many European countries as a problem especially Germany which was not receiving immigrants for a very long time. Although it allowed around five million guest workers since the 1960s for factory requirements, they were not able to send all the migrants back and subsequently the existing migrants opened up a chain of illegal migrants who are largely low or unskilled (Heckmann, 2007). One study has however recorded that the influx of foreign labour in the German labour market has in fact brought gains for the whole economy. In particular, the net gain was more positive in the context of low-skilled immigration (Bauer and Zimmerman, as cited by Kaczmarczyk et al., 2015: 33). These low-skilled and unskilled migrants are likely to find a much better bargaining deal in European countries where the natives are unwilling to take up menial jobs like that of a janitor, factory worker, petty vendor and so forth (Harris, 1995). There has therefore been a proliferation of migrant neighbourhoods like Southall and London’s East End which have, over the years, become the hub of immigrants and exhibits a cultural melange. Most studies on migrants from South Asia to Britain look at the inter relationship of a particular migrant community and the host community, how there is a fusion and fissure in the relationship (Brah, 1996; Gedalof, 2005; Gopinath, 2003). There is no direct discussion of class inequalities among the migrants from a particular locality or community in the prevalent literature. This might be because mass scale migration is generally among the people from the same economic and social status who gain entry to new country through chain migration and engage in similar kinds of jobs. Most low-skilled workers employed in the agriculture and manufacturing industry in Italy and some countries in Europe are from the Punjab region in India. However,

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the identification with a particular region is not present in every case or in every country. At best, it appears that there is a contingency based on the degree of occurrence which, at most instances, points to the fact that a particular place is seen to produce a definite type of labour which further sets a trend in terms of jobs taken up by the migrants in the host country. For instance, in the case of Bangladeshi migrants, Kabeer (2000), Mohammad-Arif and Moliner (2007) have traced them from their homeland which is economically disadvantaged to their current situations in Europe where they get absorbed in the lower rungs of the job hierarchy, especially the women who are employed in the garment industry, sweatshops, small businesses, for example, restaurants and clerical jobs. It is apparent that globalisation in the 1990s and later had the greatest impact on the changing patterns of labour market organisation that consequently resulted in migration flows of diverse kinds. Economic restructuring globally caused ‘deregulation, privatization and less state intervention’ shaping the links between migration and the labour market in particular ways. It is apparent that ‘flexible’ work became the chief characteristic of the weakest points of the economy and migrant workers who in any case occupy the lowest rungs of the various national labour markets moved towards the even more ‘precarious positions’ in the 1990s (Hillmann et al., 2005: 2–3). In Italy, the labour market for immigrants is very segmented, gendered and fractured, with a large informal economy that appeals to large numbers of informal immigrants who are inserted into the lowest segments (Ambrosini, 2001).

2.4 Gender Relations in Migration: Hybridity and Agency Migration has largely been a gendered process. The large flows of male transnational migrants and the presence of women as dependent migrants have led to a considerable negligence in viewing women as prospective independent and productive migrants (Palriwala & Uberoi, 2008). This trend of perceiving the male as the primary migrant was further seen to be accentuated by the destination country. For instance, in Britain women were not allowed entry in the 1960s or 1970s unless they came as a marriage migrant reaffirming their dependence. The infamous virginity test conducted in the UK on brides joining their migrant spouses stands witness to the stringency of such principles; the women’s entry into a foreign country was on the count that she was legitimately an unconsummated ‘wife’ (Hussain, 2005; Thapan, 2005). The pattern of migration has undergone tremendous change in more recent times. The primary locus of migration is no longer marriage for women. Both men and women are seen to join their spouses in foreign lands. Studies that examine Punjabi migrants in Europe point to a continuous relationship with the homeland which enables them to find spouses from their native place. Initially, marriage migrants especially in the case of women were seen as dependent but recent studies have stated that women coming from lower economic strata from countries like Bangladesh are seen to enter the job market and get employed in unskilled or semi-skilled jobs (Kabeer, 2000). In Italy as well, we find Punjabi women being included in the work

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place in somewhat more menial labour to start with and working their way upwards as they learn the language and start acquiring some skills. Increasingly the marriage migrant is thus seen to be integrated with the market economy in the host country. There are a large number of South Asian women who migrate to European countries for survival needs as well as for career aspirations (Raghuram, 2006). The mobility of nurses from Kerala to the Middle East and Europe, apart from the UK and the USA, is well known and documented. Women from Kerala are also increasingly seeking domestic work in international settings through ‘agents’ and personal contacts.15 It is well known that women are disadvantaged as migrants due to their gender. Walking on the tightrope of unemployment, insecurity and exclusion, they work hard inside the home and may also face domestic abuse. Palriwala and Uberoi (2008) argue that the non-recognition of household labour as work is transferred to the transnational context. Even if women are engaged in salaried employment, the work is administered more in the domestic and private domain that makes the workers invisible in the statist domain concerning rights, protection or compensation. The patriarchal structure places women in a subservient position; in the context of transnational migration, women migrants are relegated to lower rungs of the job hierarchy and are paid less compared to their male counterparts (Morokvasic, 1991). Through transnational migration, there is a reproduction of gender roles and patriarchal structures. It is difficult to dissociate the context of women from that of the larger social structure. Even when women move out individually, they have to reconcile with the fact that they are single and unmarried and the traditional gender discourse has framed women time and again within the norms of honour and shame. Although many migrant women have provided important financial security to the families back home, they are still not able to command the same level of respect and honour as male members and have to be doubly oppressed by societal norms for being single and not under male protection. In this sense, there is no guarantee of sustaining the status of honourable women if one is a single unmarried woman working abroad. Law is also seen to disadvantage women on important grounds. Good (2006) lucidly alludes to the UN Report on refugees and points out that there is no special clause on women and for that reason there is difficulty in persecuting offenders for gender violence. Good (2006) adds that the context of sexual crimes committed on extradited women by armed officials are not registered as crimes committed by state officials are private crimes and are thus not amenable to UN laws. There is the further problem of contextualising the individual position of a woman in the available categories. It becomes difficult to benchmark the situation of the women: the paradox arises when one has to decide the position of a woman from the available standards of either community, nation or take recourse to a universal frame like women in general.

15

For further details about women migrants and forms of their employment, see for example Percot and Irudaya Rajan (2007), Percot (2012), Kodoth and Jacob (2013), Walton-Roberts (2010), Irudaya Rajan and Sukendran (2010).

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At another level, gender discourse at the transnational level is vividly subject to fixed constructions. Colonial countries such as the UK frame South Asian women under a negative construction of being victims of sexism and patriarchy (Ahmad, 2003). This in turn places them in a situation whereby a liberating future and position could be imagined for a South Asian woman only when she moves from traditional roots to becoming a ‘modern’ woman. The binaries work sharply for South Asian women which even in the diaspora categorises them as passive consumers and associates them with backward practices like sex selective abortion, foeticide and so forth. In practice, South Asian women in Britain are lucrative consumers who do not simply purchase for the family, and there are interesting accounts of how South Asian women are creating a niche for themselves in the garment industry as innovative entrepreneurs (Raghuram, 2003). Salih’s study on Muslim women in Italy (2003) points out that South Asian Muslim women have been perceived under a negative axis of being oppressed by orthodox Islamic virtues and patriarchy. However, Islam cannot be simplified as a universalistic ideology where there is no scope of negotiation. Many of Salih’s respondents actually see Islam as modern. The way the South Asian Muslim has worked out the compliance between Islam and modern thought is contradictory to how Europeans perceive modernity and its divergence from religion. For instance, knowing how to read the Quran and the ability to enunciate traditional virtues is modern for some which is different from how Europeans perceive modernity as something secular. The veil debate further brings out the contradictions brought about by a difference in context and cultural understanding on one hand and individual lived realities on the other.16 Women in the transnational context at one level are seen to break away from many traditional norms but at another level are still seen to be controlled by structural constraints. South Asian women in particular are seen to negotiate in spheres which do not operate in binaries as perceived by the west but exist in a heterogeneous and multipolar domain of religion/culture/patriarchy/modernity/agency. This is the heterogeneity of the gendered migrant in European contexts. The idea of ‘hybridity’ experiments with the issue of sexuality to build a sense of belonging in the transnational context. Through the practice of alternative sexuality, one sees that South Asian men and women experiment with alternative sexuality in the western context contesting the traditional optic of sexuality (Gopinath, 2005). In the context of queer South Asian society, their sexuality borrows from multiple cultural contexts but creates a social space in itself that can build up a sense of solidarity through social movements and coming together in collective spaces. The transnational context provides agency to gays and lesbians much more than is experienced in the homeland. Even though the west has its hierarchy in terms of seeing its own constructions of the gay identity as the authentic one, and those of other cultures as artificial, the South Asian community is seen to negotiate within this construction by using liberated urban space to freely express their sexual preferences (Kawale,

16

Christine Delphy’s work (2005) on the ban of the headscarf in France has examined this aspect in a very nuanced understanding of the issues involved.

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2003).17 In recent years, the term ‘sexual migration’ has gained currency as being a more inclusive term than ‘marriage migration’ as it allows considerations for intimacy outside conjugal relationships. Farrer (2022) uses the term ‘sexual mobility’ to understand how mobility has both advantageous, and usually disadvantageous, consequences for subjects’ sexual and intimate lives in migrant contexts. Transnational migration undoubtedly creates fluid and hybrid identities. Gender identities are also malleable and new forms of gender roles emerge within households. A difference in gender dynamics is palpable depending on the temporality and cause of migration. For instance, those women who are migrating in an earlier decade would have different migration experiences, one reason being that they came mainly as marriage migrants so their stake in a foreign country became unequally vested in their husbands. Gardner (2002) studied the migration experience of Bengali women in London’s Tower Hamlets and specifically related the cases of elderly women who have migrated in the 1960s and 1970s and showed how their life choices were overwhelmingly determined by their husbands. The life history of one of the interviewee records that after her marriage to a Bengali migrant in Britain, she found that her husband had another white wife and after she deserted him, the Bengali wife took it as her responsibility to nurse her ailing husband. There is a lack of women’s voice and no subversion of patriarchal authority in the household space among the older batch of female migrants. It was evident that there was an understanding of the meek demeanour by the wives who they did not see themselves as victims either of patriarchy or sexism in the household space to prompt them to challenge their situation. This situation has however changed especially among the younger women among the second generation in Europe. In analysing gender and migration, there is therefore a need to understand its relationship at multiple levels. At one level, gender issues in the transnational context entail the relation between male and female and the reproduction or reversal of gender roles. The position of men fulfilling the traditional role of a potential bread winner and women taking the place of a housewife nurturing the domestic sphere is reproduced in the diaspora. There is, however, an increasing trend in recent years whereby women are moving away from their traditional jobs and trying their hands in new jobs which has led to a restructuring of the domestic space both at home and abroad. Gallo (2008) examines the case of migrants from Kerala in Italy and shows how the occurrence of transnational migration is changing traditional gender roles. On the one hand, due to mass scale male migration to the Middle East, there is an increasing number of female-headed households in Kerala. On the other hand, women moving out to Italy and taking salaried jobs have become the primary income source. Analysing the life worlds of the female migrants in Italy in detail, Gallo (2008) emphasises the economic independence of women migrants, which is enabling them to take the responsibility of family members back home by providing them financial support. Gender role reversal is seen in the instance of women sponsoring the travel of their

17

For accounts of queer sexuality in the Indian transnational context see, for example, Gopinath (2003, 2005).

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husbands to Italy who are initially dependent on their wives to settle down in a foreign land. The traditional image of the male being the bread winner and one who toils outside to fetch livelihood resources has changed as a result of international migration. First, women in moving out make important decisions on their own, initiate their own networking, and with economic gain are able to obtain a responsible and decisive position in the family. Women are no more dependent members and they have the power to take crucial decisions on marriage, like choice of spouse, which do not at times conform to the wishes of the family. Gallo (2008) interestingly points out that many young women migrants from Kerala use the money they obtain as dowry to transport their husbands to Italy bringing about an unorthodox use of traditional customary payment. There is a reversal of the traditional representation of masculinity, and many young men and their families in Kerala are not averse to this role reversal as it brings with it higher status and greater financial stability (Percot, 2012). As I have argued elsewhere, any gendered perspective on migration must consider the ‘evolving international division of labour and the way it changes the submissive and dependent identity of women’ (Thapan, 2005: 38). It is essential to foreground agency in this discussion in order to effectively address the impact of ‘state thought’ and state practices, apart from other challenges that confront the migrant. The migration process is thus complex, fluid and dynamic, depending on the context, and intersecting conditions such as the role of the state, location, gender, class and other factors.

2.5 The Dynamics of Mobility The dynamics of mobility among migrants in the destination countries can be located in plural contexts. One such context is the migrant’s early days after migration in which there is no apparent rise in the social status of the migrant in the host country. Later, the migrant may become economically sound resulting in sending of remittances home. There may at times be a fall of the migrants’ social status in the native place. The migrant may have an important social position that becomes dislocated in an alien context. An alternative importance could be gained due to her diasporic location. Importance can come in the form of financial dependence and responsibility that the family invests in the migrant. This may be created between the migrants and her family as the migrant sends money and therefore is able to fulfil a certain familial and domestic responsibility by her act of moving out and contributing to the family income at home (Rozario, 2005). In another context, mobility may come about in time through the accumulation of wealth and in successive generations and more in relation to the migrant’s own life world than in contestation with the macro social structure in the host society. In other words, the migrant’s individual position may improve; for instance, the migrant may move from low-skilled jobs to self-employment but there may be no considerable leap in the migrant’s social status in the overall social and economic hierarchy within

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the dominant host community. Kawale (2003) points to the overwhelming tendency to perceive the migrant in inferior terms and, in the British context, she observes how it is difficult for South Asian immigrants to break into the mainstream society and that the social world of the migrant due to their so called cultural lineage is not given recognition within the dominant culture. The prevalence of patriarchal relations and the inability of women to break out of the clutch of patriarchy inspite of enhanced incomes is another aspect of the problem of mobility specifically in the context of women. At the same time, mobility is advantageous for the second generation who, over a period of time, develop skills and resources to shape their lives in chosen ways. A part of their ability to do this comes from the sense of belonging they are able to establish with the host community that affects their experience as immigrants in beneficial ways. There have been ethnographic accounts that have brought out the multiple ways through which a sense of identity and belonging is created.18 The native context becomes important to understand the migration process and has important resonances in the lived experiences as well as the mobility patterns of the migrants. The different traditional cultural patterns like marriage rules, customs and religious sanctions have had implications in bringing about variations in practices in the destination country. Migrants have the potential to create solidarity emphasising traditional roots like religion, yet the context in which it might be evoked may be totally different from those assumed by the host country. For instance, Kastoryano (2007) analyses the problems arising on account of the host community trying to restrict religion to the private sphere among South Asians in France which renders a crucial problem of reconciling the religious base of immigrants to their simultaneous assimilation into French society. Religion cannot be placed in an air-tight compartment of being part of a ritualistic spiritual order and it might have important secular dimensions attached to it (Kastoryano, 2007). For instance, for Muslims in France, Islam represents a unifying identity for asserting collective interests and structuring the transnational community that transcends the boundaries of member states. The objective is to promote a common identification of being a Muslim in Europe and how it could act as the elaboration of transnational solidarity like other trans-border professional, social and political networks. Such networks formulated in terms of rights were intended to liberate migrants from the politics of home and destination countries and to express claims beyond nation-states. Religion, which is one of the strongest roots borrowed from the respective cultural context of the immigrants could be exploited to build up a base for creating a sense of belonging in the foreign land and can be used for political mobilisation through the immigrant community. This is an important tool that could influence and shape state policies in host countries in Europe. The heterogeneity of the migrants’ discourse brings to the forefront the exclusivity of the migrant’s social world that could encompass religious divisions differently within a macro cultural framework and could attach different meanings and cultural symbols to it in a personal micro context. For example, Moliner (2007) traces the historicity of the Sikhs and Muslims in India and sees how the initial harmonious 18

See for example Ballard (1990), Puwar and Raghuram (2003), Bertolani (2013, 2015, 2020).

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relationship between Sikhs and Muslims vis-a-vis the Hindus were strained by forced conversion of the Sikhs; in the transnational context, however, Panjabyat is able to unify both the Sikhs and Muslims in a new context. Both Sikhs and Muslims of erstwhile Punjab spoke Punjabi, shared common folk music and art. There have been historically cultural exchanges between the two communities either in terms of Urdu poetry or Punjabi folk music and sense of slipping away of the rich heritage is felt by both communities and hence the Panjabyat culture reflecting boisterous life style, dressing and eating pattern together with music and literature bind the immigrants in creating a shared cultural space. The culture of service or ‘seva’ is embodied in the Sikh religion and translated into everyday life impacts life in the Sikh community. Seva may be translated as ‘selfless service’, which is performed by Sikhs not only in the physical space of the gurudwara but also in the larger world, as a ‘means to realizing and manifesting the Gurus’ teachings in the social world’ (Bertolani, 2020: 3). This is an essential aspect of Sikh religious life and community practice. Bertolani has cited the prevalence of about forty gurudwaras (places of religious worship for the Sikhs) in Italy as well as two national associations for the community (2020: 3). She has also highlighted the prevalence of Guru service or seva (of the Guru Granth Sahib, the sacred book), langar seva and gurudwara management. All aspects of these different forms of service involve not only an interaction with the gurudwara itself, the community but also with the larger public space from time to time. There is in fact a ‘reformulation of religious orthodoxy and rituals’ in the destination country to allow for a more harmonious co-existence with the local citizenry and with other immigrant communities (Garha & Domingo, 2018: 42). While the involvement of the Sikh community in the events and functioning of the gurudwara bespeaks a deep commitment to the community and its well-being in cultural and religious terms, the younger generation may have an additional reason, which is to integrate better with the host community. At times, members of the host community partake of the festivities in the gurudwara, in the seva, and appreciate its positive role in the community. This is one way through which religion plays a role in fostering well-being and inclusion across communities while simultaneously helping immigrants retain their strong links with the homeland in a deeply sacred space. Religion is also an important glueing factor towards integration in other ways. In Italy, the Catholic Church and its service wing, Caritas (Latin, for charity), play a significant role in the care of immigrants and other minority populations. In Emilia-Romagna, Caritas has played a very active role in the sustenance of immigrant populations and tried to fill the gap between state policy, welfare schemes and simply understanding and helping humans in need.19 In this way, religion is reimagined, rearticulated and moves out of conventional trappings of ritual and tradition, reaching out to those who come to alien lands through difficult circumstances, rich imagination and perhaps share unrealised dreams.

19

I have examined the contribution of Caritas in Fidenza and around in Chap. 5.

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2.6 Imagined Landscapes, Fulfilled Dreams? No doubt the migrant community reinvents the homeland in the host country through memories, imagination, developing kin and familial networks or through reproduction of a timeless culture of the place of origin (Naficy, 1991). The migrant is not seen to create a sense of belonging based exclusively on the cultural practices of the host community.20 The transition of migrants from the Third World to Europe proves to be agentive and the migrants do not become ‘cultural dopes’. The concept of ‘hybridity’ captures such processes and more whereby the migrant’s new reality is unique to the situation of the migrant arising from her mixing with the host community as well as containing elements from home. Styles of music like Bhangra have become popular in Britain in particular, as well as in Canada, and take aspects from the west in terms of beats and rhythm and mix it up with Punjabi folk songs. Cross over movies like Bend it like Beckham (2002) capture this aspect of cultural mixing between the migrant and the locals (Hussain, 2005). The film Namastey London (2007) portrays the dilemma of being a young Indian woman in Britain who seeks friendship with British young men, but finally goes off into the sunset with an Indian groom, introduced by her father, who despairs of mixed romances and their unpleasant outcomes. The most recent Never Have I Ever series (streaming on Netflix) sets out to examine the angst-ridden life of a young Indian girl, who is viewed as ‘too westernised’ or ‘Americanised’ by her family and community but ‘too Indian’ by her peers. These films and series serve to endorse the complex emotions and experiences of young migrants who simultaneously inhabit plural cultures. There exists a diasporic space characterised by hybridity that bring outs how the transnational migrant is masquerading between multiple cultures. It is difficult to reduce the cultural colour of a transnational migrant to two countries, host and home, as a transitional migrant is seen to interact with other foreign communities. Being a transnational resident therefore brings out the possibility of experimenting with plural cultures. There is a mixing of cultures across South Asian societies that is visible in migrant contexts. Gayer locates the heterogeneity of roots in the South Asian context when he states that ‘if an Indian, a Pakistani or even an Indo-Pakistani diaspora does exist, it is not as a stable and unitary “transnational community” but rather as a plural society with flexible internal and external boundaries’ (2007). At the same time, when they emigrate, or seek to emigrate from their present contexts, all migrants have an expectation about their future in the destination country. As earlier mentioned, this is shaped largely by the experiences of others and by the narratives developed by the household and community that valorises migration. Such descriptions may sometimes exaggerate the well-being, wealth and employment opportunities available in destination countries. They nonetheless build an image in 20

Indians in Germany, for example, find it difficult to develop a sense of bonding with the host community (Meijering & van Hoven, 2003). There is distrust with regards to the policies of the destination country and a natural sentiment of belonging to the cultures of the host community does not develop. This may, however, have changed in recent years.

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the minds of potential migrants that results in a view of an imagined landscape that awaits migrants in destination countries. In drawing our attention to its difference from memory, Paul Ricoeur tells us, ‘imagination …has as its paradigm the unreal, the fictional, the possible, and other nonpositional features’, whereas memory is ‘our one and only resource for signifying the past-character of what we declare we remember’ (2004: 21). Memory is of that repertoire of images, emotions, representations which we have left behind or seek to be rid of whereas imagination provides hope for the future, through the contexts in which the migrant seeks to build her future potential and possibilities for upward mobility and transformation. No doubt imagination is coloured by memory, of the presence and extravagant lifestyles of transnational migrants in villages and small towns in India, of things learnt in high school or university and remembered as Europe’s rich cultural heritage, and of images seen in the media that celebrate it as a continent that appears to have a material life that far surpasses their present circumstances. Imagination pays a significant role in how we build imaginaries about the world,21 both what we know as well as the unknown. It is partly through imagination, and the imaginaries we generate, that we situate ourselves and our place in the world. It is also how we use ‘hope’ for a better world, for ourselves, our offspring, and the world in general. Jean-Paul Sartre argued that the imagination is ‘intimately connected with personal freedom, for to imagine is to escape from the world’ (as cited in Salazar, 2020: 770). Salazar argues that as sustained by the psychoanalytic view, ‘the imaginary is considered to be the realm of phantasy, an illusory realm from which we need to be freed by engagement with the real but, at the same time a necessary tool for humans to work through the “real” issues they encounter in their daily lives’ (Salazar, 2020: 770). Imaginaries, as well as the dreams and desires associated with them, also speak to us about personhood and how the self seeks to realise goals. Emigration goals, motivations and associated imaginaries are therefore about the self and personhood through means that enable the realisation of economic projects. The self is viewed here in the context of engagement with social life. In Mead’s formulation (1934, 2015), the self arises through engagement with social life. In this sense, I view the self as a socially constituted self. I depart from some psychological constructions of the self that focus on the view of the self as an individual phenomenon. My endeavour instead is to view the self in engagement with everyday life in the imaginaries and practices that constitute social relations. With Frances Pine, I suggest that ‘ideas about hope, freedom, and the future are not absent from most lives, even those that are highly disrupted, but rather can be seen to be deeply rooted in household, kin, and individual strategies such as those that develop around migration as people move between different economic regimes and registers and different temporalities’ (Pine, 2014: S103). As earlier noted, the desire of potential immigrants to move out of their present living conditions is based on 21

With Salazar, I define ‘imaginaries as culturally shared and socially transmitted representational assemblages that interact with the personal imagination and are used as meaning-making devices, mediating how people act, cognize and value the world’ (Salazar, 2020: 770).

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the experience of the lack of educational and/or employment opportunities, the lack of access to financial resources and a luxurious lifestyle, and is no doubt founded on a search for upward mobility. It is, however, simultaneously grounded in an imagination that defines for itself the promise that life on another continent possibly holds. Such an imagined perception of life is based perhaps on an unreal and fictional view of the ‘world out there’, which appears, from a distance, to be rich in financial, cultural and educational resources, apart from the material and social benefits that would apparently accrue as a consequence. It is also based on the culture of migration that exists in Punjab. In addition, the ‘showing off’ of their newly acquired wealth by returnee migrants creates aspirations among local residents who imagine that they will be able to access the same once they are able to attain their coveted goal of international migration. I examine the idea of imagined landscapes as those mental perceptions and images that shape an Indian immigrant’s ‘idea’ of Europe. In seeking to understand ‘imagined’ landscapes, I aim to go behind the obvious aspirations of individuals for better livelihood options and the underlying socio-economic factors that propel them towards such opportunities through migration. It is something in the imagination that constructs an imaginary and its surroundings that influences the already prevalent desire for upward mobility. Imagining a landscape is therefore an essential component of the process of migration: it is the mental construct, coupled with an economic objective, that undoubtedly fuels the physical act of migration. In this process, it is imperative to consider the location of the subject. The potential migrant’s location in the homeland is one register through which we may understand the impetus to the ways in which a migrant formulates a mental imagery of a foreign land. The imagined world, or a fragment thereof, is a unique subjective space, an imagined landscape, that exists in an abstract realm but is nonetheless grounded in the world of the everyday through the available imagery in different social and cultural contexts. In the case of potential migrants to Europe, mental constructs not only play a significant role in providing an impetus for migration; in fact, they serve as a catalyst for changing the life course of individuals who through their imagination construct the possibility of an alternate lived reality. In other words, the possibility of realising an unseen, imagined landscape is opened up through purpose, determination and hard work. On another register, the location of migrants in the physical territory of Italy provides a very different understanding of how they perceive Italy and indeed Europe. It is in the different understandings of ‘Europe’ as an alien land that the differences in the location of the migrant in the homeland become apparent.22 Imagination is opened up with vastly different ways depending on the level of education migrants have received, and whether they attended only secondary school or some form of higher education in a metropolis like Delhi or in a small town in the Punjab region.

22

All interviewed potential migrants referred to Europe as either Europe or the names of particular countries such as Italy, ‘German’ (for Germany) and referred to UK or ‘England’ as a separate country which they did not associate with Europe.

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These differences are apparent in the migrants’ articulation of their aspirations and dreams. For those migrants from rural regions, and thereby with limited economic, social and cultural capital, Europe appears as the land of opportunities where it is imagined that hard work enables them to earn money and improve the financial situation at home. As is well known, kin networks and community relationships in rural Punjab and elsewhere in India play a significant role in developing the motivation to emigrate. This perception of Europe as the ‘land of opportunity’ is fuelled by neighbours and family, who are immigrants in Europe and who provide them with rich descriptions of the lavish lifestyle and opportunities that await them. The dream to immigrate is thus born. Economic need is the prime defining characteristic of this desire so that even though the potential migrant understands that employment is scarce, hope lies in his perception that eventually, as one potential migrant said, he will earn ‘seventy times more than that in India’ (Manjeet, male, 22 years). There is in this construct an exaggerated understanding of what Europe means that is based not only on the unreal picture created for them by others but also on their own desire to emigrate and radically transform their lives. In this manner, aspirations find expression through imagination that in turn push emigration in different contexts. The experience of being a migrant is importantly constituted through the domain of affect. If we condense the discourse of the migrant merely in the backdrop of structural categories like nation-state, citizen and immigrant, we would miss out the complex web within which migrants exist and which may work parallel to the macro discourse and not submit to it. It becomes imperative to understand how these parallel worlds are constituted and framed through affect, to understand the nuances of the web of relationships between strangers and others. This is done through an understanding of the experience of belonging and difference articulated by both youth and adult migrants. Such an experience constructs identities in complex ways that are ambivalent both in their experience of being a migrant as well as part of an ethnic community experienced as problematic in many ways. The focus on youth is deliberate. In the literature on migration in and from the South Asian region, there has been an increasing emphasis on the categories of gender and age and the ways in which they impact the processes and outcomes of migration. In addition, the work of Centre for Contemporary Cultural Studies (1982), Brah (1996), Maira (2009), Fangen et al. (2012) stand out as significant markers of youth studies in understanding the relationship between race, racism and youth, unemployment, resisting cultures, dissenting forms of citizenship, and the like. However, work on the aspirations of Indian youth migrating to Italy and their experience as immigrants in this context is somewhat limited.23 Youth are the most significant category among the migrant community as they represent a movement toward the future both among members of this community as well as in the host community of which they are members. In the Indian immigrant community, who are the focus of my study, they are also perhaps first generation learners as opposed to 23

In the context of immigrant youth in Italy, work includes that of Colombo et al. (2009), Colombo and Santagatti (2010), Ravecca (2010), Riccio (2011) and Milone (2011).

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their parents who belong largely to the less educated and largely low-skilled category of dairy farm and factory workers, and petty daily wagers. In addition, gender emerges as a crucial differentiating factor in the ways in which the youth experience Italy and relationships within the ethnic community. The aspirations, dilemmas and anxieties of this category of the immigrant population is therefore of particular interest. Potential migrants in India seek to move into Europe as students, petty workers, skilled and low-skilled labour, riding on the back of family and ‘sponsors’, with the help of agents, ‘dalals’ and ‘kabutarwallahs’ (literally, man of pigeons) and negotiate a space for themselves in what at this point they consider the promised land.24 The circus has also been a significant route for illegal migration as the following narrative shows us. The long and circuitous route, filled with danger, low employment and poor living conditions, is indicative of the determination of the emigrant to realise his dreams. Bachhittar Singh, now middle aged, a welder and currently employed in Italy, left India when he was less than 20 years old. First he went to Kathmandu and stayed there for one week. Then he took a flight via Bangladesh to Yugoslavia. From Yugoslavia, he took a train to Istanbul and by foot crossed the border to Iran (agent took a group). It almost took one month to be smuggled into Iran and he started work in iron welding in Iran as his friends were there. The factory where he worked had given him a place to stay, and he illegally worked as a contract worker for a year. Then, he came back to Turkey. While he was still in Iran, a friend from Italy working in a circus sent him a letter saying that there was work in Italy. When he was 21, he came to Italy without a visa. He comments, ‘Pakistanis, Bangladeshis and Indians were not given visas easily. I went to Bulgaria for a visa, then to east Europe searching for visa. Not getting a visa in both the places, I went to Poland for visa and finally in Warsaw filled up form for Italian tourist visa. Came by train to north eastern Italy, to Trieste (on the border with Slovenia), and then went to my circus friend in Tuscany. I worked for seven years in circus (mechanical, welding, driving). Salary was less (only 22, 23 euros per week) and wife wasn’t there’. The two friends cooked on their own; there were also other Indians in Orfei circus, which was a family-owned circus. This circus is still there, he says. From Tuscany, Singh came to Fidenza with a puppet circus in 1989. He then got a factory job through Italian friends. The Italian who helped Singh used to ask him for water while in the circus that is how he made his acquaintance; this person took him to an employer in Fidenza, 24

The terms are significant: while ‘dalal’ is a more common term used in northern India referring to an ‘agent’ in general parlance, the term ‘kabutarwallah’ was used by potential migrants who explained it thus: a kabutarwallah who, like an agent, captures several pigeons and cages them before selling them in order for them to be set free. The identification of the migrant with the encaged pigeon indicates the migrant’s acknowledgement of the situation, that in order to be truly free, one must first pay the price for such freedom, not only in monetary terms but also allow oneself to be completely in the clutches of the agent who will supposedly organise everything (such as visa and travel documents, employment, etc.) to enable the free and unencumbered flight. That this does not always happen is well known as migrants endure difficult forms of transit to Europe often through inhuman conditions, arriving abroad to find themselves without any money or work. It is, however, viewed as the first step in the process of migration that is linked to the struggle and vicissitudes that a migrant endures in order to attain his or her imagined goal. See for example Jain (2007) who captures the harsh realities that such forms of migration take.

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where he became a regular migrant. It is the circus employment papers which helped him regularise his residence. Bachhittar Singh obtained Italian citizenship and his passport in 2003. Throughout this period, he was afraid (darr bhi lagta tha) of being arrested, deported, or even shot and being unable to pay back the loans he had taken back home. He now owns his own home and has a job in a factory, and seems quite satisfied with his life. Interestingly, his grown up children have Italian names, given by Italian friends, and his daughter even uses her Italian name in her passport! The acceptance and incorporation of the family into the Italian landscape seem fulfilled despite the initial challenges and travails that Singh did not allow to crush his spirit. The following narrative about Rajeev (male, 26 years) draws out the role of the family and community in international migration for the fulfilment of this dream. In addition, we learn how, in spite of an awareness of the difficulties that may be encountered abroad, the potential migrant still views it as an opportunity, not only in economic terms but also for the well-being and security it will bring him and his family. Rajeev tells us that his village is a close knit one and there is a lot of interaction between the villages in the same area. There is a sense of a community and there are several events where people from different villages offer advice and help. The migration process is a good example. At home, Rajeev has parents and his father always had the urge to go abroad. Since his childhood he wanted to stay outside the village. His father caught hold of an agent from a neighbouring village and his uncle provided him with the money for the journey. His father went to Italy in 1992 and worked there for few years. There was some ‘foul play’ done by an Indian middleman (an agent of some sorts) whom his father met in Italy who did not provide him with legitimate papers. It was very difficult for his father to get a job without a passport. With some sadness, Rajeev adds that he was for some time sleeping on the road on newspapers and could not even take a bath for two weeks. He finally found a job in a beer bar and the owner looked after him. However, after the owner’s death, his children behaved differently. His father has now returned to the village although he still has a long-term visa for five years; he might go back again but he is not that strong anymore. Presently, Rajeev’s younger brother is working in Rome in a supermarket where he has to carry goods in trolleys from the shop to the parking lot. It is not an easy job, Rajeev tells us and he sends money home to India every few months. Rajeev has recently got married and so he feels his responsibilities have increased. He says, ‘it is better to even sweep floors in Italy as you earn more than in India’. He has therefore come to the visa centre to apply for a tourist visa. His brother is a taxpaying resident in Italy and could call one member from his native land. Rajeev is using this opportunity to gain entry into Italy. He is hoping that he will find a job there and if his employer likes him, he would work towards extending Rajeev’s visa. He wants to eventually take his family to Italy but for that he has to earn a huge salary per month. To be able to earn that much is still a far-fetched dream. Rajeev adds, ‘The sad truth however is no matter how much you work you do not get paid more than a thousand euros’. In spite of knowing that life has hard and the income is moderate, the dream for immigration is not over. Rajeev has observed that every month ten people from his village and neighbouring villages, and around twenty

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from Pakistan and thirty from Bangladesh get up on a bus to head towards a foreign land. He says, ‘Villagers are gullible. Whenever someone comes back from abroad, they bluff a lot that life is very good outside. These people believe them blindly and plan to go abroad. They end up paying around Rs. eight to ten lakhs (approx. 13,000 to 15,000 euros) per head to the local agent who fixes their journey. The villagers who end up going out pay huge sums of money and have to work really hard for at least two years to pay the debt incurred while paying to the agent’. This is the story of the rural potential immigrant, who seeks a better life, at any cost, in the hope that there will be a great transformation in his life in the future. Potential migrants from rural India emphasise the extent to which they strive to realise their hopes by selling their land and property, paying huge amounts of money to agents to help them obtain the necessary documents, with often the entire family involved in helping the migrant achieve his dream. Work is the most important motivating factor. When asked about why a migrant seeks to go to Europe, a migrant’s young son replied, with surprise (at my inability to perceive the reason), ‘To work, kam karne ke liye. There [in India] we are involved in agriculture, here [in Italy] in dairy’. Even though there is an understanding that there is hard physical labour, and uncertainty about finding employment, the strength of their hopes lies in the imagined landscape that is so firmly entrenched as a real possibility in terms of its outcome as compared to the hardship and lack of opportunity in India. For potential migrants from urban India (millennial migrants), many of whom are youth in search of employment opportunities or seeking higher educational and work opportunities, perceptions of Europe are quite different. Their social and cultural capital compels them to view Europe as a land of great cultural and educational opportunity. Their mental constructs are based on literary, aesthetic and media sources that shape imagination in complex ways.25 This is an imagery that is based on a fascination for another culture, which is viewed as a land of great cultural history. Movement to Europe for these migrants, who have much higher levels of education than those from rural backgrounds, is a way to expand their consciousness through knowledge and to find avenues to upgrade their skills as well as explore new cultures. Rahul (male, 28 years), a young professional, is well educated and was working in India before he made a decision to work in Europe. He says he is not interested in earning money or moving up the professional ladder. In India, he had been a student of English literature and he wanted to explore the life worlds opened to him through literary texts. Europe has shaped his imagination as a spectrum of ‘rich history, daunting architecture, enduring literature and evolving art’. The books and poetry that he has read from Camus to Kafka to Wordsworth, the films of Bergman have all built up a visual and ideational collage in his mind. He said, ‘Bergman has this beautiful way using dark characters that shows the contrasting side of individuals, his characters would display different roles, you would get to see glimpses of European life and somewhere the banality of existence. If all the characters are put together it is like a 25

Media sources such as film festivals, photography and art exhibitions on European cultural and social life and lectures by visitors from Europe are organised in large cities only and are obviously accessible only to the educated middle classes in urban India.

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collage of Europe, there is a difference you see when you are actually there though, the visual spectacle is not as dynamic as the real Europe is so dynamic and diverse’. He always wanted to experience and soak in this visual spectacle. Rahul’s story conveys to us the deep influence of European texts and films on his imagination and emphasises how mental images about a particular place determine future choices. He is the quintessential millennial migrant! Young women at Delhi University (aged 18–22 years) also maintain an image of Europe based on literary sources and their view emphasises Europe as a land of cultural resources rather than merely a place to earn wealth. Such students have an informed understanding of Europe based on their education. They specifically point to for example the political situation and harsh immigration policies in France, and are well aware of the difficulties of living in Europe. For them, Europe is a place for higher education to obtain the required skills and experience and they would always seek to return to work in India. This bestows on them the status of youth in circulation who are uncommitted to migration as such. They may, however, stay on at some point of time and constitute the category of millennial migrants. Young people’s voices, whether from rural or urban India, point to the promise that Europe holds out to them in one way or another. It is either the land of wealth and opportunity, physical beauty and an ancient culture and civilisation. It is also a refuge from family pressures and constrained social life in conservative middle class families in India. One study points to the need among Gujarati youth from middle class families to move to London to earn money and ‘gain new experiences’, at the same time, however, seeking ‘to escape social pressure from the family by living independently’ (Rutten & Verstappen, 2012: 4). Such type of migration is referred to as ‘middling migration’ in an effort to understand the contradictory class experiences and ambivalence of the Gujarati youth as they traverse their life-worlds between Gujarat and London. All these images are intermingled in the different categories of youth and their mental construct of Europe thus frames their initial encounter with Europe.

2.7 Concluding Comments Humans today are mobile more than ever before. All movement is guided by economic choices that reflect a desire for material well-being and a hope for the social and emotional changes this will bring about. ‘Hope’ is central to migrants’ expectations and does not reflect, in the beginning, the dilemmas or upheavals they may experience in their lives as transnational migrants, belonging to many worlds at the same time. Inspired by the stories of others who ventured out before them, potential migrants start engaging with the idea of emigration and its possible benefits long before they set their plans in motion. They borrow money, pay unscrupulous agents who help them to cross borders, using legal and illegal means, and take varied routes to reach their destination. On arrival, they seek out employment and settlement. They try to work in a new environment, following orders, maintain a low profile, staying

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out of trouble and ensuring they keep their jobs. This is accompanied by multiple, complex and often contradictory processes of settling down: merging in with the host community, trying to stay aloof, ‘protecting’ traditional culture, norms and values, while simultaneously trying to ‘fit in’ by learning the language, customs and mores of the host community. The regulations of the state and its ramifications in everyday life are significant aspects of this process. Whether or not they have the necessary documents for their legal status in the new country is a state matter as is their ability to access health care and other welfare schemes essential for their well-being. In other words, ‘state thought’ as Sayad (2010) succinctly put it, regulates and shapes their life. Family relations nonetheless remain central to the experience of a migrant throughout this process and this is a crucial part of the analysis in this work. The family is the bedrock of all experience, providing strength and comfort, while simultaneously providing the space for difference, at loggerheads with integration, with the host community. The tensions this creates, not only within familial spaces, but in the context of the community and the public domain, need to be understood and unravelled. This work seeks to unpack some of these tensions and efforts at their resolution through individual and collective strategies of negotiation. The experience of women in this study, who primarily remain within the home, is particularly problematic, caught as they are in the twin worlds of patriarchal domesticity and an alien society that seeks to take over their culture as they know it. The experiences of Punjabi women, their position and their trajectories as migrants in Emilia-Romagna are examined in the following chapter.

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Chapter 3

Social Isolation, Uncertainty and Change: Women’s Experience of Mobility and its Consequences

Migrant women from Punjab come into Italy, through different routes, and find themselves buffeted from multiple quarters: the domestic space, which they experience differently if they are older women (mothers or mothers-in-law), or younger women (through marriage, or single), or a sibling, or a very young school girl, perhaps all inhabiting the same household space. This creates multiple experiences of gendered migration within a single household. At the same time, the woman migrant simultaneously inhabits a work environment and/or a cultural and social space outside the household. Undoubtedly, there are ‘inequities of power’ that are ‘generated by the compounding effects of intersecting identities over the life course of these women. Although there is variation among them, shifts in power experienced by older immigrant women from Punjab can render them invisible both within and beyond the family’ (Koehn, 2022: 39). It is apparent that an intersectionality approach is essential to understanding the woman’s life course as ‘intersectionality recognises power imbalances and discrimination, as well as the positive social service experiences of individuals, as unique to their constellation of intersecting identities, social roles and the broader social and political context in which they exist’ (Koehn, 2022: 39). Examining the multiple differences within the community, among different age sets, and domestic spaces, with women who may be working or stay-at-home mothers, makes it essential to understanding women’s experience in a heterogeneous and complex space. A brief news item on May 29, 2012, is about a 37-year-old Indian man, who works with cattle in northern Italy and kills his pregnant, ‘westernised’ wife because she wears western clothes which he perceives as a threat to his familial life (India Today, 2012). If other immigrants are to be believed, he also suspected her of having an affair with another man. In any case, his masculinity was threatened and for him, its restoration meant her annihilation, never mind if she was his wife, the mother of his three-year-old son and of another baby, yet to be born. Her family, who had lived in Tuscany for twenty years, could not save her from either her worsening marital

© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2023 M. Thapan, Work, Family and Integration, Migration, Minorities and Modernity 6, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-99-5581-7_3

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situation or from the extreme step taken by her husband.1 Although this incident took place more than ten years ago, domestic violence and upheaval are the reality for a number of the Punjabi migrant women who live in northern Italy, in isolated, rural households where their husbands tend to cattle and live in the broken down barns provided by the employers. Although this pattern is changing as women learn the language, start venturing out of the home and becoming independent, it is important to be cognisant of this social reality as well as of women’s efforts to change it. Apart from the situation women may face in the home, they are often victims of trafficking. It is increasingly apparent that the trafficking of men from the Punjab which is well established as kabootar baazi now extends to women as well. As a result of their desperation to emigrate and find a better life for themselves and their families, women in Punjab are lured into employment in Europe by travel agents. Italy is a preferred destination. However, they often find their passports taken from them on arrival, ostensibly for safekeeping, and they are later blackmailed and also face sexual exploitation (Gobbi, 2022). More than 26,500 Indian women work in Italy, according to the Ministry of Labour and Social Policies (Saikia et al., 2022). Many of them are Punjabi and work in the large agricultural cooperatives of Agro Pontino, about 100 km from Rome. Some of them have been trafficked and those who have been abandoned by their husbands and are alone, fending for themselves and their children, face sexual harassment and exploitation at the workplace (Saikia et al., 2022). They are afraid to speak out or report the men who harass them, and often suffer in silence. They need the work and the income; the fear of retaliation and stigmatisation in the community is also strong. This is, however, changing with the interventions of NGOs and local activists who help them register complaints and seek redressal. In the region under study, Fidenza and its environs, however, human trafficking, especially of women, is not the norm. Almost all the women in this area have come to Italy through the family reunification route, to join their spouses already working in Italy. More recently, younger women have been coming for ‘study purposes’; they are different from the married women as they are single and come alone to Italy for study. They choose this reason as it is well known for agriculture and food-related activities, including farming, cheese making, the production of balsamic vinegar, and a particular kind of gastronomy. Many young women students choose to study engineering and medicine as well (Interview with worker in social services, Parma). Punjabi households in the region, however, have a fair share of domestic violence. As a social services worker says, more so, unemployment during and after the Covid19 pandemic has resulted in greater incidents of domestic upheavals as men are frustrated and take it out on the family. Many of the complainants are young women, with very young children, and because they have some education and networking skills, they are able to reach out to the authorities, make complaints and talk about their harassment. Although there is an anti-violence shelter provided by the Italian authorities for all such cases, many women retract their complaints due to pressure from family members. Some women do, however, stay in the shelter for some time 1

Source India Today (2012).

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before going back home or seeking other ways out of their predicament (Interview with worker in social services, Parma). Contrary to the opinion among some members of the Italian community, all Indian women are not victims, slaves to domestic labour and male domination, excluded from decision making, and inhibited by custom and tradition. Younger women, especially, seek out an independent role for themselves in the new society they now inhabit while older women also mark out the tools necessary for them to become accepted members in the local community. They also devise strategies to augment their education through language training, learning new skills, experimenting with different livelihood opportunities and finding a space for themselves as active members of the community. At the same time, for those women unemployed and engaged in domesticity in Punjabi households, the experience of social isolation is stark in their fraught experience of being marginalised and excluded in both the domestic sphere as well as in the social worlds they inhabit.2 It is an embodied, social and cultural experience in transnational spaces. Isolation in this case is not only that which excludes, marginalises and separates but is also sought after as that experiential mode that proffers safety, security and a closed form of belonging. However, educated women seek to gain access to a social world that remains for the present outside their grasp. What forms of belonging to women seek, to fulfil their private, individual goals as well as their social commitments? Are there dimensions of sociality that are individually transcribed and culturally scripted? How are these strategically negotiated and navigated? How do women migrants seek to transcend given forms of inclusion to create new ‘ways of belonging’?3

3.1 Punjabi Women in Emilia-Romagna As noted in Chap. 1, there are a total of 8265 Indian women in Emilia-Romagna (www.tuttitalia.it).4 Of these, a large percentage are Punjabi women as they are present in the region primarily as spouses of the Punjabi farmers working in the dairy industry in the region.5 To begin with, women’s migration from India falls into two categories. One is the lesser known category of single, educated women arriving in Italy through kin networks primarily in search of employment, and perhaps, later marriage. Families in the Punjab in India are increasingly seeing this as a strategic form of migration and as a long term strategy for settlement, not just of the concerned 2

For a review of gender, family and migration, see Koehn (2022), Brettell (2012a), and in the context of Italy, see Andall (2000). See also Campani (2000), Chell-Robinson (2000), Salih (2003), Thapan (2005), Metz-Gockel et al. (2008). 3 See Levitt and Glick Schiller (2007) who distinguish between ‘ways of being’ and ‘ways of belonging’ in social fields. 4 See Table 1.3, Chap. 1. 5 The exact figure of Punjabi women and men in the region is not known as there is no available data on this specific aspect.

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woman but of members of her family back home. These women are educated, with undergraduate and sometimes postgraduate degrees, and arrive in Italy through a sister or cousins, often having paid money to do so, but are unable to find a job, especially in Fidenza or Parma. However, in Cremona, they often find employment in coat stitching factories where hand stitching work is required. Once they settle down, they continue the tradition of enabling the mobility of other kin through marriage and other reunification strategies that serve to only enhance their own position in the marriage market in India. The more common form of migration among women is that of dependent migration, primarily through marriage. Most of these women have a little education, sometimes more than their husbands, and experience a double burden of exclusion: prevented by their partners from working outside the home or going out into Italian society, many women remain indoors out of what they consider their own choice. At the same time, their lack of familiarity with the Italian language restricts their mobility and interaction with the host community. However, many younger women who come through this route of marriage migration are learning the language and are searching for employment of any kind, making a shift in the organisation of the labour market as they enter the fields of domestic work, care of the elderly and child care. This is the result of an increasingly ageing local population in Italy, which has contributed to an increase in demand for female work in the tertiary sector, especially in the context of services to individuals and families (Trappolini & Giudici, 2021).6 Some ethnic communities are however preferred over others, such as Filipinas over Punjabi women for care of the elderly. However, younger Punjabi women are increasingly finding work as domestic help in Italian households, and in making a beginning in entering this informal sector of the labour market. Being in Europe has certainly brought change in Punjabi women’s lives: the children are in good schools, they have financial security, but some of the older generation women say they have ‘sinking hearts’ (doobta dil), deadened by lack of engagement with the world around them. At the same time, the family and family honour remain paramount to their way of being, whether in India or in Italy. Hence, family honour, enabled by migration, compels them to follow their partners into unknown territories and compliance to patriarchy obliges them to obey the rules set by the traditional head of the household. The family is crucial to the migratory project of the Punjabi community in EmiliaRomagna and elsewhere in Italy as well. The decision to emigrate is never an individual decision, but taken by the family as a whole, or within the community. There is a strong network of family and kin that works well in furthering the mobility of family members over a period of time. Migration for the Indian immigrant is therefore a ‘kind of collective investment, of which the main beneficiary is the family, which derives financial resources and social prestige from the investment of its human 6

A new category of migrant caregivers (badanti) has emerged in Italy. ‘As female labour market participation increased, migrant women started replacing Italian women in their role as carers of the elderly, maintaining the Italian tradition of family care for ageing parents’ (Trappolini & Giudici, 2021: 222).

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resources abroad’ (Compiani & Quassoli, 2005: 146). In other words, the centrality of the family and the significance of kin networks is critical. Kin networks are central to the lives of Punjabi and Sikh migrants and function as not only sponsors for the immigration of other individuals and families but also ‘by enabling and controlling the integration of newcomers into the Italian labour market and society’ (Bertolani, 2012: 68). The family plays a definitive role in the migrant’s life, exercising social control, especially over generations and sets the rules for the maintenance of traditions and customs imported from India. These are crucial to the life of the immigrants and set the tenor for relationships within the family, between spouses, with the children and with members of the older generation who often reside with the son and his family. The content of culture is therefore primarily determined by family members for whom the status of migrant brings social prestige and honour, in the transnational context, both in Italy but more importantly, in the community in Punjab. However, older Punjabi women, a neglected and understudied category in migration, often experience more loneliness and isolation, their only encounter with members of the community taking place in the religious centre of the temple or the gurudwara.

3.2 ‘Doobta dil’ (sinking hearts): Strategising to Cross the Divide Social isolation is not an experience that emerges from women’s past experience in the Punjab, or even in other regions of India, where women are surrounded by family and have access to other women friends and members of the community. Isolation is therefore very much an outcome of international migration. It is the cause of the psychological experience of complete loneliness, psychological exclusion and loss by women who are house-bound and prevented from seeking employment or moving outside the home. At the same time, there is an effort by women to move out of this experience through seeking medical help in some cases and pursuing an engagement with the Italian population in different ways. In this way, this chapter seeks to emphasise that recognition of one’s condition, and the limitations it gives rise to as well as the struggle for its resolution are important aspects of being a woman migrant in northern Italy. Members of the host community (especially school teachers and social workers) unfailingly complain about the inability of Indian women to visit their children’s school because ‘they don’t drive’, ‘they don’t speak the language and don’t want to learn either, don’t want to mix with Italian people, or they want to stay separately’. Their responsibility to participate, to integrate with the host society, is therefore reiterated by these officials/agents of the state who are appalled at the lack of will among the Indian community, as compared to other ethnic groups. They add that they are willing to work with them but find Indians ‘a closed community, who listen to their own music, speak their own language, watch their own television channels, and do not seek out participation in Italian society in any way’. An obstetrician

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also commented, ‘Indian women are pregnant all the time. They have no idea about contraception and never ask either. Their husbands will ask’. Being ‘pregnant all the time’ is clearly not an actual fact and reflects the doctor’s stereotype about Indian women. The doctor added that the most striking demand from the Indian men is to know the sex of the foetus and if it is a girl child, they seek to abort it. The women tell her that they will be forced to do the abortions whether or not they want to when the doctor counsels them that abortions after 12 weeks are illegal in Italy. This form of gender discrimination, according to the Italian doctors, exists only among the Indian community and has been increasing in recent years. This is the most damning indictment of the community and a point of cultural difference that surpasses all forms of understanding for the Italian medical community. The medical doctors add, ‘Most Indians have scabies and tuberculosis is common amongst them. Diabetes is also very common among young Indians, as early as 15 or 16 years of age. Indian patients are never punctual, and they always ask for an injection. Italian patients come to us for prevention but Indian patients come only when they are sick’. There is also a constant comparison with other migrant communities by the medical practitioners, and the Indian men are constructed as more ‘weird’ (strange) and the women more isolated, than other communities. This is a form of labelling, on the part of medical personnel, without empathy or understanding. Such a form of labelling exists within a ‘politics of victimisation’ wherein there is a racialisation of migrant women. This is a form of ‘symbolic violence’ that takes place within the ‘gender power field’ that is intersected by race and class (Bimbi & Vianello, 2012). It reflects the view that women who do not speak the same language as ‘us’, and are so dominated by their male partners, are necessarily doomed to a life of misery and hopelessness and locked into a world where no movement or liberation is possible.7 State-thought promoting difference through various rules and decrees for migrants appears to influence the views of Italian service providers. The articulation above by Italian doctors is indicative of a shutting out of an ethnic community for its apparent self-closure, an unwillingness to explore the dimensions of participation and what it entails for members of all communities, how the paths of being a migrant are traversed, how they both complicate and are also confounded by the predilections of being unemployed, and dilemmas of being woman, isolated and ‘foreign’ in another society. Among the medical workers, there appears to be a lack of understanding of migrants’ worlds and the possibly compelling reasons that they remain embedded in their culture and find themselves shut out of social worlds. A humanitarian approach to understanding and dealing with health care of immigrants, irregular, or otherwise, thus appears to be lacking.8 In a study of humanitarian exceptions in healthcare practices with irregular migrants in Italy, Perna (2020) notes that the medical workers, 7

In another context, for an excellent work on the theme of the suffering of the immigrant, see Sayad (2004). 8 For a timely study of ‘humanitarian exceptions’ in healthcare practices for irregular migrants in Italy, see Perna (2020). She has a scathing critique of the medical establishment: ‘Far from providing care, they acted as immigration gatekeepers and national saviours, assessing MIS’ deservingness of healthcare on the basis of the ‘moral righteousness’ of a person’s migratory history’ Perna (2020: 143) MIS: Migrant with Irregular Status.

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including doctors, nurses and administration ‘evoked a tension between an ideal conception of humanitarian care and its practical implementation on an everyday level, establishing a hierarchy of migrants’ deservingness of care based on economic grounds’ (Perna, 2020: 139). Migrants, especially women and those who may be economically disadvantaged and have not been incorporated into a regular status in the country have a particularly hard time with the establishment. Contrarily, Indian women’s stories about Italian neighbours abound with gratitude for their generosity and positive attitude towards migrants. Meena, a young married woman, shares that when she first came to Italy she worked as a domestic help with an Italian family close by. They were very generous in paying her for her services, sometimes leaving her a little extra money. Meena can never forget these acts of generosity and says she was kindly helped by her Italian neighbours as opposed to members of her own community who failed to stand by her side. Her positive attitude towards members of the host community is echoed by other Punjabi women. Another young woman, Maya, has a close friend in Sabrina, an Italian activist and farmer, who has not only been a sounding board for all her problems with others, especially her family, but has also provided her with good advice and is a ‘real friend’, she says. While families of Indian origin do not stay apart for long periods due to their propensity for family reunification, political and economic control makes them seek out forms of self-closure and emotional self-sufficiency so that they are not dependent on external factors or agencies for any form of ‘help’. In addition, there is a way in which ‘immigrant family life is disciplined by a system of political controls bound to strict economic requirements that impact the geographical location of their intimate relationships’ (Bonizzoni, 2011: 327). The only exception appears to be the Catholic Church with whom there is interaction in a friendly, interactive and socially productive way.9 While I therefore do not want to emphasise a cultural approach to integration or neglect the structural dimensions that affect integration, it is important to identify the strategies that emerge from within family lives, from religious centres, and local initiatives enabling integrative processes as much as they preclude them. There is a heterogeneity in the Indian community, which is however perceived as a broad homogeneity by the host community. The differences between women are important and the diverse strategies used by women need to be recognised. For purposes of analysis, I divide migrant women in this region into roughly three categories although these categories are not distinct and there may be many more differences or merging across categories than what is observable. The underlying connections between the categories lies in the women’s forms of engagement and participation in the host society. Caroline Brettell refers to such forms of engagement as ‘civic’ in nature, i.e. ‘how immigrants become civically engaged and hence construct, with their own agency, a sense of “belonging” in their new home that may or may not have to do with … political indicators’ (Brettell, 2012b: 133). Such forms of engagement lie outside legal and formal citizenship norms and are to be 9

I observed this not just in Fidenza, but in Busetto where the Catholic priest made it a point to visit Punjabi Hindu families who were clearly not part of his congregation on a weekly basis providing them with friendship and support.

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understood in the context of agency and a search for belonging through various forms of behaviour. As Brettell puts it, ‘people claim citizenship and belonging through what they do, not through what is accorded to them’ (Brettell, 2012b: 132). At the same time, it would be presumptuous to assume that all Indian immigrant women partake in such activities; there are variations among them depending on social class, educational levels and motivation for asserting their rights for civic participation and ultimately, integration. The first category is of those women who do not have very high levels of education and are mostly house-bound, and yet, they must find ways of connecting with the world, from within that space. Nayanjyot is in her thirties, she lives in a large independent house, owned by her husband and her brother’s family, who live on the ground floor, while Nayanjyot lives upstairs with her husband their two children. She is not allowed by her husband to work outside the home. She says she would like very much to go out to work so that she can earn some extra money and have an income that she can call her own. She only goes with her husband to the Sikh temple, the gurudwara, which constitutes her main social activity. In her words, ‘I have great love for the language here but cannot do much. I don’t have time to learn the language. My daughter’s teacher gave me a telephone number to call for learning the language but I have not done it yet. I have a licence to drive but can’t really do it. I am afraid of driving. I can’t help the children with the Italian home-work, so I would have loved to drive (and learn the language). But my husband does not encourage me to learn it, he asks me, tumne kaunsa professor banna hain? (You are not planning to become a professor, are you?) So it is very difficult’, she concludes. Her husband does not allow her to go anywhere and when they are free, they spend time with each other. Nayanjyot’s desire to learn Italian, drive a car for which she has a licence, to go out and work, is suppressed by her because of her commitment to her family and its stability. In other words, she is trapped within the clutch of patriarchy. At the same time, she has found strategies for circumventing the controls exercised over her by her partner whose authority must remain paramount in the domestic sphere. In other words, Nayanjyot must submit her desires to maintain her partner’s sense of self as a dominant male and yet realise her goals as much as she can. She uses the domestic space to sew clothes and is a seamstress within the Indian community. She thus tries to establish linkages with other women although she cannot do the same with members of the host community. She is able to share and enrich her somewhat lonely life through some interaction in the Sikh temple. At the same time, she is reconciled to being at home as the home atmosphere, she says, is good and her husband is ‘nice’ and this enables her stay at home as that is what she has to do: andar hi rehna hai (I have to stay inside). Nayanjyot also finds succour in religious experience that she now insists is fundamental to her identity as a ‘good’ Sikh. She visits the gurudwara regularly and on her visits to India, sees this as a major expedition, spending a week in a different gurudwara each time, she says, to experience her religion. Nayanjyot is not alone in clutching at religion for engaging with others, with her ‘true self’ and at the same time, portraying herself in ways that are appropriate to the community, thereby gaining for herself a status, bestowed by her attachment to her religious identity, within the community. She must

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maintain family honour at all costs and for her, the perfect solution is the religious experience, acceptable to all. This, however, further marks her ethnic identity. She now continuously wears a black headscarf putting her into a unique ‘cultural’ slot vis-a-vis the host community who see her within an essentialised trope of belonging to a religiously marked ethnic community.10 For women such as Nayanjyot, her unspoken and invisible aspirations will be fulfilled she imagines by the children in the family: she wants to help one of her daughters to become a doctor as she could never realise that dream herself as she was poor and there was no one to guide her. Nayanjyot’s eleven-year-old daughter, however, aspires for a career in design but this does not trouble Nayanjyot because she knows that her daughter will in any case have a more successful life than hers. Nayanjyot’s tears and her silence spoke clearly about the emotional agony she undergoes as a result of complete exclusion that comes out of her own domestic space. She is captive to her family but will never go against it. The metaphor of ‘sinking hearts’11 for the women of Indian origin is therefore not without significance. Women in such a condition, however, do seek out help by turning to medical doctors for relief, to religion for sustenance, and to their children and domestic space as that haven that will ultimately liberate them. Nonetheless, this category of women experiences social isolation and its outcomes in the most severe manner. The second category of women include those who are educated, and choose to stay at home to take care of very young children or the elderly. They are critical of other Indian women and families whom they view as bringing a bad name to the community as a whole through their attitudes towards themselves and the host community. Raminder is in her thirties and first came to Italy, as a young bride, following her husband who works with cattle at a dairy farm near Fidenza. She has a Commerce (Honours) degree from a college in Punjab, and met her husband, who has a postgraduate degree, while they were both students. Raminder hoped to find employment in Italy and learnt coat stitching by hand to find employment as a seamstress in a factory but was unable to do so. Once she was pregnant with her first child, she decided to give up her search for employment and focus on her home and children.12 She has an opinion about other Indian women (in the first category) whom she finds depressed and sick primarily due to ‘being neglected by their husbands’, as she put it. Such women find comfort in frequently visiting India and often complain of being depressed (by saying they have been bewitched ‘mere te kitne jadu kar ditta’) in order to draw attention to themselves. These families indulge in the practice, associated with wealthy Punjabi families, of ‘showing off’ 10

Subsequent to the interview, Nayanjyot was driving her car and visiting the children’s school to interact with the teachers. More recently, with extended family support, she and her family have moved to the UK for better work opportunities. Her daughter has recently been accepted at Oxford University for admission into the doctoral programme in the sciences. 11 This phrase is provided by an Italian psychiatrist in his description of the Indian women who come to him for treatment: they all complain to him of ‘sinking hearts’ which he construes as an outcome of their loneliness, despair and complete seclusion. 12 Now that her children have grown up, Raminder has found employment and is happy to be working outside the home.

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through an excessive display of wealth even though they may not use any heating at home. Raminder seeks to distance herself from such families whom she feels convey an incorrect picture about all Indians to the host community. There is in her analysis a class bias as she considers this category of Indians as a ‘low class category’ of uneducated and inactive Indian women. Her main concern is to show the host community that ‘we are not a part of that category of Indian people who are uneducated’. This stay-at-home mother therefore has worked hard to establish a very good relationship with teachers in her children’s school which she regularly visits with her husband. She has started hosting a stall at the Parent Teacher Meeting (PTM) dinner where she makes it a point to highlight some aspect of Indian culture whether it is through the display of Indian clothes or jewellery or with the inclusion of some other cultural form. Through the showcasing of Indian crafts and culture, Raminder wants to ‘change the Italian mentality towards us. It may not be a five-star reception’, she says, ‘but time will tell…’. Eventually, she hopes that Italians will recognise the differences among Indians and appreciate her for what she considers her ‘genuine’ efforts for civic engagement; already, she proudly asserts that teachers at school have been asking about her and she is clearly thrilled that her creativity and presence is being acknowledged.13 This category of Indian woman is markedly different from the first one as through a form of civic engagement in a public school, she seeks to change the Italian mind-set about the Indian community.14 Women like Raminder may not be the norm in the community of immigrants who reside in the rural areas around Fidenza. There are other stay-at-home married women who step outside only to learn the language and are cognisant with the discrimination they encounter. Tanvi, a young woman whom I meet in the adult language class in Busetto, tells me that earlier they did not experience any discrimination. She adds, ‘Now there are too many of us, so the Italians are fed up, and say that gand paa rahein hain (they are creating dirt). In the apartment complex where I live, they say our children make too much noise and they complain to the officials about us’. She regrets coming to Italy but there is no going back as there is no employment in Punjab. Moreover, her children are in school here and refuse to return to India, ‘so hum phas gaye hain’ (we are stuck), Tanvi adds. Another reason she feels that they cannot return to India is because people there ‘are dying to come here’. In other words, her return would symbolise failure and an accompanying loss of face. By learning the language, she hopes she is taking one step forward to her inclusion in the informal labour market so that it becomes worth her while to be away from home. There are strategic forms of intervention that must be recognised and addressed within an overall framework that views women as agents in search of different methods through which engagement may take place.

13

Cf. Brettell (2012b) who examines the relationship between Indian women migrants in the US and the Parent Teacher Association (PTA) in their children’s schools. 14 There is in their articulation a consideration of caste and class issues that remain unspoken but present. In other words, they point to themselves as being ‘different’ from those other Indians who are poor, ‘illiterate’ or belong to low castes.

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At the same time, cultural difference itself may also result in an organised effort to combat difference, marginalisation and exclusion through forms of engagement in the public sphere. Emerging from the emotional desire and need of one woman for what she describes as the ‘Indian feeling of togetherness’, she formed the only organisation (in northern Italy) that exists for Indian migrant women for their integration into Italian society. This is Navchintan (literally, nai soch, new thoughts or new beginnings) in Arizganano near Vicenza. Navchintan is an association, with other Indian members, started by Monisha in October 2010. The woman behind it is a fiery Monisha Kumar who came to Italy in 1993, soon after her wedding in 1992. She is well educated with a B.A. from Guru Nanak Dev University in Amritsar, in Punjab, and a B.Ed. from Maharishi Dayanand University, Rohtak. Her parents are educated Punjabis: her mother used to teach Hindi in a school in Phagwara in Jalandhar district while her father was a sergeant in the Indian Air Force. Monisha works in the tanning industry as a colour coordinator and also as a cultural mediator with the local government and is part of the very small but significant category of independent and activist Punjabi women. The inception of Navchintan lies in Monisha’s experience of cultural loss, of having lost the feeling of togetherness and of being completely alone; this compelled her to initiate an organisation that would be concerned with the welfare of Indian women in Italy. It was at a moment of personal loss of a cultural experience that is firmly rooted in a particular festival in India, that she experienced the emotion of reaching out to others. Teej, the Hindu festival that she pined for, is renowned for its celebratory flavour. Hindu married women celebrate Teej for marital bliss, by fasting for the well-being of their husbands and children. There is a lot of singing, dancing and feasting at the end of the fast. A significant aspect of the festival is the application of henna, mehndi, on the hands and feet of married women and Monisha longed for the application of mehndi and the fragrance of mehndi in her new life in Italy. She asserts that it was out of this sense of cultural loss that the urge to seek togetherness within the Indian community was born to help herself and other women to engage more meaningfully with the world around them. The main aim of this organisation is to ‘teach Indian women how to interact with school teachers, doctors, other Italians’. At the same time, Monisha realises the need to mobilise women against domination and urges them to come out and participate in different events and activities. Using the colloquial ‘appe’ (we), she addresses them at a meeting, telling them that ‘we ourselves need to do everything ourselves and change our lives, not depending on any external help’, adding ‘we need to work shoulder to shoulder (mode laga ke) to change the world’. Monisha belongs to that category of rare women who mobilise other women for change and independent decision making. She is very motivated, organises several meetings on a weekly and monthly basis, and is deeply loved in the community for her sincerity, hard work and leadership capacities. Women want change and unable to take the first step themselves, turn to Monisha and Navchintan for help. Initially, Monisha sought funds from the Mayor for language classes which she conducted for Indian women at times suitable to them. Slowly, however, the funds for language classes has dried up and now Monisha has found another way to seek

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out integration: by involving the Italian community in Indian cultural events. She has therefore organised cultural events where, along with other Indian women, has dressed up an Italian woman as an Indian bride and asked her to play out her role expressing appropriate emotions. Similarly, an Italian man was dressed up as an Indian bridegroom and all the nuances of Hindu weddings were shared with the Italian community who attend these cultural and dance shows in large numbers. ‘They must experience our lives as we experience them’, says Monisha. Through such forms of mutual interaction, Monisha hopes to bridge the gap between the Indians and Italians. She says, ‘it is not just about us learning how to speak Italian and live like Italian people. They too must learn to live like us’. Culture in this view is a shared, mutually constructed culture, far from an idea of a single monolith cultural trope that seeks to integrate or appropriate another culture within it. Monisha’s effort is to attain some modicum of co-integration through cultural processes and practices that celebrate many cultures. Monisha’s story also shows us that it is also an experience of cultural loss on the one hand that seeks out a cultural merger on the other. This is the most fascinating part of Monisha’s construction of her experience of strangeness and exclusion and of wanting change, not by a return to her own culture, but in this territory, which is now her home, of being instrumental in the cultural merging of different cultures. This cultural inscription of integration has emerged from an individual trajectory but is nonetheless oriented towards a collective effort to bring about change. At the same time, the three, and perhaps several other, categories of women exist at the intersections of not only gender relations but also class, status, and education that are constructed on the shifting axes of domination and agency and are no doubt essential to their differing experience of migration. In seeking to understand the relationship between gender and generation, we move to a consideration of the experience of young women in high school in Fidenza and in Cremona, where we once again encounter the experience of social isolation and seclusion.

3.3 ‘Kuchh kho gaya hai’ (something is lost): Young Girls and Social Exclusion in High School The relationship between gender and generation is complex and fraught with the dilemmas of being older, uneducated, married, or elderly and widowed, and ‘alone’ in Italy on the one hand. Being educated, single, young and also very much ‘alone’, on the other hand, is also part of the experience. Young girls in high school in Cremona are rather explicit about the forms of social exclusion they experience that tends to push them back into their safe havens of the family and community. Seventeen year old Sukhvinder for example wants to return to India, as ‘everything is there’: food, family, the family home in the Punjab. Dada, dadi (grandparents) are there, father’s sister is also in Punjab. There is also the realisation that this will not actually happen

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as if she studies in Italy, she will most likely look for a job in Italy. She says, about her life here, ‘There is a change in my life, in my bol chal (behavior) but inside no real change, I do not know why’. She goes out with school friends in Cremona and shops for clothes but with other Indian friends only, khule dil naal (literally, with a free heart). Being here is very different from India; she had thought that it would be very good bahut vadiya but found it difficult as did not know the language and the way of life. In India, it is more free khula khula, here she stays inside the house. The family remains integral to her self-definition as it is in the family that she finds comfort, in the memories of family left behind and in the family that is present. She concludes, ‘family means sab kuch (everything)’. Manjit initially felt good about going abroad, Europe was considered very beautiful, ‘I was scared also thinking if I am not able to adjust with other people or merge with them. When I left Punjab, I was crying and crying, my eyes were swollen, left the little cousins whom I knew since their birth and they played in my lap, left my school friends with whom I played. I felt kuch kho gaya hain, wapas nahi milna. (I have lost something and will never get it back)’. Manjit has, however, never returned to India, due to financial and familial constraints. Family in this case is tied not only to the emotional experience of togetherness but also to the experience of loss, with that of territory, home, friends, neighbours, that accentuates the feeling of being out of it all, homeless, rudderless and afloat in this uncertain world that now constitutes the everyday in a swiftly changing world of experience. At the same time, it is family here to which woman now clings as that resource that offers safety and comfort, in spite of the oppression, differentiation and domination, from the exclusion outside. The experience of belonging depends on relationship and interaction, emotional ties, and an attachment borne of interaction and togetherness. Being different excludes the feeling of belonging and emphasises the feeling of marginalisation. As Colombo et al. put it, ‘The place that is experienced as one’s own and as the basis of the fundamental experience of feeling “at home” is construed … within relational and imaginative dimensions, rather than within a spatial one’ (2009: 40). The bodily and sensory experience of difference is a very critical part of the experience of ‘who’ you are as an immigrant. Young students of Indian origin in high school say that their bodies are experienced as ‘smelly’ by other students.15 They are often told that their food smells, or their hair smells, or their bodies smell: that in any case they give off a smell that is experienced as distasteful and abhorrent by the host community. There is an intense feeling of loss of embodiment and this, for the Indian students, is most degrading experience of difference that they have encountered in their everyday life. They cannot change their bodies and therefore the sense of being different and other is in some sense permanently marked and fixed through their embodied existence. This is also linked to the humiliation that emanates from a marked and therefore stigmatised reality. Goffman refers to stigma as an attribute for example ‘when a person 15

This is the most humiliating form of exclusion experienced by migrants caused by an acute feeling ‘of temporal and bodily disjuncture’ that occurs when ‘other bodies do not respond as anticipated’ (Wise, 2010: 923).

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is reduced in our minds from a whole and usual person to a tainted, discounted one’ (Goffman, 1963: 3). He adds, ‘its discrediting effect is very extensive; sometimes it is also called a shortcoming, a failing, a handicap’ (Goffman, 1963: 3). However, stigma is not only an individual experience with the individual as ‘the sole bearer of value’ (Das, 2001: 2). Veena Das has instead argued that ‘the concept of culture comes to rest on the notion of shared values and representations with rather less attention to the nuances through which culture is in fact embodied or actualized in individual lives’ (Das, 2001: 2). While Punjabi young girls in high school experience this ‘spoilt identity’, as Goffman (1963) put it, the experience of stigma is not limited to their individual self alone. Talking about and sharing of this identity at home with the family is a necessary part of the healing process as the Punjabi family in Italy, especially mothers and siblings, share the experience, offer support, and suggest ways of overcoming the difficulty. In the Punjabi household, therefore, stigma is experienced not only by an individual but importantly, is a familial experience, which makes it an intense experience of loss of identity, wrapped in emotional states of dissonance, humiliation and exclusion. At the same time, Punjabi girls in high school view Italian adults largely in terms of their experience of the Indian community in Italy who suspect them of having boyfriends and gossip about this endlessly among themselves. Italian adults, on the other hand, are on the whole ‘more loving and gentle’ and treat them with respect. Nonetheless, even these young girls did not hesitate to point out that they are ‘different’ from the Italians who are of the view that Indians do not interact with them. This is accentuated by their experience of the Indian community as quarrelsome and difficult which is not appreciated by the Italians and this, the girls say, makes them ‘feel bad’. The exclusion from Italian society due to being part of this kind of ‘weird’ Indian family over the years results in difficulties among themselves. As we can see, gender is critical to how Punjabi youth view the other: girls value relationships with Italian youth and teachers and seem to desire such relationships in order to successfully achieve their goals of integration. This is, however, not the case with all Punjabi boys who emphasise difference and accept the fraught situation, seeking to avoid conflict with members of the Italian community, and yet, seeking to further their goals.

3.4 Difficult Circumstances, Changing Contexts For young women, the struggle with the parents and family for independence is complex. Young women rebel against the impositions laid down by the family but simultaneously seek out the safety and security of family life despite their urge for freedom and autonomy. Kirti, 21 years old, a student at university in Reggio Emilia, said, ‘Girls are considered the problem of the family. So, you have to keep their respect. If a boy does something, it’s no problem. But if a girl does something, it’s a big problem’. This ‘something’ could be as simple as talking to a boy, going out somewhere after school hours, chatting with friends on the phone, or not informing

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parents of their whereabouts. Indian families in Italy ‘are very traditional’. Kirti elaborates, ‘First I have to study, then work for two to three years, then they say they will search for a “suitable groom” for me, and then they tell me, “you can work if you want”. I have to fight with my parents to let me study in the university’. Kirti’s parents, her father is a farmer and mother, a homemaker, would have liked her to start working immediately after high school but Kirti wanted to study at university. Kirti’s Sri Lankan friends tell me she is a ‘good girl’ and that her family must give her more freedom. They think Kirti’s family gives more importance to boys and sees her as a problem, a weight, as Kirti clarifies, ‘bojh’. Kirti says, ‘Izzat (honour) is tied to marriage. As soon as she marries, the weight will be over. The girl is settled. That is what they think.’ At the same time, Kirti knows that she can communicate with her family and she says that that is very ‘good’ as she first talks to her mother, and through her, to her father. In a way, she is able to manipulate them to her advantage and so she remains committed to the family and her place within the family. She insists that she ‘loves’ her family and is therefore committed to the project of the family and its high place in the Indian community that valorises the family and the role of the family above all else. Undoubtedly, the family and the household are significant spaces in which identities are not just constituted but also performed, negotiated and reformulated. It is often the case that young Punjabi women may have some higher education but they do not have any work experience before arrival in Italy through marriage. In recent months, only one among new arrivals had worked as a school teacher in Punjab. They find language is a huge barrier and even though they start learning Italian, it is very ‘slow process’ of integration. Some find employment in a supermarket or as labour in a factory. They may also get into an administrative position with education and after learning Italian. Earlier, young women wanted to do traditional courses like hotel management or beauty parlour work. Now, however, young Punjabi women in the area are seeking out higher education programmes in accounts, tourism, and other professional and technical courses. Many second-generation young women go into engineering or medical fields (Interview with a worker in social services, Parma). However, this does not mean they have greater independence at home. Marriage is still the ‘biggest’ issue for Indian parents who want their daughters to be wed while they are in their early twenties so that they are still amenable to their suggestions about marriage. ‘Arranged’ weddings for their daughters is still the preferred mode for parents although increasingly, young women are dating Italian men in the area although it is kept ‘hush-hush’ for fear of parental reactions. Indian tradition and customs prevail in the private sphere, although outwardly they may appear to be different. Some young women who have been educated in Italy find their career trajectory themselves, seeking out an independent lifestyle, even though they continue to live with their parents. Maya is in her thirties and works in a government office in Parma. She has grown up and been educated in Italy although she has travelled to India on several occasions to meet the extended family in Punjab. She speaks the language fluently and has a large circle of Italian friends and colleagues. She is, however, rejected by her Indian peers as she mixes so well with the host community. Her

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parents, immigrants from Punjab, used to initially talk to her about marriage and were worried about her but have now left it to her to figure it out. As she is the primary breadwinner, Maya is the decision maker in the household, taking important decisions for the well-being of her family. She is strong and values her relationship with her parents as much as she does her freedom and independence. Maya walks the tightrope of familial loyalty and independence with confidence and compassion for her ageing parents. This is one instance of a young woman breaking out of the constraints imposed by the family and still remaining within the family. More women strive to break out of the dilemma of conservative ideas and lifestyles in contrast to what they experience as a more liberated and independent European culture. Their socialisation in particular social landscapes as a consequence of their familiarity with the Italian language and culture learnt in school, and with peers, steers them in this direction. They constitute the category of young women who engage with Italian society in diverse ways through their education, linguistic skills, occupational and employment patterns, to accomplish their goals for integration and upward mobility. In this context, many young Punjabis are turning to social networking sites on the internet to seek to establish private worlds of interaction with those they seek friendships with, outside the prying eyes of the family and the community.16 Young Punjabi women have different accounts on Facebook and Instagram for example under different names for consumption at home and with friends. In this way, they seek a way out of the impasse in which find themselves. The experience of living in Italy shapes their imagination in diverse ways, not based on economic criteria alone, but carrying within it now the experience of individuals in a different and perhaps more enabling social and cultural space.

3.5 Concluding Comments Inequality, contestation and struggle are fundamental features of migrants’ lives everywhere. This is compounded in the case of women inasmuch as their struggle is against forms of gender domination and inequality as well. This is not a new conclusion. However, it is important to recognise and understand the heterogeneity among women belonging to a variety of socio-economic backgrounds and to seek to focus on their very different and nuanced strategies of integration based on the cultural and social pathways undertaken by them in their journeys of integration in Italy.

16

Andall (2010) examines the efforts of second-generation youth from different communities to interact with each other, asserting their identities and claiming rights, through a social network platform G2 in Rome. See also the work of Riccio (2016) who examines the role of secondgeneration associations in Italy.

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Women experience the dilemma of social isolation and strangeness in alien spaces, not only vis-a-vis social and cultural others but, much more harshly, through the intimate space of the household. The mostly uneducated and unskilled women, relegated to the domestic sphere in an alien geographic space, experience conflicting emotions: of pride because they are now in Europe, that coveted territorial space that holds high value among kin and neighbours back home. As a consequence, they have dignity and status in their own community. At the same time, they are completely alone, often without employment or help, making sense of a totally different way of life, culturally, socially and economically. They are deeply distressed about their condition and find themselves sinking into oblivion as it were because of the twists and turns of life that have brought them to this condition. Men on their part experience a direct threat to their masculinity which may be diminished by alien laws and services which seek to ‘interfere’ in the private domain and may, they imagine, help women gain ascendancy in the domestic sphere. They seek to strengthen their masculine identities through further strictures that tend to remove women from the public sphere into the carefully controlled domestic space. This is nothing new in itself and acquires urgency when we seek to understand dilemmas of belonging and strangeness in cultural and social spaces less traversed or inhabited. In his recent work, Ash Amin reminds us, ‘Europe is on the verge of rejecting universalism and multiculturalism as a way of living with diversity, replacing it with a disciplinarian approach towards strangers and minorities’ (Amin, 2012: 113). The disciplinarian approach requires migrants to want to integrate for their benefit and that of the children. This is clearly either being rejected or renegotiated by these migrants as a consequence of the social processes of confinement and exclusion that are experienced both culturally and in the political and economic domains. The impact of the latter is felt most crucially when there is recession and unemployment which results in job insecurities and causes greater anxieties in the familial space. Having to submit to strict regimes of domination and control in terms of the host society’s legal requirements is compounded by the inability to keep one’s job. This necessarily results in tensions and insecurities in the family and the household, which further exacerbates the experience of strangeness and isolation in everyday life. Strangeness is emphasised as a way of being that exists for all migrants regardless of their status. At the same time, it acquires a quality that is sought after as it enables a certain privacy in this attempt to contend with and understand another society. To seek refuge in strangeness and social isolation is therefore a strategic ploy by women, and men, who try to remain without too much effort at the edge of an incomprehensible and alien society. They live therefore on the razor’s edge between the pain of social isolation and the comfort of isolation within the family away from the curious gaze of the host community. No doubt there is a need to guard against the victimisation of women within the community as well as address the larger problem of integration in different contexts through multiple lens that may address and open up numerous possibilities for integration. At the same time, this chapter clearly suggests that ‘culture’ is not a fixed or marked category of difference. ‘Culture’ has been enabling and transformatory as well and this reiterates our view that culture is not a homogeneous or a static

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entity, as the possibilities of change are ever present. This transformatory potential that lends agency to actors is, however, dependent on several intersecting conditions such as gender, class, caste (whose presence is certain but which I have not examined), ethnicity, education, employment status and nature of interaction with members of the host society. The presence of aspects of culture, as a conservative force, based on certain beliefs, values and attitudes, may also prevent the articulation of rapid change. The celebration, and indeed even the articulation, of cultural diversity is therefore a dilemma, and to negotiate this, we need policies with some teeth that are not mere apologies for populism or political ploys, and can actually be implemented on the ground, for the benefit of all people who inhabit common ground in a rapidly growing and changing world.

References Amin, A. (2012). Land of strangers. Polity Press. Andall, J. (2000). Gender, migration and domestic service. In The politics of black women in Italy. Ashgate. Andall, J. (2010). The G2 network and other second-generation voices: Claiming rights and transforming identities. In J. Andall & D. Duncan (Eds.), National belongings: Hybridity in Italian colonial and postcolonial cultures (pp. 171–193). Peter Lang. Bertolani, B. (2012). Transnational Sikh marriages in Italy: Facilitating migration and negotiating traditions. In K. A. Jacobsen & K. Myrvold (Eds.), Sikhs across borders. Transnational politics of European Sikhs (pp. 68–83). Bloombury Academic. Bimbi, F., & Vianello, F. A. (2012). Against gender violence and against the politics of victimization. Migrant and ‘native’ women at looking-glass in the European context. Paper presented at the special session of the Gender, Race and Sexuality Working Group on the Elimination of Violence against Women, European University Institute, Florence, 26 November 2012. Bonizzoni, P. (2011). Civic stratification, stratified reproduction and family solidarity: Strategies of Latino families in Milan. In A. Kraler et al. (Eds.), Gender, generation and the family in international migration. Amsterdam University Press. Brettell, C. B. (2012a). Gender, family and migration. In M. R. Rosenblum & D. J. Tichenor (Eds.), The Oxford handbook of the politics of international migration (pp. 478–508). Oxford University Press. Brettell, C. B. (2012b). Deciding to jump: Immigration, gender, and civic engagement. In K. R. Khory (Ed.), Global migration. Challenges in the twenty-first century (pp. 129–153). Palgrave Macmillan. Campani, G. (2000). The international migratory movement of women. In J. Gundara & S. Jacobs (Eds.), Intercultural Europe. Diversity and social policy (pp. 231–251). Ashgate Arena. Chell-Robinson, V. (2000). Female migrants in Italy: Coping in a country of new immigration. In F. Anthias & G. Lazaridis (Eds.), Gender and migration in Southern Europe. Women on the move (pp. 103–123). Berg. Colombo, E., Domaneschi, L., & Marchetti, C. (2009). ‘Prisoners of bureaucracy?’: Meanings and practices of citizenship among children of immigrants in Italy. Polis (Misc.), 23(1), pp. 31–56. Colombo, E., Leonini, L., & Rebughini, P. (2009). Different but not strangers: Everyday collective identifications among adolescent children of immigrants in Italy. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, 35(1), pp. 37–59.

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Compiani, M. J., & Quassoli, F. (2005). The milky way to labour market insertion: The Sikh ‘community’ in Lombardy. In E. Spaan, F. Hillmann, & T. van Naerssen (Eds.), Asian migrants and European labour markets: Patterns and processes of immigrant labour market insertion in Europe (pp. 138–158). Routledge. Das, V. (2001). Stigma, contagion, defect: Issues in the anthropology of public health. Paper presented at Stigma and Global Health: Developing a Research Agenda, Bethesda, Md., 5– 7 September 2001 (pp. 1–17). Retrieved December 19, 2022, from https://docshare.tips/das-sti gma-contagion-defect_58a8e532b6d87fff768b4fce.html Gobbi, N. (2022). Busting Kabootar Baazi in Punjab: A trick or trade for trafficking women from India to Italy. Journalismfund.eu. Retrieved December 10, 2022, from https://journalismfund.eu/supported-projects/busting-kabootar-baazi-punjab-trickor-trade-trafficking-women-india-italy Goffman, E. (1963). Stigma: Notes on the management of spoilt identity. Prentice Hall. India Today. (2012). Retrieved December 2, 2012, from http://indiatoday.intoday.in/story/indianexpat-in-italy-muders-wife-for-beingwesternized/1/198003.html Koehn, S. (2022). Intersections of gender, ethnicity and age: Exploring the invisibility of older Punjabi women. South Asian Diaspora, 14(1), pp. 39–54. Levitt, P., & Glick Schiller, N. (2007). Conceptualising simultaneity. A transnational social field perspective on society. In A. Portes & J. DeWind (Eds.), Rethinking migration. New theoretical and empirical perspectives (pp. 182–218). Berghahn Books. Metz-Gockel, S., Morokvasic, M., & Senganate Munst, A. (Eds.). (2008). Migration and mobility in an enlarged Europe. A gender perspective. Barbara Budrich Publishers. Perna, R. (2020). Humanitarian exceptions in hostile environments: Institutional tensions and everyday healthcare practices for migrants with irregular status in Italy. In N. Sahraoui (Ed.), Borders across healthcare. Moral economies of healthcare and migration in Europe (pp. 129–149). Berghahn Books. Riccio, B. (2016). Political spaces: The ambivalent experiences of Italian second-generation associations. In F. G. Nibbs & C. B. Brettell (Eds.), Identity and the second generation (pp. 104–122). Vanderbilt University Press. Saikia, P., Singh, S., & Ferrara, C. (2022). ‘For them I am a prey’: The hidden exploitation of Punjabi women in Italy. VICE. World News. Retrieved December 10, 2022, from https://www. vice.com/en/article/3adkp8/exploitation-punjabi-women-italy Salih, R. (2003). Gender in transnationalism. Home, longing and belonging among Moroccan migrant women. Routledge. Sayad, A. (2004). The suffering of the immigrant. Polity Press. Thapan, M. (2005). Introduction ‘making incomplete’: Identity, women and the state. In M. Thapan (Ed.), Transnational migration and the politics of identity (pp. 23–62). SAGE. Trappolini, E., & Giudici, C. (2021, July–December). Gendering health differences between nonmigrants and migrants by duration of stay in Italy. Demographic Research, 45, pp. 221–258. Wise, A. (2010). Sensuous multiculturalism: Emotional landscapes of inter-ethnic living in Australian suburbia. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, 36(6), pp. 917–937. https://doi. org/10.1080/13691831003643355

Chapter 4

The Dilemmas of being Young and an Immigrant: Family, Belonging and Freedom

I now move to an understanding of the fraught experience of being migrant, young and belonging to several cultures at the same time. It is about the quest for freedom and independence that underlies the aspirations of Sikh and Punjabi youth in northern Italy who simultaneously seek belonging and integration both into the family and into the Italian social landscape. Their quest for freedom is always balanced by the deep and unshakeable place of the family in their lives. The family provides emotional sustenance, security, and well-being in an alien space. At the same time, it is also the source of difference and inequality. In that sense, the family is as constraining as much as it is an enabling agency. This often results in an anxiety-ridden and complex situation. Youth, especially young women, seek to rebel, and desire and pursue autonomy and independence, and yet assert their need for immersion in familial life. The situation is also complicated by the fact that the absence of family, especially a missing spouse, evokes a kind of existential dilemma where the experience of being ‘alone’ is heightened into a psychological condition that requires medical intervention. The co-presence of family members is therefore as much a necessity in some contexts as it is a bane in others. The family is at the heart of the community in which the migrant is embedded and I invoke the work of Ralph Grillo, which urges us to reinstate the family at the centre of analysis as ‘it foregrounds an important site in which relations of gender and generation are articulated and/or in terms of which they are conceptualised, and around which debates circulate’ (Grillo, 2008: 19). At the same time, it is important to emphasise that Italian society views the abilities and aspirations of youth for cultural integration from within a restricted familial and ethnic space that is perceived as creating barriers to fruitful integration. In other words, the family is crucial as an emotional, collective space that offers support to the migrant but is also perceived as a differentiating space that perhaps encourages isolation and exclusion, often to the Revised version of chapter in: Young Sikhs in a Global World: Negotiating Traditions, Identities and Authorities, Edited by Knut Jacobson and Kristina Myrvold, © 2015 by Ashgate. Reproduced by permission of Taylor & Francis Group. © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2023 M. Thapan, Work, Family and Integration, Migration, Minorities and Modernity 6, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-99-5581-7_4

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detriment of the integration of youth into European society and culture. However, Punjabi and Sikh youth do not necessarily succumb to this kind of familial pressure and find ways of mobilising their individual resources and attaining their aspirations. It is a way of coping with the situation, of finding a way out, of dealing with the immediate in creative and compelling ways that allow them to seek and pursue their goals to fruition.1

4.1 Youth, the Family, and the Experience of Double Exclusion There are no homogeneous categories of Punjabi, even Indian, youth in Italy. There is an enormous diversity among them depending on their gender, socio-economic status, the length of their stay in Italy, their ability to speak Italian, their present educational level, and several other factors. There is no doubt, however, that the impact of their linguistic and cultural background is a structural disadvantage limiting their life trajectories. In other words, cultural capital, or its lack, shapes their experience in Italy, both in relations with others, as well as in the job market. At the same time, agency is not a passive experience of just ‘being there’ without submitting to the experience of unemployment, marginality or exclusion. In an excellent work, Rebughini (2019) has provided an analysis of vulnerability and agency as not two opposing terms resulting in difference, despair and victimhood. Instead, to understand ‘vulnerability’, it is important to move away from an understanding that emphasises it as an ‘intrinsic characteristic of an individual’ to one that is ‘a position …a relational and situated condition’, intertwined with ‘agency’. The latter is therefore not viewed as autonomous action, but as the ability ‘to deploy and combine personal resources in that specific situation’ (Rebughini, 2019: 2).2 This aspect of agency, as emerging from individual resources, is filled with meaning and the promise of intervention in difficult circumstances. To begin with, the experience of ‘difference’ that is ingrained into the habitus of the youth with as much certainty as the fact of their physical embodiment. This emotive and embodied experience of difference as a marker of otherness and exclusion animates their narratives (as also witnessed with young women). The question of course arises as to how we may understand emotions in a social context as they play themselves out in everyday life. One way is to focus on emotions as they frame actions, express actions, give rise to actions, and are therefore in a sense, ‘social 1

In this explanation, I take recourse to the work of Michel de Certeau (1984, as cited by Rebughini 2019: 4) who argues for the ‘art of the weak’. Agency then is the ‘art of doing’, ‘knowing how to get away with things’ and so on. While not necessarily based on rational action, it is a way of seizing the moment and of using a disadvantageous position to one’s advantage. I find this a most useful way of understanding the aspirations, goals and attainments of the Punjabi and Sikh youth in Italy. 2 See also Colombo and Rebughini (2012) for an analysis of children of immigrants in global contexts. The authors argue that the adolescents use the very categories that seek to oppress them such as difference, inequality, belonging to further their personal goals and develop opportunities.

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actions intertwined with …structures of power in specific temporal and geographic contexts’ (Boehm and Swank, 2011: 2; see also Svasek, 2008). The family in this context acquires significance in the affective and social worlds of Punjabi youth as much as in their simultaneous experience of belonging and exclusion in contexts shaped by the vastly different geographical spaces that they inhabit. The importance of the family in migrants’ lives and intergenerational influences ensure that Punjabi youth, young women in particular, experience a double exclusion, in their community through a kind of enforced seclusion, after school hours; and in the host community, through forms of social exclusion and marginalisation. At the same time, they seek higher education, an independent lifestyle, and secure employment and through this, a movement away from the lives they have known with their families. The complexities in this situation, their anxieties and the ways they seek to overcome their fraught position as youth caught between two cultures, or youth in transition, is the stuff their young lives are made of. Punjabi youth in Italy are in a category that is set apart: from other migrant youth with whom they rarely interact and from the Italian youth population who are their ambivalent other. There are huge cultural differences although language is not a problem as it is learnt early in school and is part of their repertoire of languages. They speak it with ease and confidence and at one level it is a strong binding force with the Italian community. At the same time, it is important to look into the educational experience of Indian youth, as these institutions are significant spaces for socialisation into the host community as well as for developing relations with other immigrant and Italian youth. Indian youth in school are rather articulate about their experience of racism and bullying. It begins with the food they were prevented from bringing to elementary school when they were very young as they were told that their food smells. There are comments about their long hair and turbans as well and that they experience more racism as they grow older. One university student (Meet, male, 20 years) asserts that it is naphrat (hate) that shapes their teachers’ attitude towards them. He adds, ‘teachers reduce marks for written work, telling us “you should not have written like this”’. He clarifies, however, that not all teachers are like that. A cultural organisation in Reggio Emilia that works especially with youth identified the ‘subtle racism’ present among teachers in high school. Such teachers send immigrant students for vocational training even though the students themselves want to pursue engineering. There is a view among teachers that the cognitive abilities of Punjabi youth (Indian or Pakistani, they do not distinguish between them) are not on a par with the Italians and they are therefore able only to pursue vocational training. The students have to appeal to higher authorities and even ask outside organisations to intervene in order to help them realise their goals. Parents of these children accept the teachers’ verdict (as they culturally accrue authority to the teacher) about their children being unfit for the lycee, and do not listen to their children. Parents also prefer the teachers’ decision for ‘economic’ reasons as vocational or technical schools would definitely help in finding employment (Maya, female, 32 years). At the same time, it is important to look into the school experience of children of Indian immigrants as the school is a significant space for socialisation into the host community as well as for developing relations with other immigrant and Italian youth.

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The experience of being different is particularly painful in the middle school years when Italian students are most harsh in their criticism of Indian students, who are often told to return to India, to stop wearing turbans, and stop coming to school. The youth tolerate their taunts by ignoring them because it is what they call their majboori, ‘helplessness’, that is, they have no choice but to tolerate them. It is, however, the experience of being isolated and alone that stands out sharply in their memory of their middle school years and affects their experience of high school as well. Katrine Fangen, Thomas Johansson, and Nils Hammarén examine such feelings of isolation and rejection within the context of ‘social exclusion’ and distinguish between ‘feelings’ of being excluded and physically not being allowed access (Fangen et al. 2012: 4). While migrant students have access to schools and good relationships with most teachers, they experience social exclusion at a very emotional level from their peers. However, ‘social exclusion’ in the context of migration is very complex, and it is important to examine it as a ‘process’ that cannot be neatly slotted into either/ or situations (Fangen et al. 2012: 4). It then becomes apparent that exclusion is not necessarily an emotional experience vis-a-vis only ‘others’ in alien contexts but takes place within the ethnic community as well. In fact, as one young woman indicated that as a result of her apparent integration with Italians, speaking the language, and spending leisure time with them, she was isolated in her own community. She could now only communicate with members of her immediate family. The emotional cost of integration is very high: ‘kuch darwaze bandh ho jaate hain (some doors begin to be closed)’ (Maya, female, 32 years). Having crossed over to the other side, so to speak, Maya’s former Indian friends and extended family started to look at her with doubt and anxiety, feeling a sense of betrayal, thereby resulting in her exclusion from the community. At the same time, some youth who were born in Italy and some who travelled with their parents as infants or very young children, are also very clear they will never be fully integrated into Italian society. The young men provide the example of ‘servants’ in India who aspire to be like their masters in terms of their desires and aspirations, but can never realise them. One of them asserts, ‘[w]e want to have a lifestyle like the Italians/Europeans, but this will never happen. The job market will always prefer the Italian over the Indian even if both have the same qualifications’ (Jatinder, male, 18 years). The ‘job market’ in their view does not include the dairy farms or lowskilled service sector as these youth have much higher aspirations than those of their first-generation migrant parents. At the same time, employment opportunities are limited in India and the students do not find returning to India a viable option. While there may be a certain ambivalence towards Italy which they identify as their home and at the same time, some youth experience the inability to completely integrate. They do not however cease to work hard to realise their goals. Teachers in Fidenza tell me that they are ‘really impressed by the way Indian students work, their passion and their dedicated work’. The same may not be said for Italian youth, they argue, who are more casual and laid back, ‘not at all motivated in the same way as the Indians’ (Interview, teachers at a vocational school).

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In an act of seizing the moment, realising they are marginalised by the host community, young Indians, in recent years, make a leap to mix with the community, often at the risk of being excluded by other Indians. Raj Singh (male, 19 years) says he felt very awkward (aukha) when he was young and in school. He felt ‘different’ as he was the only Indian in the class and was reserved, keeping quiet and to himself. Later, however, he felt he needed to ‘change’ himself and develop the ‘capacity’, as he put it, to mix more with other people. This change has helped him enormously, and while he is a Sikh and belongs to a traditional family who keep the holy book at home and prays twice a day, his urge is to integrate. His passion is music, ‘new generation music’ which he likes to produce on the computer. Raj has experienced the difficulties the family has faced before arrival in Italy through Russia and other parts of Europe, and his aim is to first provide financial support to the family. The younger generation’s explicit desire to find acceptance in the host community results in renewed efforts to learn and speak Italian, make friends with Italian youth, and be communicative in the neighbourhood. Raj, for example, finds there is no racism in the neighbourhood, which is ‘vadiya’ (excellent) and he points to language bridging the divide and bringing communities together. This is the positive spirit with which the youth seek to belong and feel settled as Italians. To quote Raj, ‘main Italian mehsoos karda, Indian bhi karda’ (I feel Italian, I also feel Indian). This dual or mixed identity is now no longer a source of conflict as it perhaps was ten years ago. It is a happy blend of a dual identity that young Indians accept as crucial for their well-being and survival. Jasleen Kaur (female, 20 years old) is a very confident Italian-speaking Punjabi woman, able to express her goals and future plans with clarity and confidence. Her father came from Punjab 12 years ago, through other smaller European countries, and works at a pig farm. Jasleen came to Italy only four years ago and decided to do a beautician’s course (doing nails, makeup) straight after high school because ‘I like it’. She led me through her arrival in Italy when she felt only ‘shame’ on her first day at school because she could not speak the language and other children told her to go back. Then, she says, ‘I thought it is time to do something, so I studied hard, doing everything. I have a driving licence now and want to stand on my own feet.’ Her goal is to open a beauty parlour after first gaining experience through a job. Her vivacious and vibrant personality has won her many friends, all Italians, and she says, ‘I will see where life takes me. Every day I get to learn something new’. It is easy to communicate with Italians whom she finds very ‘kindly’ and not interfering in anyone’s life. The same cannot be said about the Indian community who police girls and grant them no freedom. While the image of Italy may no longer be constructed among Punjabi youth through the lens of difference, the prism through which they view Indians and India is certainly one of difference. Satnam, a student at university, articulates this difference: ‘Indians are stuck in the India they left behind 20 years ago whereas India has changed so much’ (Satnam, male, 21 years). He thinks that parents are not the problem for them as much as ‘relatives’ and members of the community who continuously gossip about each other’s children. Parents then intervene and ask youth, especially the girls, to stop talking to others outside the school. These youth resent such forms of control

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and are in a sense isolated and alone in a bubble that is formed by their experience and locks them in a lived world where they remain troubled, uncertain and anxious about not only their future but also their present. For young women, the struggle with parents and family for independence is complex. Girls are not allowed to go out of the house with friends (kudi nuh bahar nahin nikla jaana paida) (Jasleen, 20 years old). Italian teachers at a vocational institute confirm this through their observation that parents of Indian young women enrolled in their school do not allow them to continue, once they complete school. Young women rebel against the impositions laid down by the family but simultaneously seek out the safety and security of family life despite their urge for freedom and autonomy. Parents of these youth, especially youth who are studying at the university and are mixing with Italians and others, are worried in particular about their choice of marriage partners. A cultural mediator informs me that they worry about the kind of girl/boy their children will marry as it will complicate their family lives and affect relationships among themselves. Belonging in this context is construed essentially as coexisting with familial norms and values. Marriage with an Italian is taboo. Sexual relationships with intimate ‘others’ is like crossing the last frontier from where there is no return. One Punjabi woman with a son studying at the university went home to Punjab and consulted an astrologer about her son’s marriage prospects: her main worry was to ascertain whether her son would marry an Indian or an Italian girl (Interview, cultural mediator). Marriage is the ultimate barrier of separation and difference and, once that is crossed through mixed marriages, it is assumed that somehow the sanctity of not only marriage but also family life would be disturbed. It would result not only in a disruption of family life but also perhaps in the eventual annihilation of the community as well. This would shake the foundations of identity and it therefore becomes essential for Indian immigrants to control their children’s relations with Italians. In this way, they are also inhibiting their integration into Italian society, although this is not of paramount concern. What is important is to preserve family life and family honour against any form of contamination or breakdown. At the same time, belonging incorporates within it a form of relating to Italians, surpassing all differences, and for the purposes of survival that depends on cohabitation, cooperation and the attainment of common goals. A Sikh boy (Madanjeet, 18 years old) talks about his older sister who is single and goes out to work in the morning and returns in the evening, having spent the whole day at work. This is a huge problem for the rest of the family who have big fights over the issue. His older brother in fact wants to leave the family home because of the fights and the tension generated by them. That the sister goes out to work is a matter of concern for the family, but still she does it. She does not care. His sister’s job takes her to different places every day, and he says to me, ‘you don’t know my sister’. But she just does not care about the conflict and carries on with her life regardless of the problems she is creating for others or the tensions her actions generate. She seeks to live her life on her own terms, generating her unique understanding and expression of an embodied agency that exists on the edge of modernity, constrained by the family, but liberated by her desire to attain her goals against all odds. This is not,

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however, always possible as socialisation and the binding practices of the family are very strong, and young women often submit to them at an early age. Manjeet (a 16-year-old schoolgirl) came to Italy when she was two months old. She is the older of two siblings. Her father is a Jat Sikh, who has studied up to Class 10 in Punjabi medium in Ludhiana in Punjab. He was a farmer in Punjab where he owned six to seven acres of land and in Italy, he is a factory employee, doing packing work, earning about 1,000–1,500 euros in a month depending on work. Although her father is not a farmer, they live on a dairy farm (goshala) paying a rent of 200 euros per month. She explains that the family was not in a poor financial state back home in Punjab but that it was important for her father to see the world as he had a desire to see what exists outside India. So, he paid an agent 7–800,000 INR, without selling any land and made his way to Europe with an uncle and several others, first to Russia (where he spent six months in jail), then Poland and then Germany (where he worked in restaurant). He wanted to stay in Germany but her mother was unable to join him. He moved to Italy and worked in different jobs. Many relatives applied for legal papers and slowly they came to Italy and acquired documents so that her mother could also come over and they could be together as a family. The desire to emigrate was based on how others came and showed off their money. ‘We also wanted to earn money’, but now Manjeet’s mother tells others not to come to Italy, ‘there is nothing here, no work “panga na lao” (don’t take the trouble), there is a better life in India, there are fields (khet hain), here only milking cows and cleaning them, there are more luxuries and rest (ashoaaram) over there’. Her father particularly remembers India and tells her that there is a better life there and more hard work here. He tells her about his struggle (dhakke khaye) and that at the end of the day he does not earn very much, but that she must study hard and ‘get high marks, there should be some gain ( fayda bhi howe)’. The family story of struggle and hardship is essential to Manjeet’s constitution of herself as an immigrant. To belong to another world is to first recognise the worth and value of being in the world and understand the difficulties that have been endured and overcome to get there and be there. There is no way therefore that Manjeet can ever even think of returning to India: ‘All our relatives are here, many Sikhs, Jat Sikhs, another farmer lives near us, Rajput farmers, (they stay for free in goshalas), we know them all as they are Punjabis too’. The family and community are the familiar social and cultural worlds for Manjeet in spite of intra-community conflicts based on caste and regional differences to which she alludes. Manjeet and her family watch only Indian television channels, speak only Punjabi at home and worship at the local gurudwara. Although her mother does recitations (paath) at home, Manjeet however does not think that there is any purity (suchan) left, as her father is a non-vegetarian. Therefore, having a small temple at home does not have the same sanctity it would have had if there were a sacredness of space and place, both linked to ideas of purity and pollution. Manjeet has no doubt internalised this version of sacredness from her mother who is a vegetarian like herself and resents this incursion of modernity into the sacred space of their home. For Manjeet, being an immigrant is inextricably an Indian experience, located in the family and the household, where she returns from school to eat Indian food (in her words, ‘dal, subzi, roti’) every day, works hard, watches Indian television, listens

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to (Punjabi) bhangra music, watches films (Bollywood), goes out and walks about with other farmers, visits relatives, goes to the market. They celebrate Indian festivals exclusively and eat Indian sweets (mithai not chocolates, she explains) from Indian stores only. There is therefore a sustained and rigorous effort to retain the Indianness that might perhaps be contaminated by contact with forms of foreignness such as eating meat or interacting with the opposite sex or watching Italian cinema or speaking Italian inside the home. Marriage with an Italian is inconceivable for Manjeet, who has assumed her primary role as an immigrant: to study well, get a good job, work hard, and keep the family honour intact. She says, ‘I have to study, my brother has to study, no “fayda” (point/gain) of going back. I want to marry an Indian only, I can’t talk to boys, only to the point, no “faltu gallan” (unnecessary conversation), parents are very strict and they are right’. Manjeet’s identity is keenly linked to familial patterns that she identifies through the close relationships that endure through family travails. She asserts that in Europe ‘people don’t live in families; don’t mix with each other. They don’t fight with each other, find out a solution. In India, people fight. There is a higher divorce rate here.’ Her parents tell her that in India people marry by the age of 18–20 years, so she knows that, ‘I have to study till I am 20, and then get married. I can’t go out with boys, I have to be only with girls’. Manjeet states all this in a matter-of-fact way having absorbed the significance of familial life in her experience of racism and social isolation in Italy, which pushes her back into the familiar and welcoming embrace of the family. She does not find Italian society particularly welcoming and says, [i]t depends…many students ‘hate’ me in class, ‘naphrat karte hain,’ they won’t even talk to me, they think we come here to take away their work. At first I felt bad, but now it is better. I used to feel strange (aukha) but it was better when I learnt the language. In class children are difficult, outside it’s OK.

Clothes are a particular form of difference: If we wear salwar suit (Indian dress), they look at us. My father doesn’t like to see me in jeans. When I was little, students hated me, you are black, kaali hai, don’t speak much, as I spoke less. I used to feel very bad, used to cry when I was young, now it is OK. When I used to feel very bad, I used to answer back, ‘in India we welcome you’. I used to tell my teachers also, who used to help us. We are all treated alike by them.

And yet, Manjeet seeks out belonging through work and engagement with a social class different from her parents: Now, I’m studying, don’t know, I will have to study harder, I will have to get a degree for employment. With a diploma, there is not much work available. A degree takes five years. My father wants me to do a nursing course, which will work in America. I don’t want to do this because one has to study too much. I want a vadiya naukri (good job), dafttara baithna (to sit in an office), and earn at least 2,000 euros a month.

There is an idea that the good job is an office job that conveys social status and enjoys good financial remuneration. At the same time, such a job does not have the additional burden of manual work that Manjeet has experienced as central to her parents’ life of struggle and suffering. Manjeet therefore seeks to move out of

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the familial world through her aspirations and occupational choices. In this way, she articulates the beginnings of a way out of the conundrum she is trapped in. She knows she cannot return to India, she must find success in Italy, through higher education and work, both of which are no doubt going to take her out of the domain of the family into the world of the community to which she will inevitably belong. Seeking and finding success in Italy is a ‘dream’ many Punjabi youth have. One young woman who came to Italy only two years ago shares Manjeet’s aspirations. Hema’s father left Punjab 17 years ago and did not call the family until he had a good government job, after spending some years in agriculture, and then in a factory. Hema is studying in a vocational school, in the beauty parlour section. However, her ‘real dream’ is to study biology and be a doctor or a nurse: ‘I love the medical field’ (Hema, 19 years old). She adds that her best friend is studying nursing in India and loves it. This motivates her to do it as well and their aspirations meet in her construction of her own ‘dream’ for her future. She clarifies that she reads biology on the internet and was ‘so happy’ when she was attending biology classes in the 11th grade. She adds, ‘my dreams are very big. Until the 10th grade, my grades were very good but when I came to Italy, I felt I have no value’. The loss of self-esteem and confidence is linked to her arrival in Italy and to the loss of personhood as an immigrant, not fitting in to a different culture and society. Hema has, however, adjusted very quickly, first, by learning Italian and adapting herself to Italian culture and norms. Another Punjabi young woman Tina, from Kapurthala district in Punjab, has been in Italy since 2005. Her father came first and worked very hard for about 16–17 years, but then returned to India and wants to live there. Both her parents have Italian citizenship and returned to Punjab to take care of the grandparents. Return migration is uncommon and can be observed only among those few who not only have property but also a source of income in Punjab. Tina is studying about transport and taking some computer courses at a vocational institute. She plans to open a car company in partnership with her brother. Tina loves Italy, ‘the environment and lifestyle, anyone can live their life the way they want. In India, there is more discipline’. About four years ago, Tina married a young man, also from Kapurthala who works in a factory nearby. She says she had a ‘love’ marriage, meeting him for the first time in the gurudwara. They plan to get their own home soon. The personal and intimate space is more important for Tina who tells me about herself before telling me about her work in the social services sector, working as a translator, helping those incoming Indians who don’t know the system. She acts as an interlocutor between the older generation of Punjabi women and medical professionals, especially gynaecologists and psychotherapists. She also helps pensioners and others in the community and adds, ‘I love my job! I want to continue in this line so can help others along with myself’ (Tina, female, 25 years old). Tina’s positive attitude to her job and life in Italy is based on her experience of living alone, making her own choices, and leading an independent life. Italy is not alien to her experience and she seeks to help other immigrant women integrate as much she does herself. She likes to ‘hang out’ with her Italian friends, as much as her Indian ones, going to the bar with them or out to eat a pizza. She has a very good command over the language which she uses to her

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best advantage in her work with newly arrived, more conservative Punjabi women, and their relations with the host community. Tina’s assessment of the Indian community as being focused on discipline is echoed by many young Punjabi girls who view Italians in a very positive sense. There is an emotional experience of shame vis-a-vis their own community in relation to the host community so that difference is experienced by young Punjabis on two planes: within and outside the community. Similarly, the girls do not have any relationship with the Indian boys in school with whom they are afraid to speak. They do, however, freely interact with Italian boys at school. There is in this articulation of sameness and difference a complexity based on relationships, norms and values in the Indian community itself that prevents them from being independent in their relationships with Indian youth in the same way as they are with their male Italian classmates. There is a tension here as well as Italian boys can be friends but not marriage or sexual partners, thus sending out ambivalent messages to the young women. Teachers at a vocational school say that Punjabi parents do not want their daughters to mix with boys outside the home. It is unacceptable. One Christmas break, one Punjabi girl student had to stay at home for two weeks and was not allowed to step out of the house. This sometimes leads to violence within the family. ‘Parents do not trust their daughters so they come to the school and ask for confirmation whether their daughter was in school, whom she meets, etc., a kind of an investigation. The father usually comes and speaks. The mother accompanies him but stays silent’ (Interview with teachers, vocational school). ‘The family controls the girls but the boys are free to find their way and do what they want to do’, the teachers conclude.

The reproduction of patriarchal norms limits young women’s choices and ability to act decisively on their education and career paths. It inhibits their individual lives as well as impacts their integration with the broader host community. The difficulties this engenders among themselves and in their experience of being different in Italy is based on the community’s lack of trust and willingness to accept another lifestyle or relationships that are different from their own established ones. The youth thus feel isolated within the Indian community as much as they do in the Italian community. This places an undue strain on the young migrant who is simultaneously struggling to keep herself afloat in school as a marked person, as well as a ‘good’, ‘virtuous’, and ‘respectful’ girl in her own community. This is however changing, as earlier noted, among both young women and men who are now seeking a way out of the community through forms of education, employment or simply ways of being in a different social and cultural world. Kamal is a young woman who came to Italy from Barnala in Punjab, nine years ago when she was eight years old. She felt very strange (bada aukha) when she first arrived as she did not know the language at all. She had been in elementary school, studying in Punjab in the Punjabi medium of instruction until the fifth grade, so it was very difficult for her to switch to Italian. She could not make any friends and was very uncomfortable and lost. The teacher tried very hard to help her but Kamal could not even sit in the classroom. She says she kept faith (honsla rakha), despite all the challenges, and has come a long way, now speaking Italian fluently

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and studying languages in Fidenza. She wants to go further with learning languages and study at university. Her main focus is on getting a good job (vadiya naukri), for which she is encouraged by her parents. The family is central to her thoughts as her parents faced a great many difficulties and struggled when they first came to Italy, so she wants to ‘help them’. They are very supportive and she has informed them that her education and employment come first, and marriage much later. She is confident of their backing and is happy to live at home, where she says they are religious Sikhs and do paath (religious prayers) every day. It is a small family, she has one brother who is studying engineering and she says, ‘he supports me a lot; we have a good bonding’. The familial disposition is central to Kamal’s way of being and she continuously emphasises her aspiration for a ‘good’ job to help her parents. Although she loves Indian and Italian food, watches Indian films, speaks Punjabi at home, Kamal loves her Italian friends and being in Italy. It is her ‘second home’ and she is not looking to go to Canada or Australia like many other Indians. Kamal finds succour in the lap of her family and in a space where she has learnt to adapt and feels happy and well integrated. Her brother Kewal is only a year older than her and studies at the university in Parma. He is very proud that his family supports his university education where most of the other students are Italians. He is ambitious and looking to the future where he wants to establish his own ‘company’. The stories of Kamal and Kewal are perhaps uncommon but increasingly represent the young Punjabis who seek to build an independent future in Italy.

4.2 Absent Spouse: The Intensity of Familial Separation and Loss Despite the differences with the family and the community in Italy, the family remains paramount in all narratives about home and belonging, about journeys and displacement, about being here and there, and importantly, about being well settled and integrated. It is no surprise that a recurrent theme in the narratives of young Punjabi men and women is the experience of the emotional loss of relatedness to members of the family, who are elsewhere, primarily in the homeland. They miss their grandparents, cousins, aunts and uncles, among others. They particularly point to the absence of the pyaar (love) of grandparents and yearn for ‘roaming’ the streets with their cousins, as they do in India, eating street food, chatting khul ke (freely), sharing their experiences and lives. In this experience of loss, the prevalence of familial ties as providing the insuperable bonds that cannot be severed, even with an enormous geographical distance, is renewed and overwhelmingly emphasised. This is done, however, within the greater, deeper and perhaps more significant loss of freedom that emanates from being in one’s homeland: ‘apne Punjab’ or ‘apne India’ (our Punjab or our India) is a common refrain and reference point in their conversations. It is an emotional connection especially when migrants discuss their transnational kin relationships.

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At the same time, the context of certain intimate relationships offers a more profound understanding of what the experience of separation and loss entails. The relationship between intimate partners stands out for the intensity with which the heartache of loss and longing in separation is experienced. Meena, a young woman who has been in Italy for 13 years, lived with her four siblings and grandparents in Ludhiana in Punjab when her parents immigrated to Italy. Meena’s parents brought the children to Italy after 14 years and Meena and her siblings studied in Italian schools, learned the language, and mixed with Italian children. Her father worked in a factory that manufactured plastic glasses while her mother worked in a restaurant as a helper-cook. Back in 2000, when she first arrived, Meena did not like being in Italy (changa nahin lagta si) as the ‘atmosphere was not good’. After four years, she left school to look after a newly born sibling, her younger brother, as her mother had to go back to work. Meena’s mother was the breadwinner as her father was an alcoholic and beat the entire family, and especially her mother, by slapping them, hitting them, and abusing them repeatedly. At the age of 45, her father died and her mother, who had breast cancer, died six months later. Orphaned it Italy, and with no kin nearby to help them, the siblings decided to buy a house and live together in the village. They are still paying back the loan for the house to the bank and have experienced a life of great struggle, hardship, and difficulties after the death of their parents. Other Indians in Italy wanted their grandparents to come and live with Meena and her siblings. Their grandparents, who had come to Italy earlier, returned to India after their parents died and no longer keep in touch with any of the children. Meena tells me that their grandparents have in fact abandoned them because they perhaps fear that Meena and her siblings will ask them for financial assistance. On the contrary, it is Meena who handed over 2,000 euros to them for her mother’s bhog (prayers at the conclusion of reading the holy book) ceremony, which includes a continuous reading of the entire Guru Granth Sahib (the holy book), in India. Meena’s grandparents were further alienated when in 2010 she married a young man, a cousin of her sister’s husband in Punjab. She first talked to him over the phone and then saw his photograph and avows that theirs is a ‘love marriage’. Her grandparents, however, had wanted her to marry someone she considers an alcoholic and good-for-nothing kind of man, also in Punjab. Meena asserted her independence by marrying her brother-in-law’s cousin as he is the same age as her and they share similar interests. Moreover, he has completed his schooling and works in a factory as a mechanic. She lived with him for four months after they were married and then returned to Italy. She is however unable to bring him to Italy as she does not have a permanent job and cannot therefore sponsor his visit or stay in Italy. Meena’s familial context has sharply changed from a home with parents, which included a violent and abusive father, and a helpless mother, to disinterested grandparents, to a brief and happy marriage, and a subsequent state in which Meena is very alone, vulnerable and isolated in a strange social landscape. Meena’s despair is based on two aspects of her life in this landscape: no member of the Indian community visits her or her sister. Together, they look after their very young brother who is in school, in addition to the baby girl born to Meena in 2011. She says, ‘[w]hen our parents were alive, everyone used to come regularly to meet

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us. Now, no one comes to see us. Even when my baby was born, no one came to see us’. It is due to the fact that they are orphans, she thinks, and others imagine that they will seek financial help from the Indian community. Meena concludes, ‘we have carried such a big dukh (sorrow); when our mother died, it was a big dukh, now, we don’t want anyone or anyone’s help in our life’. This agony is accentuated by the absence of her husband whom she says she loves ‘too much’ (bahut zyada), and from whom she cannot bear this forced separation. Her younger sister has come to help her with the baby so that Meena can go back to work but she has been in a severe depression for some time as she is desperate to be with her husband again. She feels that she is trapped in a dilemma, as she cannot return to India, as her husband keeps asking her to, because she has taken on the responsibility of taking care of her young brother, his education, and future life. She told me that she was talking to her husband on the phone one day and could not endure his absence and just threw the phone and started screaming. She broke down, collapsed, stopped speaking, was unconscious for a while, and very depressed. She started talking to a doll as if it were her husband. She also started ‘seeing’ (having visions) of her mother and told her sister, ‘I am going to Mama’, and continued to talk to her as if she were present in the room and also talked to herself. The neighbours came to help and called an ambulance. In the hospital, she sat in a wheelchair and kept talking to the doll and to herself. The next morning, the doctor had a long conversation with her, gave her some medication, and sent her home. She has no memory of this incident that was narrated by her older sister. All the bodily senses are impacted by the desire and intense longing for people who are not present as there is a deep urge to ‘see, hear and touch (embrace) their loved ones’, and that this is managed ‘through feeling the presence of people and places involving all the five senses’ (Baldassar, 2008: 252, emphasis in the original). The telephone and internet are important ways through which a kind of ‘co-presence by proxy’ is realised. We find that Meena had recourse to only this form of copresence as she phoned her husband several times a day. She later took to talking to her doll as if it were her husband, thus imbuing the doll with some kind of an ‘imagined co-presence’. Talking to the doll and caressing it perhaps provided some form of gratification, but also left her completely helpless and forlorn as her collapse indicates. However, with medical assistance and the support of Italian neighbours who have been most forthcoming and helpful, Meena has gained some confidence and strength. At the same time, she is impatiently awaiting the arrival of her husband, in fulfilment of their mutual relationship. The importance of physical co-presence with intimate partners as being critical to the mental state of well-being, especially in an international context, is indisputable. The family and the household undoubtedly remain integral to the migrant’s emotional experience whether it is through parents, siblings or an intimate partner. At the same time, immigrants themselves are engaged in processes of becoming citizens, in a social and affective sense, and make an effort to seek out engagement and involvement with others in the public sphere. It is important therefore for young and adult women, more than men among the Indian immigrant population for example to seek out such involvement that takes them into the heart of being participatory citizens

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together. Young Punjabi migrants in particular seek out friendships, across genders, with the Italian community and have shown an increasing ability to interact with them without cultural and social barriers. A recent report, Rapporto Comunità indiana in Italia (2021), notes that mixed marriages in Italy (between Indians and Italians) are not very common. However, the figure provided for 2018–2019 is that 102 mixed marriages took place between Indian citizens and Italians in Italy. In 41 cases, the bride was Indian, and in 61, the groom. The report further notes that although this is a slightly higher figure than the previous year, the ‘community stabilisation process’ on the family level has not resulted in a higher degree of transformation due to the continued prevalence of the strong ties with the family of origin.3 It is astonishing that the Report arrives at this conclusion. In fact, 102 mixed marriages in one year is a considerably high figure to members of the Indian community, especially the older generation, who frown upon mixed marriages, prevent their children from going out with Italians, and in general, refrain from interaction for their families and themselves with the Italian community. The following narrative indicates the processes through which mixed relations among young Punjabis and Italian youth take place, with negotiation and sacrifice, despite the traditional pull of the Indian family.

4.3 Freedom and Familial Loss: ‘Mujhe azadi se bahut pyar hai’ (I have a deep love for independence) Guddi, born in India, is a young woman in her early twenties. Her father is a Punjabi Sikh from Jammu in northern India. Guddi has two brothers and one sister, who had an ‘arranged’ marriage and lives in Italy. Her father had left home for Europe when she was an infant and she saw him for the first time when she was eight years old. Until then, she lived with her grandparents in India. Her father settled in Italy where they have been for the last 20 years. He earlier worked on farms and now sells clothes, with the help of his wife, in different markets held in small towns. Guddi’s father appears to be a domineering, violent personality who regularly beats up his wife and children. Her experience of being a migrant is thus painfully linked to her experience of being abused at home. She says, ‘He did not turn out to be a nice papa’. Very quickly, Guddi started working in bars as a waitress. He used to beat her and, she left home, helped by her mother and her brothers, just two months before her high school examination. She went to her mother’s friend who worked in a hotel and Guddi started working with her. She says that after some time, her mother wanted her to come home but Guddi continued to live separately. She ‘forgave them’ and started visiting them after seven months but did not move back into the home. She then developed a relationship with an Italian young man with whom she now lives and once again, her family was unable to accept this relationship. Her siblings, grandparents and other family members have accepted the situation but 3

Source: https://www.integrazionemigranti.gov.it/AnteprimaPDF.aspx?id=3480 (accessed on 12 December, 2022).

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not her parents. This time, she did not communicate with them for a year. Although Guddi has herself taken the decision to separate from them, she is very distressed and suffers because of the lack of acceptance from her parents. She says she has wept a lot but they have not changed their stance. The parents’ rejection of her relationship with her Italian partner has resulted in Guddi feeling completely alone and vulnerable. Despite her estranged relationship with her own family, Guddi judges European culture and lifestyles in terms of familial values and norms. She is very assertive that in Europe, people do not even know their neighbours; there is no love or closeness in the family; it is a very cold family life with almost ‘no feelings’ and everyone thinks about themselves only. There is no closeness between siblings as there is in India: ‘those kind of relationships do not exist here’, Guddi laments, with a breaking voice, ‘I feel very alone here. I came here when I was fifteen years’ old. My parents were not so much in my life before that. They were not there then and nor are they here now’. At the same time, she realises that the independence she has attained in Europe would never have been hers in India. A lot of people have helped her here and she is sure no one would have come to her rescue in India. She says, ‘Mujhe azadi se bahut pyar hai (I deeply love my freedom), independence in my work. No one tells you that you have studied this but now you are doing that. In India, if you do a waiter’s job, it would not be appreciated. Here it is OK. Working in a boutique is also OK. I can stand on my own feet although I have to work hard. I could do something with my life. When I left home, my parents taunted me, “You will come back one day” but I am totally independent and have worked as a receptionist in a hotel, waitress, now in a boutique, and I keep getting work’. Guddi’s sense of independence which she realises she was able to attain in Europe has not only resulted in her living alone in a town other than where her parents’ live but more importantly, it has also given her a different mental framework with which she conducts her life. She is not in a hurry about getting married and will wait for a year or two before she takes the plunge. She also does not visualise her current employment in a boutique as her future. She would like to have a professional degree and plans to start a course in accounting and to continue learning the French language which she has studied for five years in school. She is very clear that she does not want to ‘take a risk’ at all as getting a job in Europe is becoming increasingly difficult with factories closing down and employment becoming scarce. Guddi has therefore realised that long term independence depends on her ability to have a job and keep it, by attaining good professional and linguistic skills. It is possible to conclude therefore that in matters pertaining to her professional life, Guddi has internalised a non-familial perspective, different from other Indian families in her region, that is oriented towards her individual goals and personal ambitions. However, in her personal life Guddi remains committed to a family life as she experiences a sense of deep personal loss, ‘I long for a relationship with the family. I like my sister and used to see my mom in her but now she is very busy’. Guddi’s ‘mom-in-law’ (partner’s mother) is ‘very different. She doesn’t understand me. So I am not close to her. She is very busy in her work as is the father. I cry easily and they don’t understand. I feel I am unhappy but I can’t find that happiness with parents’. Although Guddi seeks a

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congenial familial life, as the idea of the ‘family’ remains central to her imagination, she is unable to find it with her ‘new’ Italian family who remain marked by cultural difference. Guddi has valued ‘independence and freedom’ throughout her young life, in terms of the choices she has made, the clothes she wears, what she wants to do, where and when she wants to go out of the house, and so she says, it was ‘easy for me to leave home’. And she never wants to become like her parents who have only given her sorrow. Above all, Guddi aspires for a career, ‘my dreams for a career are not fulfilled. I don’t want to get married and have children only’. In a final assessment of her life and her cherished values, Guddi concludes, ‘I love my independence. I do not want to ask anyone for anything’. In her journey as a young woman of Indian origin, Guddi’s experience stands out for her courage and fierce commitment to keeping her independence. There is no way she envisages a departure from this commitment although she simultaneously experiences a severe sense of loss of familial affection and support. When she was living with her grandparents in India, Guddi was waiting to go to Europe to her parents and the new life that awaited her. When she got there, the aspiration of family reunion in a happy, socially developed and upwardly mobile society did not materialise. It was in fact a shock and destruction of everything that Guddi had experienced as familial until then. Europe therefore has given her more than anything she could have ever imagined: it has allowed her to nurture her love for freedom and realise it in different contexts. Her relationship with Italy has been reconstituted by her desire for independence and her realisation that this is indeed possible. At the same time, it has deprived her of an emotional anchor in familial life that appears to be out of her reach for the present.

4.4 Concluding Comments The forms of belonging explored in this chapter point to a multiplicity of experience that is shaped by the family, overflows its embrace, and yet returns to its articulation in one way or another in the lives of young Punjabis in northern Italy. Changing lifestyles and seeking new ways out of a socialised and embedded habitus into different ways of belonging is not an easy task. It is marked by contestation, struggle, dissent, rebellion, submission and also change. Young second generation migrants have a more practical and workable orientation, than their parents, towards their role in Italian society. Despite familial injunctions, they carve out a niche for themselves, through learning the Italian language, engaging with the host society in multiple ways, acquiring higher education, finding different modes of employment, and having an open mind towards their hosts. They are willing to experiment with food, sartorial choice, and make lifestyle changes that help them blend in with local citizenry. They are ready to change ‘their physical look’ to become acceptable, to stand out less

References

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as ‘others’, and they work hard at this strategy.4 This bespeaks their commitment to integration to the lives their families initially chose but which they have now modified to their benefit in the social world they now inhabit. Freedom and autonomy in the pursuit of modernity, we may argue, is not something that emerges from the utopian immigrant dream of attaining economic goals alone. It is about recognising the values that frame human relationships, and the conflicts these give rise to, both within the home as well as in the public sphere. Writing in the context of Muslim young girls growing up in Milan, Laura Menin writes, modernity emerges as ‘a critical site of imagination and agency where competing representations of what it means to be a “Muslim woman” are crafted, contested and embodied in everyday politics’ (Menin, 2011: 513). We may make a similar argument for the Punjabi young woman who is caught between not just two worlds or two cultures but in the midst of her own shifting and moving desires, and an ambivalence in her self-definition to be an independent, ‘free’ young woman and a ‘good’ Punjabi girl. Her lived experience is shaped by an emotive, embodied state of simultaneously being other and different and therefore marked, as well as embodying sameness in multiple spaces, both inside closed familial spaces, community frames, and in the public sphere. These diverse ways of belonging shape multiple ways of relating to the other, resulting in competing definitions of what it means to be Indian, Italian or European. Ideas of citizenship are also redefined, as to belong is not necessarily constructed or experienced in terms of legal citizenship alone.5 Citizenship is a feeling of belonging, which all youth, children of immigrants or otherwise, aspire to through social and cultural acceptance, friendship and support. Above all, they desire and seek admittance into, and equal treatment in, a social universe that is defined by emotions as much as by legal forms of acceptance and belonging.

References Baldassar, L. (2008). Missing Kin and Longing to be together: Emotions and the construction of co-presence in transnational relationships. Journal of Intercultural Studies, 29(3), pp. 247–266. Boehm, D. A., & Swank, H. (2011). Introduction to special issue on affecting global movement: The emotional terrain of transnationality. International Migration, 49(6), pp. 1–6. Colombo, E., Domaneschi, L., & Marchetti, C. (2011). Citizenship and multiple belonging: Representations of inclusion, identification and participation among children of immigrants in Italy. Journal of Modern Italian Studies, 16(3), pp. 334–347. Colombo, E., & Rebughini, P. (2012). Children of immigrants in a globalized world: A generational experience. Series on Migration, Diasporas and Citizenship. Palgrave Macmillan, UK

4

One young Punjabi man who runs an Indian store in the area not only speaks fluent Italian, but also wears casual western clothes and green coloured contact lenses to attain and present a more acceptable physical expression of himself. 5 For an understanding of the relationship between citizenship and belonging in the experience of immigrant youth in Italy, see Colombo et al. (2011).

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Fangen, K., Johansson, T., & Hammarén, N. (2012). Young migrants: Exclusion and belonging in Europe. Palgrave, Macmillan Grillo, R. (2008). The family in dispute: Insiders and outsiders. In R. Grillo (Ed.), The family in question: Immigrant and ethnic minorities in multicultural Europe. Amsterdam University Press Menin, L. (2011). Bodies, boundaries and desires: Multiple subject-positions and micro-politics of modernity among young muslim women in Milan. Journal of Modern Italian Studies, 16(1), pp. 504–515. Rapporto Comunità indiana in Italia (2021 - Indian Community Report in Italy) https://www.lav oro.gov.it/documenti-e-norme/studi-e-statistiche/Documents/Rapporti%20annuali%20sulle% 20comunit%C3%A0%20migranti%20in%20Italia%20-%20anno%202021/India-rapporto2021.pdf Rebughini, P. (2019). A vulnerable generation: Youth agency facing work precariousness. Papeles del CIEC. International Journal on Collective Identity Research (1), pp. 1–17. https://doi.org/ 10.1387/pceic.19332 Svasek, M. (2008). Who cares? Families and feelings in movement. Journal of Intercultural Studies, 29(3), pp. 213–230.

Chapter 5

Pathways of Integration: Individual and Collective Strategies for ‘Co-integration’

It has been argued that Italy is a ‘postracial society’ where ‘widespread racism permeates the political discourse, the societal behaviour, and popular culture, yet race is often unnamed and ultimately silenced’ (Lombardi-Diop, 2012: 175). This view suggests that Italy is an extremely racist society with perhaps few explicit expressions and several undertones present in policy, political rhetoric, as well as in social interactions. Italy has also been described as a deeply nationalist society especially in the last 150 years. This has no doubt resulted in what one scholar refers to as deeply rooted ‘nationalist repertoires’ that generate exclusionary practices and policies vis-a-vis migrants and others, in the public sphere (Maritano, 2004: 64). There are several illustrations of such nationalism and the racism that prevail in everyday life.1 As Abdelmalek Sayad famously argued, ‘double punishment’ is present in any judgement passed on the immigrant. It is rooted in ‘state thought’ and it exists inside our ‘national’ heads, ‘because the very fact of immigration is tainted with the idea of being at fault, with the idea of anomaly and anomie. The immigrant presence is always marked by its incompleteness: it is an at-fault presence that is in itself guilty. It is physically and geographically displaced: in other words, it is spatially displaced because migration is primarily a spatial displacement’. He says, it is as if our ‘categories of thought’ see immigration as a ‘form of delinquency, as an intrinsic delinquency’ (Sayad, 2010: 168). If immigration is viewed as a form of delinquency, integration indeed remains a far cry from everyday life.

1

See for example Favero (2010).

Revised version of chapter in: India Migration Report 2019. Diasporas in Europe, edited by S. Irudaya Rajan, © 2018 by Routledge, Taylor and Francis. Reproduced by permission of Taylor & Francis Group. © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2023 M. Thapan, Work, Family and Integration, Migration, Minorities and Modernity 6, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-99-5581-7_5

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Multiculturalism in Europe has also been criticised in terms of its perceived positive effect on social and cultural integration. It is suggested that in Italy, multiculturalism exists to the extent that citizens are accustomed to a large diversity in the visible markers of populations present in their midst, due to the shortage of labour and to increased irregular migration. This does not, however, necessarily translate into ‘co-integration’ on the ground and nor has it resulted in the transformation of Italian society.2 There is in fact evidence of ‘low-level, but diffused racism and intolerance’ (Human Rights Watch, as cited by Hill et al., 2015: 227). Although such a view suggests a critique of citizens’ inclinations towards migrants, or a shortcoming on the part of government initiatives, legal outcomes and political will, I argue with the help of some illustrative material, instead to the diverse ways in which citizens and immigrants in northern Italy are engaged in the processes of integration across cultures, faiths, and linguistic barriers. The emphasis is on ‘cosmopolitan sociability’ and its construction through ‘networks of interconnection and locally based activities’ (Glick-Schiller et al. 2011: 400).3 The idea of ‘sociability practices’ moves beyond multiculturalism and mere tolerance of difference to an understanding of ‘when and where people use their diverse cultural or religious backgrounds to build relationships and identities of openness’ (GlickSchiller et al., 2011: 410). In particular, I would like to emphasise relations between employers and employees as indicative of efforts at integration on the ground and try to understand some linkages between local citizens, the immigrant population and religious institutions. As religion is so integral to the lives of both immigrants and local citizenry in very different ways, such connections merit our serious attention as they suggest possibilities for meaningful and lasting integration. Finally, I argue that the impetus for change is only possible through the local citizenry and their participation. National and local policies are only formal aspects of forms of interaction that must exist on the ground. It is therefore imperative to understand individual and collective strategies of engagement as transformatory moments on the pathways of integration. The outcome of such forms of engagement may not be visible immediately but they play a significant role developing dialogue and relationships across cultures. This chapter attempts to examine the relationship between people, institutions and the efforts to build an integrated society based on individual and collective strategies of civic engagement. The people involve both migrants and their others, their Italian hosts, and several others, who are engaged in the process of integration. 2

Sonia Gsir refers to integration as ‘co-integration’ as both the migrant and members of the host society are partners in this process (Gsir, 2017: 151–152). The EU also formally describes the process of integration as a ‘dynamic two-way process of mutual accommodation’ (Kaczmarczyk et al., 2015: 40). 3 ‘Cosmopolitan sociability’ has been defined as ‘consisting of forms of competence and communication skills that are based on the human capacity to create social relations of inclusiveness and openness to the world’ (Glick-Schiller et al., 2011: 402).

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Together, they accomplish this through different kinds of activities within the legal framework of the local municipalities and governments. There are no necessarily shared or common goals or sensibilities in place in this endeavour that in fact stay alive through a multiplicity and diversity of views and practices. The initiative, drive, and commitment of local citizens, immigrants and religious institutions is one reason why their efforts are successful and result in the formation of cross-cultural friendships and networks. Whether or not integration is achieved is another question altogether. The point here is to examine the different pathways of integration as they emerge and evolve in everyday life in social contexts that are fragmented by dichotomies between political intent and economic necessity, between national laws and local policies, between the desire to open up the possibilities for interaction and integration and the will and commitment to follow this through at the governmental level and through the work of the people involved. One way of trying to understand this process is to examine the practices of civic engagement that are an outcome of the effort by immigrants, local citizens and bodies, and religious institutions, among others, to attain their goals. Pathways of integration as processes include forms of civic engagement that are expressed at diverse levels of everyday life. Like Caroline Brettell, I seek to understand ‘immigrant agency and…diverse pathways to civic engagement’ (2012: 130). In this process, I focus on the individual and collective strategies of civic engagement for forms of integration that seek to move out of ‘subordinate integration’ (Ambrosini, 2001) to more assertive acts of engagement that promise gain, acceptance and recognition in one way or another. Brettell and Reed-Danahay use the idea of civic engagement interchangeably with the concept of ‘participatory citizenship’ (2012). In this process, they also distinguish between participation or civic engagement in formal processes such as the political process or informal participation in other spheres such as voluntary associations, agencies and religious institutions (Brettell & Reed-Danahay, 2012: 2).4 I do, however, also seek to understand the initiatives by local citizenry as well in the process of integration and the mutual recognition and acceptance of diversity. The motivations behind efforts at integration lie in the emotional need for the recognition of one another as equal and participatory citizens in the public sphere. It is obvious that this impetus is far more prevalent in the local citizenry than it is among the immigrant population and those who are engaged have behind them a history of activism and engagement with causes that seek to eradicate injustice, social inequalities, exclusion and marginalisation. This act of working for the rights of migrants through pro-migrant mobilisation has been referred to by some scholars as ‘altruistic mobilisation’ (Passy, 2001). By taking on the mantle of building pathways of integration with immigrants, they seek to articulate their suffering, search for their resolutions, emphasise their rights, offer assistance in different ways and seek to integrate immigrants into Italian society. Their ultimate goal is to build a just, humane society, based on the well-being of all

4

See Brettell and Reed-Danahay (2012) for a discussion of informal aspects of civic engagement and definitions of citizenship that go beyond the formal constructions of the same.

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members.5 These ‘acts of citizenship’ (Isin, 2008) seek to constitute citizens not as mere subjects but as active citizens who seek transformation and change. The coming together of local initiatives and immigrant efforts lies at the centre of struggles for integration and therefore need to be understood in the complex and different ways in which they are played out. Religion and left-wing politics, for example, often go together in the Italian social landscape that seeks integration through multiple routes and directions. The goal is similar: the well-being and integration of the immigrant but for the local citizenry and institutions, the motivations are hugely opposed. These include faith and belief in a religious symbol or icon and building a new world through a commitment to serve the poor and to the protection of the human rights of those who are unjustly excluded and marginalised. At the same time, it is considered beneficial for the well-being and growth of Italian society if immigrants are well integrated and equal members of society. The training of officials, social workers and others who work with immigrants is also part of the local agenda and is a task undertaken by NGOs with local govt. funding and plays a significant role in the process of building integration.6 In an earlier chapter, I have discussed the strategies by Indian women who seek out and accomplish participation in Italian society in different ways to attain their goals of integration, a kind of instrumental integration, as they are not interested in being intimately close to the Italian community, only that much that makes their position in Italy more conducive to better social interaction between the communities. This is the story of integration, from subordinate integration, as Ambrosini (2001, 2012) has pointed out, in the acceptance of immigrants by Italians the labour market, to a kind of instrumental integration by immigrants of Indian origin, to attain their goals of being accepted by Italians who consider them different, and a closed community. While efforts at such forms of integration may appear to be limited insofar as they do not address a universalist picture of global citizenship, they are necessary for the survival and well-being of immigrants across societies. Efforts to explain the trend of opening out towards others, in an inclusive and expansive approach, point to integration as a form of cosmopolitanism. Gerard Delanty argues that cosmopolitanism allows the possibilities of linking ‘normative critique with empirically based analysis focused on exploring new ways of seeing the world’. This consideration of social reality in terms of ‘people’s experiences, identities, solidarities and values’ provides the basis for a ‘new conception of immanent transcendence’ (Delanty, 2012: 41). Citing Piet Strydon, Delanty argues that the ‘core of the cosmopolitan imagination’ is a way of viewing the social world that is concerned with the possibilities it opens up for self-transformation which can only be realised by ‘taking the cosmopolitan perspective of the Other as well as 5

I am well aware that this is not necessarily true for all Italian participants and that there have been racist attacks on immigrants by local Italians across Italy. See, for example, Calavita (2005), Cole (1997), Favero (2010), Maher (1996). 6 The work for example, of Nosotras, a NGO in Florence, in this regard with funding from the Commune of Florence is significant. I have attended a training camp for police officials organised by Nosotras in Scandicci in March 2013.

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global principles of justice’ (Delanty, 2012: 41). In contexts relevant to our discussion, cosmopolitanism therefore takes us beyond seeking to engage with the other in everyday forms of civic engagement or through understandings of one another’s cultures by forms of cultural interaction that surpass borders and barriers to such interaction. These could be first steps in understanding the other and engaging with the other in everyday life. Cultural translation would emerge as the necessary prelude to genuine mutual understanding and criticism and engagement with one another. The next step would be a recognition of the transformatory moment in everyday life contexts where strangers traverse well-worn paths of inequality, struggle, marginalisation and exclusion. Reaching that step requires an understanding of the different dimensions of interaction that take place in everyday life contexts, enabling forms of mutual engagement, understanding and interpretation as a way of incorporating the other as an indelible part of the self, bound by ties of difference as much as by sameness. These activities and engagements range from the most banal acts of finding housing, employment and schools for migrants to participation in social activities and events that hold the promise of acceptance and change for them as they do for their hosts who seek their integration in one way or another. While I examine the role of the agencies of the Catholic church, other faith-based institutions, non-governmental organisations and immigrant and other associations, I do not seek to emphasise any particular agency in its efforts to assist, lead or guide the process of integration of immigrants. I do not therefore single out any party or agency but nonetheless, the work of some institutions sets them as leaders in the field, acknowledged in the public sphere in which all these activities take place.

5.1 Complexities and Paradoxes As already stated, there is a large presence of migrants in Italy, who are seen as both being essential in certain sectors of the labour market, such as agriculture, but also as causing grave ‘security’ risks through their supposed infringement on certain welfare benefits. For example, the Lega Nord (Northern League), the right-wing political party active in northern Italy, has from the beginning articulated defence against the surging immigration presence in its political agenda (Ambrosini, 2012).7 The Bossi-Finni law was one legal provision that was promulgated in 2002 to precisely curtail immigration into the country.8 In his work, Ambrosini (2012) emphasises the politics of exclusion that prevails at the level of local policies and draws our attention to ‘cultural exclusion’ as one of the forms of exclusion practiced by local bodies. Such forms of exclusion, however, exist in the terrain of policy that may 7

For a review of the Northern League and the anti-immigrant xenophobia it supports and advocates, see Avanza (2010). 8 Calavita notes that ‘hundreds of priests mobilised against Bossi-Fini which they said ‘violates the principles of solidarity and human rights’ and creates ‘problems of conscience’. Significantly, they asked the Catholic church to engage in ‘civil disobedience’ (2005:36).

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be contested, appealed against and put aside. The cultural exclusion that exists in the mental-scapes (to extend Appadurai’s terminology) of the host community are, however, another matter and need to be addressed in our discussion of cultural policy that seeks to exclude through the rhetoric of inclusion that prevails as a political ploy at different periods of time. Italians appear to be haunted by fears of losing ‘Italianness’ as a result of the efforts of the media, demographers and politicians who all emphasise for example the nation’s low birth rate record (Stanley, 2008: 43). The repeated emphasis in the popular media serves to increase these fears that the Italian ‘race’ itself is under threat and, along with European culture, may soon be overcome by large and increasing numbers of migrants in Italy and indeed in Europe as a whole (Stanley, 2008: 44). Racism, emanating from the policies of the far right, in many countries in Europe is viewed as taking over the policies shaping migration, refugee status and other aspects of their presence in European states. It is observed that undoubtedly ‘racist hierarchies in Europe are modified by the neoliberal profit rationality’ (Georgi, 2019: 110). As earlier mentioned, such an attitude is prevalent in Italy where workers are hired for manual and low-skilled jobs despite their illegal status. They are often employed in appalling work and living conditions, based on a racist attitude that sees them as somewhat inferior to the local citizenry. Georgi argues that ‘the attempts of capital to utilise and exploit migrant labour result in a form of “neoliberal racism” that modifies racist hierarchies along perceived economic utility, while at the same time resisting effective anti-racist reforms’ (Georgi, 2019: 110). King and Mai (2012) have referred to the ‘Albanophobia’ that has been the result of a view that a particular community is associated with certain criminal, violent and dangerous activities and is therefore to be avoided at all costs. It has also been suggested that ‘regionalism’ is still a factor concerning relations among Italians and is based on both small and large issues ranging from cuisine and dialects to Lega Nord claiming a separate geographical and economic status for itself from the rest of Italy (Stanley, 2008: 46). The current political dispensation in Italy, with a newly elected far right government, perhaps does not augur well for all immigrants. The Brothers of Italy party, led by Girogia Meloni, the newly elected first woman prime minister, fought the recent election with promises of stricter border controls, blocking boat landings and establishing EU-managed centres outside the bloc to evaluate asylum applications.9 This is not all. There are other internal factors at work that make integration a difficult proposition. Viewing the links between religion and ostracism in Italy, Bertolani and Perocco (2013) point to the work of some intellectuals who have asserted that the ‘Islamic religion constitutes an insuperable obstacle to social inclusion’. As a result of several such outcomes, ‘a policy of exclusion and of segregation of the immigrants’ has been developed that is ‘designed to keep them from taking social roots or rising above subordinate status’ (Bertolani & Perocco, 2013, emphasis 9

The first episode invoking the new government’s anti-immigrant policy took place in November, 2022, when Italy sent one of four humanitarian migrant ships to France to ‘share the burden’ of immigrants landing in Europe. https://www.nytimes.com/2022/11/09/world/europe/italy-francemigrant-ship.html (Accessed on 10 December, 2022).

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in the original).10 All the resultant antagonism in society is particularly directed at the non-European immigrant who is increasingly visible in the labour market, in social spaces such as educational institutions, and towards whom the energy and work time of the social service and other welfare officers appears to be directed. The social rejection of migrants, as a consequence of political and media efforts, results in the creation and sustenance of feelings of insecurity, suspicion and distrust of migrants among the Italian people which has consequences for the integration of migrants. At the same time, there is no homogeneous outlook towards immigrants in Italy and there are differences in the reception of immigrants in northern and southern Italy. While the south has traditionally been considered somewhat ‘peasant-like’ and ‘backward’ compared to the more politically progressive and economically vibrant north, sharp differences have been noted in the response of people towards immigrants.11 Cole suggests that although anti-immigrant violence occurs throughout the country, ‘brutality takes the form of intimidating foreign workers in the south and exemplary beatings by neo-nazis and skinheads in the north’ (Cole, 1997: 101).12 It is also significant that all the work supportive of immigrants, their initial reception, and their rights associated with work, health and security benefits, and their integration into Italian society has been addressed by individuals and organisations more in the north than in the southern parts of Italy. Moreover, Emilia-Romagna is a wealthy region and the land and farm owners are themselves workers, they own the land and they work with the workers. As one farm owner says, ‘although there is a clear chain of command, we know each other as humans’ (Interview with Ferrante, farm owner). The emphasis on relating to one another as humans helps in making the workers feel comfortable, and confident to approach the owner directly regarding their work conditions or problems regarding employment. In addition, Italian churches, with a very vocal and active Catholic church, its wing Caritas, local associations, immigrant associations, as well as politicians have been much more supportive in the traditionally Left-wing northern regions of the country than in the south. Sabrina, an activist in the region, comments that ‘left-wing politics is a big tradition in the North which makes for better situation for the people when they arrive. People have a different tradition to “take care” of others. Historically, anthropologically, ethnologically, the mental structures are very different’ (Interview with Sabrina, an activist). It has been observed that ‘the vigor of the proimmigrant movement in the north derives from strong traditions of political activity that privilege the notion of solidarity, often communist and socialist in character but also involving the Church’ (Cole, 1997: 102).13 The Church along with other organisations has 10

See also Garau (2010) for a critique of the position of the Catholic church on national identity and citizenship. 11 Through their study of Italian and immigrant children and youth’s understanding of multiculturalism and ‘borders’ in northern and central Italy, Cangia and Pagani (2014) examine their conflicting and ambivalent attitudes towards immigrants. Emotions were central in defining their relationships and experience with immigrant ‘others’ in Italy. 12 Cole is specifically referring to the anti-immigrant violence in Florence in the 1990s. See Cole (1997: 100ff). 13 See also Calavita (2005: 75 ff).

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therefore been critical in the work of the integration of immigrants in northern Italy. No doubt the socialist traditions of northern Italy, especially of the Emilia-Romagna region, have a role to play in this supportive and enabling attitude towards immigrants, but the culture of charity, pastoral care, expressions of solidarity and volunteering, associated with the church cannot be undermined. It is also noteworthy that all these different associations are working together, across individual ideological and faith commitments, for a cause that is viewed as common. Before examining the work of some of these organisations, I now turn to the narratives of some Punjabi farmers in Emilia-Romagna, to first understand their experience.

5.2 Italy is like a ‘meethi (sweet) jail’ Work is at the heart of the immigrant’s quest for a new life and is therefore critical to his or her experience of integration. Among the community under study, it is the men who are engaged in work in the agriculture sector mainly while women tend to stay at home although there are a few working women. The focus here is therefore on Indian immigrant men. There is a ‘paternalistic’ attitude towards migrants among sections of the Italian population who consider some immigrants, including those from India, as being quiet, good farm workers, unobtrusive, undemanding and responsible. This attitude is a somewhat ‘superior attitude’ that reeks of a consideration of the Indians at a lower level of ‘social evolution’ (Bertolani & Perocco, 2013).14 The kind of work that Indians do is clearly ‘subordinate and segregated’, limited to certain kinds of functions in the dairy farm sector and in the restricted sections of the tanning industry; thus, it is work that is valued precisely because it is subordinate (Bertolani & Perocco, 2013). Most Indian immigrant employees choose to be quiet instead of answering back, are respectful, obedient and subservient to their employers, in order to avoid losing their jobs. At the same time, there is a resentment against the employer who discriminates among them, favouring the Italian or Romanian over the Indian, or who exploits their labour in different way. They do not, however, seek to redress the situation and continue to work with mixed emotions of simmering discontent (‘I experience exploitation and there is nothing I can do about it’) mixed with contentment (‘At least I have a job’) for the well-being of their family and the future of their children. One of the most significant influencing factors in the views among Indian immigrants is their comparison with India where everything is seen to depend on personal contacts and networks. This is the major difference with Italy where migrants feel 14

It is also possible that a similar attitude prevails in high schools against immigrant students. A cultural organisation that works especially with youth identifies the ‘subtle racism’ present among teachers in high school in Reggio Emilia. Such teachers send immigrant students on for vocational training even though the students themselves want to go for engineering in higher education. There is a view among teachers that immigrant students’ cognitive abilities are not at par with the Italians and they are therefore fit only to pursue vocational training. The students have to appeal to higher authorities and even ask outside organisations to intervene in order to help them realise their goals.

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they are treated with respect and dignity by the state (police, hospitals, schools) whether you are a milkman or a factory worker. Hard work is paid for. However, there is a slide in employment due to recession and, as a result, the men feel they have to be very circumspect at work and cannot answer back as they may lose their jobs. They say that they experience exploitation at work from the Italian employers and, as one man put it, ‘we are not integrated and we will never be integrated, because we are different’. He continued, ‘We are different and will always remain different’ (Rajinder, male, 35 years) He recognises the reality and works hard to maximise his gains within a difficult situation: ‘There is no other solution as there is no possibility of return to India where we will have to struggle for everything all over again’. Despite unemployment in Italy, Punjabi and Sikh men are loathe to leave Italy. The economic aspiration is strong and the hope for future employment, the amnesty programmes, and the optimism that another job will open up remains strong. To support this argument, one respondent added, ‘money is always inadequate, until the end of one’s life, it will be like this’. Mudha Singh (24 years) claims he paid Rs. 10 lakh (roughly 11,000 euros) to an Italian employer (through his uncle already in Italy) to arrange documents for him to emigrate to Italy. He had completed his schooling and a computer engineering course when he came to Italy two years earlier. Although he was working in property dealing and farming in India, his dream was to become independent. Family is the backbone of an Indian migrant’s life and Singh’s uncle (already in Italy) looked after him, and helped him settle down. Now, he has earned enough to buy a small apartment and even though he does not have a job currently, he feels he will get one soon. Mudha Singh’s dream is to return to India, and bridge the separation with his parents, ‘however poor one’s mother is, she is still one’s mother’. He aspires to build a shopping complex back home and earn his income through that. He says in conclusion, ‘Money draws money, so if one has money one can succeed.’ At the same time, his life in Italy is not a bed of roses: ‘Living here is like a meethi (sweet) jail’. He means that there is an increased income in Italy but no sense of well-being. Singh also perceives a constraint on what an immigrant can do in his leisure time: ’You can’t go anywhere. You have to stay at home, cook for yourself, and fend for yourself’. His criticism of Italy is that there is no real love between children and parents, or for one another, as they don’t seem to care for each other. He therefore does not mix very well with Italians: ‘they eat a lot of meat, we are vegetarians. They are basically different from us. We don’t go to their homes or meet them outside. Some of them criticize our turbans, we argue with them. There is no meeting ground’. While Singh values the work opportunities, the income, and the comforts that life in Italy brings (‘can have a decent life’), he is certainly uncomfortable about his position in the host society, and his interaction with Italians. The experience of difference is therefore perhaps mutual. While Italians view immigrants as very different, and yet an essential part of their lives, Indians reciprocate the feeling through their experience of dissimilarity. One respondent concluded his observations on Italy thus, ‘it’s different, na chodne ko dil karta hain na rehna ka (don’t feel like leaving it, don’t feel like staying either)’. The attachment is primarily based on financial considerations but emotional concerns are not far behind. He added, ‘There is the opportunity to find employment even if one is

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unemployed for awhile. Something or the other will show up. Without money what face to show to people in India?’. There is a strong sense of shame and dishonour attached to a failed migration project in Punjab. The investment in the migratory project is therefore more than just financial; it involves a deep emotional investment and a desperation to hold onto the migrant status (hopefully turning into citizenship) despite pitfalls and challenges a migrant may encounter. This in turn is connected to identity and a strong sense of both belonging as well as exclusion from Italian society. Youth of Punjabi origin are in a category that is set apart: from other migrant youth with whom they rarely interact and from the Italian youth population who are their ambivalent other. There are huge cultural differences although language is not a problem as it is learnt early in school and is part of their repertoire of languages. They speak it with ease and confidence and at one level, it is a strong binding force with the Italian community. The uncertainty over their employment is the main factor influencing their decision to use Italy as a stepping stone for secondary migration. This is fuelled by their experience of ‘difference and distance that cannot be overcome’. One boy concluded the discussion: ‘In India, you are free. It is your own country. I can never feel the same way here however much I integrate into Italian society’ (Nitin, male, 18 years). The experience of the inability to integrate by Indian youth no doubt underlies their interaction with Italian youth as well as their decisions to move out of Italy, a decision that does not always bear fruit. The construction of ‘us’ versus ‘them’ is strongly constituted in Italy through different markers of identity that are well established. Maritano (2002) argues, for example, that there is a way of expressing difference present in the Italian language in the way in which the term ‘stranieri’ is used to address all foreigners. This points to a ‘system of internal differentiation’ in which ‘the inside is distinguished from the outside, in which the nation is distinguished from “the others”’ (Maritano, 2002: 64).15 Cultural differences are other significant causes for exclusion and interviews with Italian service providers, employers and others point to this in many different ways. The older generation of workers no doubt experience humiliation in their interaction with their employers. Their experience is contained, however, by their mute acceptance of such humiliation as part of the life of a migrant.There is an acceptance of the inevitability of the situation and the context in which they are located. Ironically, this silence may be perceived by Italians as a form of integration as several Italian employers told me how happy they are with their Indian employees who silently do their work, without raising their voices, or fighting with other employees. Employment is critical to the legal status of the immigrant and there is therefore great pressure to remain in employment. As one NGO that works for the rights of

15

See Pratt (2002) for a rich analysis of the problems of inclusion and exclusion as a result of historical and cultural divides within Italy.

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refugees in Parma put it, immigrants therefore work like ‘slaves’ as they cannot lose their jobs.16 If they do so, they lose their right to stay in Italy. More recently, Italian employers at farms have started viewing this particular characteristic of Punjabi farmers, of remaining silent and submissive, as a very ‘clever tactic’ to ensure their dominance and continuity in the labour market. This adds to the negative labelling by service providers who tend to view Indians as living in a ‘closed community’ unwilling to learn the language, or freely interact with Italians, or insisting on maintaining their own cultural and social links, results in disadvantaging immigrants in many different ways. They tend to remain excluded from the Italian community homogenised and essentialised as a very different cultural and ethnic group. Italian employers vary with many appreciating the Indian community of being quiet, good workers who make little trouble for them and are therefore the best workers for them to hire and they seek them out through kin and community networks. There are other Italian employers who seek to engage with their employees in vastly different ways thus forging links that go beyond an instrumental relationship. It is important to emphasise that these employers have a higher educational background from the others and belong to the upper social class of Italian society. Fabio is an educated, well-read and politically aware dairy farmer near Fidenza. The farm has been in the family for generations. In 1997, he decided to hire Sunil, an Indian worker who was already in Italy but had no skills in working with animals. Soon, Sunil brought his wife over to live with him and their children joined them some years ago. Fabio taught him all the work from scratch and is appreciative that Sunil now works very well and with great precision: ‘he has a mind oriented towards precision, he respects schedule, the hours, the process he has to control. In all aspects of his life, he is precise.’ The employer is also very happy with other aspects of Sunil’s personality, that he ‘respects others’ and thinks he is different from other workers who are from the Punjab. He concludes, ‘he is a very special person’. Although Fabio insists he has no personal relationship with him, he is completely involved with Sunil and his family. He helped to obtain the necessary documents for Sunil’s children and to get them admission into a school. Fabio’s involvement may be viewed at one level as paternalistic or patronising but is also indicative of his extensive care and provision for his worker. Whenever Sunil has a medical problem, Fabio takes him to the doctor or the hospital; he observes that Sunil and his sons are model Italian citizens because they respect administrative rules and Italian law and says with admiration, ‘he is the best!’. The economic project of the migrant is so essential to his survival, Fabio asserts, that Sunil seeks not to have any ‘human feelings’ and is focussed only on earning money, following all the rules, and he is certain that when Sunil’s economic project is over, he will leave Italy. Sunil’s wife, Rajni, is a cheerful woman and is well liked by Fabio’s wife who invites her for tea to their home. She would like a more engaging relationship with Rajni who she thinks is reserved and keeps her distance 16

Ambrosini (2012) refers to this form of integration of migrant workers into the labour force in Italy as a form of ‘subordinate integration’. See also Calavita (2005: 48ff).

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from her husband’s employers. On her part, Rajni is deeply appreciative of Fabio and his wife, Sabrina, an activist and volunteer, and their joint efforts to help them integrate into Italian society and achieve their goals. She particularly values their efforts in helping her sons to gain admission to good schools and other activities in Fidenza. Although she tells me she has been invited to their home several times, she is a little embarrassed by their efforts to treat them as equals and is awkward while making conversation in their living room, drinking tea with her hosts as an equal.17 Fabio’s engagement with Sunil, his economic project which Fabio acknowledges is closely linked to his own, and in turn deeply connects the two men, is rare and rests on Fabio’s world view which is open and seeks to encompass the other to whom he is connected through work, which they often do together, into his own life and project. At the same time, Fabio is clear that due to Sunil’s lack of engagement with his surroundings, with the world around them, he and his family can never attain an Italian identity. Sunil and his family are a closed unit, not only with Italians, but with other Indians as well. This restricts their abilities to be truly integrated as their project is an economic project, not one of integration, and once that ceases, they will return to India.18 Fabio’s relationship with the immigrant as an employee, based on equality and trust, is perhaps unique but nonetheless as an individual strategy, opens up a pathway of integration for the ways in which employers seek to engage with their employees. An Italian cheese maker who hires six Indian men (out of his total work force of ten) says, ‘Indians work well, they adapt to the work necessity which sometimes is seven days a week. In the beginning, they were ready to do overtime. Now, they have stabilised and do only the hours…They are very docile, work properly…are punctual, precise, responsible and adaptable to the necessity of the job. This is not like a normal factory job. It needs more attention and they have the patience to do that. They help each other a lot and have good integration with Italian workers’. The fact that docility, submissiveness and adaptability are so well appreciated is indicative of the high value that is placed on keeping the worker in his or her place, outside the realm of critical engagement or any further involvement with workers as citizens. Unlike Fabio, this employer is not interested in the personal life of his employees and seeks their maximum output although he makes sure he follows all the legal requirements. This is a form of instrumental integration, for the employer, and restricts the world of the immigrant who is viewed purely in terms of his performance and production. Another farmer says that most Indians, when they come to Emilia-Romagna, do not know the language and nor do they have a licence for driving a tractor or cars, so they do the manual work, such as milking cows (which is mechanised). He 17

This is partly an outcome of the class distinctions that are so well ingrained in Indian society and incorporated into the habitus of all Indians. 18 Two years later, Sunil did leave Fabio’s employment to return to his village in India where he has built a house for himself. With Fabio’s help, he obtained pension from the Italian government and while his sons now live and work in Italy, Sunil and his wife have retired to India. After his relationship and experience with Sunil whom he values a great deal, Fabio could not bring himself to hire another Indian and has some Egyptian workers now.

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knows that Indian workers are very keen on a ‘routine’, a daily routine, and they are very comfortable with this routine. This attitude and their calm, pleasant nature makes them more employable over Italians who love improvisation, change, and are also more explosive! (Interview with Ferrante, a farm owner). In general, there is a deep satisfaction with Indian workers whose only problem, according to Stefano, the owner of a slaughterhouse, is that they go to India for two months or more on vacation and sometimes do not even return! Stefano exclaims, ‘We are waiting for them to return!’ He finds them ready to do all kinds of work and work for eight or nine hours in a day, ‘The most difficult work, which Italian workers refuse to do, is done by them. Earlier (about ten years ago), Italians used to come looking for work here in their summer holidays. But now they don’t come here, they work in an office. This is hard work, not clean, there is the blood; you have to cut the meat. So, ten years ago, we started hiring European persons from Albania, Romania, Eastern Europe. After that, we noticed that the contractor hired for cleaning the slaughterhouse, brings Indian people just for cleaning. So we became interested in these people because we see “good” persons, they are quiet, they come with family so they work better, they don’t speak a lot, have a good education, they don’t drink’. In fact, there are several stereotypes in this judgement about Indians in the slaughterhouse but their work merits deep praise from the owner. Stefano has given the task of looking after the premises at night to an Indian worker and invited him to move into the premises with his family. In this way, he feels he has a very reliable worker taking care of his premises. He is at pains to emphasise that he seeks out only Indian workers for employment as they are such good workers and wants to give them more and more responsibility. He concludes, ‘I trust in them and in their honesty. In the future, when they will learn the Italian language, they can be partners in the work, not merely workers’. While Stefano displays an open confidence and trust in Indians, the Confederazione Generale Italiana del Lavoro (CGIL, the Italian General Confederation for Labour) informs me that work at the slaughterhouse is the most difficult and results in most Indians turning to alcohol addiction and depression. Indian workers are reticent about their work but other Italian workers inform me that they integrate well with other workers, develop good ‘joking relationships’ with them and make an effort to be fluent in the Italian language. Not all employers facilitate the development and integration of the immigrant with forms of multiple engagement that seek to fulfil the immigrant’s goals as much as their own. Anand et al. (2022) explore the dire straits in which farmers from the Punjab find themselves in the Lazio region, basing their study on the town of Bella Farnia. They find that the men have come from their homes in Punjab ‘in prospect of a brighter economic future. They are escaping backbreaking labour, debt traps, substance addictions, even the prospect of suicide’. The Punjabi farmers find themselves in greater debt as they pay huge amounts to agents who help them reach Italy, where they are underpaid, overworked and exploited by their employers. The authors find that the farmers have to cycle long distances to work, often working long hours for poor income, and survive in daunting living conditions. The tragedy is that the sacrifices made to get to Italy do not often bear fruit. One young man from a

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village near Jalandhar committed suicide in the summer of 2020 due to the pressure of work and lack of adequate income (Anand et al., 2022). The most significant resistance against employers and agents that directly affect the working lives of poor immigrants in this country are the struggles to attain liberation from the caporali (gangmasters) and end their exploitation. Scholars such as Federico Oliveri have asserted that migrants in Italy are now engaged in active processes of developing new forms of class consciousness and seeking to develop ‘global citizenship from below’ (Oliveri, 2012, 2013). In his work that focuses on the strikes by migrant farm workers in Rosarno in the southern region of Calabria, in 2010 and in Nardo, a small town in Apulia in southern Italy, in 2011, Oliveri argues that realising their oppression by the gangmasters or the caporali who control their recruitment and their wages, migrants are on a warpath to make change. One important outcome is a change in the law recognising gangmastering not merely as an ‘administrative violation’ but now as a ‘penal crime’ punishable with up to 12 years in prison and with a fine of 1000 to 2000 euros per illegally hired worker (Oliveri, 2013: 6). This in itself has achieved a semblance of order in the organisation and recruitment of migrant farm workers but what is of concern here is the impact of such protests, agitations and forms of protest by migrant collectives for understanding forms of civic engagement in society. Such forms of protest, an outcome of routine forms of exploitation by gangmasters from within the community as well as from outside, has resulted in establishing new forms of political mobilisation, still in the nascent stage, among migrants and indicates new forms of engagement with the society in which they are located. Migrants are primarily dependent on these agents for their employment and cannot risk dissent at this stage to save their position in the labour market and their precarious social position in Italian society. They are caught in a bind and therefore rather seek safety and security within their community, the celebrations, festivals and rituals of collective life, rather than seek out acceptance and greater security in the workplace or into Italian society. In any case, they have access to trade union organisations in the country such as the CGIL, which is one of the leading unions to which Indians and other immigrants are affiliated. Although Indian immigrants complain of exploitation not only by Italian employers but also increasingly by members of their own community, and this has been emphasised by the CGIL trade union in Fidenza as well, they do not seek to organise and make collective protests, at least, not so much in the north. However, about 4000 Indian farm workers in the Latina region, south of Rome, organised themselves in 2016 and went on strike, aided by social activists notably Marco Omizzolo, a sociologist at La Sapienza University, Rome.They were successful in marginally raising their daily wage but more importantly, it taught them that it ‘pays to fight for your rights’ and brought about an awareness of the possibilities of resistance and protest.19

19

Source: Marco Omizzolo, Frontline Defenders https://www.frontlinedefenders.org/en/profile/ marco-omizzolo (Accessed on 2 December, 2022). For a recent discussion of Omizzolo’s work with Indian farmers in Italy, see Arora et al. (2023). See also Omizzolo and Sodano (2018).

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The CGIL in Fidenza has more than 75,000 workers on its rolls that includes Bangladeshi, Pakistani, Fillipino, Sri Lankan, Indian, and a few Chinese. For the agriculture or food industry including the slaughter industry, there is another organisation: Federazione Lavoratori AgroIndustria (FLAI, Federation for Agro-Industry Workers) and most Indians (300–400) are members of this organisation in Parma and the surrounding regions. Illegal workers should in fact denounce their employers but they do not do this because they can be deported. According to the CGIL administration, there are very few illegal Indian workers as they are ‘very good workers’, well liked by the Italians who ask them to work on the dairy farms with the animals and help in their regularisation. About 90 % of workers in the agriculture sector are legal and enjoy the same benefits and rights as Italian workers. In this way, the interventions of employers with the regularisation process by providing the necessary documents, etc., help in the employment and continuity of the immigrant in the workplace. At the same time, this becomes the means through which employers are in control of immigrants and their working lives in one way or another and gives them authority and enormous power over the lives of immigrants. As one CGIL official said, ‘immigrants are slaves to employers’ as he cannot displease him in any way or he will lose his job and thereby, his permit for staying in Italy. Italian employers in the agriculture sector are quite rude to the employees, the CGIL asserts, as they are not very well educated themselves and Indian employees in particular tend to remain silent for fear of losing employment. They do not, however, hesitate to go to the CGIL and complain that they are being paid only for eight hours when they actually work for ten hours and that their salary is not commensurate with their work. Or seek out their assistance for unemployment and family benefits. In this way, the CGIL works as much for the immigrant as much as for the Italian worker. The Indian workers who are members of CGIL do not, however, show their ‘real face’ to the union workers. They are secretive. ‘What you see is only a small part of their lives, they are closed and do not reveal everything. You never know what they are thinking’. Their desperation makes them wary of revealing their intentions and they seek to manipulate the system to their advantage as much as they can in any given situation. Taking a different view from that of the employer, CGIL officials say that the Indian workers in the slaughterhouse are in particular trouble as the work is very hard and difficult. Superiors are often rude to them and while Italian workers answer back, the Indians cannot. This understanding of the Indian immigrants and their context by the CGIL, who remain their main links to understanding their rights and accessing the benefits due to them, points to the inherent complexities in seeking engagement across social and cultural differences. Relationships between employers and employees and with trade unions remain fraught and yet point to the possibilities opened up for integration through the efforts of CGIL officials to address the migrants’ problems or in the efforts of employers to work together with migrant employees on their joint economic projects. Such pathways perhaps exist all across the country and are the resources through which integration is possible. However, the restrictions imposed by the community itself which seeks to hide behind its apparent ignorance or shield itself from exploitation or oppression by the employer is a constraining factor which limits the extent to which integration is actually possible under the circumstances.

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5.3 Building Cosmopolitan Sociability through Religious Institutions Religious institutions and their inter-relationships have been the focus of study across the world especially in the context of the reproduction of traditional forms of belonging and of cultural values embedded in religion among migrants. This is, however, only one aspect of the role of the religious institution in the migrant’s life. While this may appear to be the institution’s main purpose in international contexts, it also serves to connect migrants to the municipality, the local government and citizenry and over time, may acquire some kind of status in the host community, as it has in some places in the UK.20 It may also develop what Ester Gallo refers to as a ‘new geography of belonging’ connecting displaced immigrants with the lost homeland and the new community (Gallo, 2012). In addition, religious pluralism is increasingly present in Europe due to the presence of large diaspora groups belonging to different religious traditions. This has led to the proliferation of different faiths and the institutional presence of these religious traditions. Ester Gallo (2014) has pointed to the need to examine this situation in the context of the connections that exist on the ground in Europe between different South Asian diaspora groups and their religious traditions, local religions and practices, different immigrant organisations, and the resultant religious pluralism. In Italy, Sikh gurudwaras and Hindu temples are common across the regions populated by immigrants from India, especially in the Emilia-Romagna region. These play an important role in not only the ways in which Punjabi immigrants live their lives but also affects the interaction of Punjabis with the host population, and with many other faith practitioners in the same region. The gurudwara or temple is not just a place where the immigrant seeks to reconnect with her homeland through religious and social rituals, but also a place where new connections are forged and reproduced precisely because of the spatial location. This section seeks to examine the manner in which religious traditions coalesce in and around Fidenza to establish a pathway for integration in the social context in which they are embedded. One aspect of focussing on religious institutions and their role as a pathway of integration is by seeking to understand the informal aspects of civic engagement as they emerge through immigrants’ religious institutions and cultural associations that also focus on religious content to a large extent. This is essential to our understanding of informal aspects of civic engagement. Considering religious institutions as spaces for civic engagement, this section focuses on participatory citizenship that is informal, and is grounded in the domain of affect, belief and commitment to a particular faith that transcends legalese if necessary. In the transnational context, spaces for religious worship such as temples and gurudwaras are places for the development of civic ideals and skills among immigrants and their children. Brettell and Reed-Danahay argue that ‘the identities and moral values associated with particular forms of ethnoreligious expression shape 20

See for example Knott’s discussion, among many others, of the links between the Hindu temple and the host society in Leeds (Knott 2009).

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both formal and informal citizenship practices’ (2012: 78). This interaction and the building of such practices take place in the everyday life of institutions where immigrants and their children not only gather together for purposes of worship and faith, but to reproduce conventional and new ways of belonging to a community and service to others. This, however, is not the only way we may view these institutions that also take on different avatars to build civic networks and establish meaningful connections with the local government and people. Near Fidenza, the local Hindu temple was inaugurated on 21 July 2007 when the community received space from the municipality to have their own association. Fourteen local community members set about meeting and interacting with one another in each other’s homes but now they meet in the temple every Sunday. On any particular evening, every single member of the congregation takes turns to perform the aarti (ritual worship). It is a temple dedicated to a mother goddess (mata ka mandir, as they call it); they worship the goddess and seek her protection. The leader, not a pujari (priest) but local Indians do a lot of cleaning, serving the food, the langar (community kitchen) and the prasad (ritual food). Before the temple was established, they used to meet in each other’s homes. As one grandmother told me, ‘I wait for Sunday and keep thinking when will it come, so that I can meet everyone again’. And she said it feels good to come to the temple every Sunday as she has status and respect from others who seek her blessing as an elder in the community. Older women are often neglected and marginalised in the community, although they retain some kind of formal status. Koehn (2022) refers to this process as the ‘invisibilisation’ of the older generation woman in the migrant context. Nonetheless, the temple allows older women to retain status precisely because of their age by bringing together generations and families in a common return to the homeland through daily and weekly ritual worship. At the same time, it serves as a space for the socialisation of children and youth into cultural values and traditions and simultaneously establishes links with members of the host society who often visit the temple as curious citizens or as seekers of new religions. The temple was established as the community felt it is important for the children to be in touch with their culture and community: ‘they should know where they come from’. This may be the ostensibly legitimate reason to reproduce their culture among the next generation but another reason, tied to their emotions, is that of maintaining links and ties with the larger community of India represented through religion and its ritualistic practice in an alien setting. So singing, ringing bells, lighting lamps, and vigorously playing the drums takes on an added value of belonging through ritualistic practice. The reverberations of the loud music, singing and bells amplified through microphones, brings to a crescendo the emotions of double loss, of the nation they have left behind, represented though that which is innermost, religion, and of the family, the larger family, that has stayed behind. The devotional songs have also been written in Italian so that children who read only Italian are not at a disadvantage. In this way, the temple seeks to recreate and reproduce culture and religion in the second generation. A young girl tells me that she used to go regularly to the temple in the early years when it started but now has very little time to go there. It was created for young people but very few regularly take part in its activities which are mostly

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religious with singing and musical worship being the strongest components. The youth feel disconnected as it is largely a recreation of another world which they have left behind or do not know much about. At the same time, they like to participate in the langar or community kitchen, where they imbibe civic values of service, preparing food and serving others, cleaning spaces, interacting with large numbers of people, arranging events, and other such activities. The cooking and serving of food has a very special relationship to the life of the temple. Men, women, and youth participate in this process, talking to one other, sharing problems, discussing their future, hopes, ambitions, desires. It is a sharing of more than food, of affect through the ritual sharing of common goals, a territorial space and a shared task linked to service to the community. The feeling of ‘doing good’ to others, for others, is in built into this idea of service and is also absorbed by young people through such work. The community therefore may not have realised its primary goal of the socialisation of the young through ritual music and worship but the community kitchen has achieved both community and outside-community links through its very concept and the work entailed. Another significant part of activities in the temple is the presence of the local citizenry who either visit voluntarily or with Indian friends. Most go out of curiosity for another culture but one elderly Italian man stayed in the temple for several days before he went to India to take part in a religious festival. In this way, there are forms of interaction between cultures and within a culture that enable transitions and spaces for liminality in migrants’ search for belonging through multiple ties to different locations and ways of being. The Sikh temple (gurudwara) has been the subject of study in different European regional contexts, such as the UK, Finland, Sweden, Poland and increasingly in northern Italy as well.21 Apart from the recitation of the holy book and the music (kirtan) associated with the Sikh temple, an important part of its culture is linked to the development of the notion of service (seva) among the congregation. In Britain, as a result of the close links between the Labour Party and minority ethnic religious institutions, gurudwaras have gained access to public services, benefits and political patronage (Singh, 2006: 158). This has resulted in a great diversity in the services they now offer, ‘and they now act as advice and learning centres, provide care for the elderly, serve as “one stop shops” for local agencies, and are centres of community development’ (Singh, 2006: 158). Community development is linked to the idea of seva (service) and has always been a critical component of the gurudwara culture. It is a well-known fact that in India Sikhs will do anything to propagate this culture among not just the congregation but especially the novitiate, youth, and members of the general public. It is therefore not surprising that the Sikh community in the region has tied up with the local health dept. for conducting a training camp within the gurudwara at Novellara near Reggio Emilia for mutual benefit. The regional health service of Emilia-Romagna conducted training around health and hygiene issues for migrants and their employers in the premises of the gurudwara. 21

See for example the work of Singh (2006), Singh and Tatla (2006), Jacobsen (2012), Jacobsen and Myrvold (2011), Bertolani and Singh (2012). Sociologists Barbara Bertolani and Ester Gallo are the pioneers in the developing this field in Italian studies. See also Bertolani (2020).

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Entitled ‘To protect health and security in work place’, the local Department of Public Health organised a two-day event in December 2011 in where the focus was on the lack of hygiene and training of workers at the workplace (primarily the dairy farms) where most of the Indians are employed. The incidence of tuberculosis and scabies is very high among the Indian and Pakistani community in the region and the work of this department has included the continued monitoring and medication of members of the community over periods of time. Due to the inability of immigrants to access health care as a result of ‘structural reasons such as … health regulations in access of persons not legally present in a national territory, poor or inadequate information services, prejudice or hostility from the staff of the services;’ linguistic differences and psychological factors such as ‘the lack of confidence in the services or…difficulty in social interaction’, the Dept. of Public Health felt the need to organise such events in the region. As there is a large Asian immigrant population in the region, there is no doubt that the safety and health of the Italian people were also important considerations for this intervention but the fact that it took place with the cooperation of the immigrant community within its own religious institution is indicative of the strength of the linkages between the communities. It also points to the adaptability of the community to extend its religious space for social activities that are as important for them as they are for the Italian health dept. The Director of the Health dept. who conducted this training emphasised how they felt completely welcome and included in the life of the temple. The meeting was organised ‘in collaboration with the Indian people, the leaders of the Indian community in Novellara and Indian cultural mediators’. The women of the community cooked lunch for everyone and it was served, as it normally is, to all health dept. personnel and community members sitting on the floor together. The pragmatic use of the Sikh temple for training purposes may appear as another form of instrumental integration but it has not resulted in the exoticisation of either the temple or the faith and is perceived as useful to the immigrant community for its integration into the local community including the municipality.22 Religious and social activities become essential to the life of the institution over time especially in diasporic contexts. It is also noteworthy that the public health dept. took a decision to conduct the training within the gurudwara, moving into a space considered so far perhaps an alien community space, viewed as different as much by its ethnicised connections as by its immigrant inhabitants. Such movements that cross faith barriers albeit for practical considerations of mutual benefit serve nonetheless to open up possibilities for integration in a larger sense.23 Members of the Italian community do not always view religious activities as happy events for the togetherness for the community and in fact see them as often filled with ‘political’ activity with one group of Indians seeking ascendancy over another. 22 Gallo (2012) points to the one-way dialogue between the Catholic church and the Sikh temple in Terni where Catholic representatives are invited to the gurudwara as well as the acceptance of the Sikh community for their children to be given a Catholic education in Italian schools, but there is a complete lack of a similar interest among Catholic representatives to learn more about Sikhism or its faith community. 23 It is possible that such movement across faiths may be possible much more with some religions over others.

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In addition, one farm owner said that although he feels there is a ‘natural attitude of the Indians to integrate with the [Italian] community’, it seems to him that their own culture, tradition is ‘so closed’ and ‘so demanding’ that it creates difficulties for them as well as for the second generation. ‘Tradition’, he added, ‘is like a weight upon them and is a burden, holding them back’. He has five Sikh families staying on his farm, with their children. They all stay together and ‘create a community’ but he has observed caste, religion and gender conflicts among them as well. Four of the men are married to Sikh women but ‘one has a Hindu wife and this creates conflict among them, as the men do not accept the Hindu lady as one of them and consider her in a lower position than themselves’. This has led to ‘turbulence’ in their relationships and one of the Sikhs who could not accept the Hindu lady is now returning to India ‘for religious reasons’. (Interview with Ferrante, a farm owner).24 An Italian head of Caritas in Fidenza stated how the Sikh and Punjabi community stopped extending their support to a fellow Sikh who was ill and had converted to Christianity. He is currently unemployed and due to a problem with his kidneys, needs dialysis twice a week. The moment he converted to Christianity, the Indian community stopped all communication with him. He is now totally dependent on the church (Interview with Caritas worker, Fidenza). These kind of conflicts raise questions in the minds of the local citizenry that if the Indian migrants are not willing to even accept others within their own community, then how could they extend themselves to Italian people? It seems to be an unbridgeable chasm between two disparate groups and communities. In an effort to bridge this gap, the Catholic church plays an important role in Italy in building an interactive relationship with immigrants through informal ways of civic engagement in everyday life. In a splendid lecture entitled The Church and the Kingdom that Giorgio Agamben delivered inside the Notre Dame in Paris in March 2009, he exhorts the church, ‘to live in the time of the messiah means to read the signs of his presence in history “the signature of the economy of salvation”’ (2012: 34). He further argues that if we refer to the origin of time as a force which we may call ‘Law or State’, it is dedicated to the ‘indefinite—and indeed infinite—governance of the world’. The second force, he continues, is the ‘messiah, or the Church; its economy is the economy of salvation…[and] the only way that a community can form and last is if these poles are present and a dialectical tension between them prevails’ (Agamben, 2012: 35). Agamben of course is prevailing upon the Church to recover itself and seek to fulfil its role as a true messianic force in a time when there is ‘legalistic excess’ and ‘disaster menacing every government and institution on earth’ (Agamben, 2012: 41). The church plays diverse roles in different societies around the world and it is not the task of this work to take up the onerous task of examining these or their outcomes. Against this background, I consider only the role of Caritas in northern Italy, vis-a-vis immigrants and others in contemporary times. In particular, I would like to emphasise that I am well aware of the position of the

24

Caste and religious differences are endemic to Indian society. These continue to manifest themselves quite strongly in international contexts. For such differences in the Sikh community in Europe, see among others, Garha and Domingo (2018), Lum (2010).

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Church vis-a-vis Islam which it has in the past sought to distance itself from.25 At the same time, I seek to understand that aspect of the work of Caritas that is directed to the well-being of all immigrants, regardless of their religion, ethnic backgrounds or socio-economic status. In 1967, Pope Paul VI wrote a letter to all his bishops, priests, the religious and the faithful in the whole Catholic world and included also ‘all men of good will’ among his addressees.26 This is known as the Populorum Progressio (the progressive development of peoples) and it sets out to examine the role of the Church in the context of global dilemmas such as ‘of those peoples who are trying to escape the ravages of hunger, poverty, endemic disease and ignorance; of those who are seeking a larger share in the benefits of civilisation and a more active improvement of their human qualities; of those who are consciously striving for fuller growth’ (source: www.vatican.va). In this elaborate document, the Pope draws our attention to the global phenomena of suffering and argues for the need for a ‘new humanism’ that will address some of the concerns and complex problems that plague society. There was now a shift from the heavy handedness of the church and unquestioned traditions to a more open spirit that encouraged ‘individual conscience and agency’. Although Vatican II therefore was an effort to respond to the challenges of contemporary times and to renew the church in many ways, it has been critiqued on the grounds that it seeks to build a new kind of Catholicism through middle class values in the forms of religious practices advocated (Pratt, 1996). An interview with the Bishop of Fidenza reveals that the work of Caritas rests on the vision/inspiration they receive from the Bible (in formal terms) and from the document, Vatican II. The Bishop argues that one important characteristic of the Catholic people is to receive foreign people, to be in human touch, not in an official, bureaucratic sense: ‘All people are human, all are brothers in God. The second point is that the human is not in Christ himself but in the human family: all people are one brotherhood. All people are my brother’. This wisdom is derived directly through the document Populorum Progressio and from Vatican II. According to the Bishop, the motto is: Ogni uomo e mio fratello (each man is my brother). It was like a principle: this is from the Old Testament. Now, the immigrant phenomenon is a new thing, so the church must play a role in the new phenomenon. Everyone who comes from everywhere must be welcome. 25

To understand the relationship between the church and other religions, see, for example, Garau (2010) and Bertolani and Perocco (2013). 26 There was an important meeting known as the ConcilioVaticano II held between 1962 and 1965 of Bishops from all over the Catholic world. This meeting/conclave was very important for changing the mentality of believing in the church. The emphasis now was to be on non-competitive spirit, non-hostility, non-proselytising, and instead dialogue, discussion, peace building, brotherhood, and helping others. For example, earlier the Mass used to be conducted only in Latin. After this important meeting, the Mass can now be in the language of the place where it is being conducted; this makes the church more accessible to the common people who can now participate more readily in the activities of the church. This meeting changed the role of the church. After some time, all the Popes continued this policy and it became the basic foundation of the Catholic church.

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Before this, the church was working with the poor, unemployed, etc. In the end of the 18th century, Italians started emigrating from Italy, so the church formed an organisation for taking care of the immigrants who were going out. It was the UCEI Ufficio Catholico Emigrazione Italiano run by the national Catholic churchwhich has offices in different places. It was for the Italian emigrants.

In present times, the work is now with immigrants coming into Italy. Every local church has been made a local centre for receiving immigrants and a religious centre by themselves. The Bishop adds, The work of the local church includes receiving immigrants, answering their questions about housing, food, clothes, all that is required for survival, teach the Italian language and culture, Italian law, traditions, customs, lifestyle, help in the search for jobs and occupation and to enable a kind of “tentative integration”. To meet, to know the difference.

The Bishop is very emphatic, We must accept the difference. We must recognise the difference between me and the other people but we must meet one another. Identity must be very clear, my identity and the other person’s identity. We must meet. Respect is real only if I know that you are different and I accept this diversity. We don’t become one. There is no fusion (i.e. no imposition of identity). We must accept diversity and live in the same place together with our diversity, respecting one another.

A few significant points stand out in this narrative: the emphasis on the efforts of the church to inculcate a humanistic approach to the problems that beset contemporary society, the fact that earlier the church took care of its own fold in other cultures but now, the church has resolved to take care of others within its fold, not religious, but territorial fold, as it were, and finally, in enabling a kind of tentative integration, as the Bishop put it. To further this effort, the Bishop, who arrived in Fidenza in 2010 initiated the Festa dei Poppoli (the coming together of different communities, different nationalities). The festival is organised by the Govt. of Fidenza and several other associations. It started several years ago and was envisioned as the last step in work that goes on throughout the year such as the workshops about different kinds of food, Italian, African, south American, about art, dance; ‘everyone can do something for expressing themselves’. In one year, the theme of the festival was ‘hope’. It is the first time there was a theme. A volunteer elaborates: ‘In the earlier years, the theme was merely the meeting of different countries, acknowledging other countries; the workshop on art is dedicated to an expression of hope. There are sessions on body massage and karate. Workshops are held in many places in the town. No expert or any teacher is present in the workshop which is made up of the people who are participating in it. The teachers, (such as the cook) so to speak, are not paid. The spirit is “doing something together and meeting other people doing something”. The perspective is a project of the community of the people’. What is the impact on the Italian people? Some Italians, social workers in Fidenza, assert that while the church no doubt plays a very significant role in the integration of immigrants in Italy, its interventions in this space is a way ‘to establish its own power

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in the lives of Italian people’.27 They argue that the church seeks to establish itself as a do-gooder and therefore to inculcate religious ideas in more and more people. In this manner, the authority of the church increases and the people become more and more encompassed in this web of faith based initiatives that seek to inculcate the faith as much as the social and pastoral practices they undertake. ‘Absolutely not’, asserted the Bishop, in some surprise and dismay. The church is not engaged in conversion of any kind. The work of Caritas in fact appears to be located at a social level and is not viewed as a religious activity, as pointed out by several young people working as volunteers at the festa as well as for example, by people in a position of governmental authority, such as the Mayor of Busseto. The local Minister for Immigration and Social Services in Fidenza is emphatic that the church is reaching out to people, both the natives and the immigrants, and therefore has a very important role in society. It is ‘fundamental’ because of the services it provides for the immigrants but also for cultural purposes. Through its parish priests, it enters into the lives of every family in the parish. In Busseto, I observed that the Indian Catholic priest was visiting nonChristian Hindu and Sikh families as well who invited him to their homes, sought his help for intervening with the Mayor to establish a temple in the region, and visited the church to express their solidarity with him and his religion. All these modalities of interaction suggest ways of engagement that are present at multiple levels, that of formal participation as Christian members of a community seeking to help others, of non-denominational members seeking to relate to one another, intermingling in an expression of solidarity.28 This culminates in the festa de poppoli in which people participate regardless of their religion, nationalities or cultural differences. The curious presence of the Bishop at all events in the heart of a right-wing local government is prefaced by the Minister stating in a very matter-of-act way, ‘the Bishop is very important in local civil society, he is always invited to all events and public meetings including those of the municipality’. It is this close link with the government at local levels that makes the work of Caritas much more effective and results in its vast outreach. This culture of service does not rest here but extends itself to the well-being of poor, unemployed, and the homeless. There are Indians and several others, all of whom unemployed and homeless, who eat regularly at the mensa (food kitchen) and sleep at the shelter every night. The Bishop points to the difficult task of Caritas to seek integration as they are up not only against some Italian people, a minority, who are racist and against immigrants. ‘Only 15% of the population come to the church on Sundays but the influence of the church is more than that. People who go to the church are generally receptive. They are well disposed towards immigrants. Church has influence over people but 27

The Bishop of course refutes this by saying, ‘There is a negative view of church by some people but the church helps, every person is my brother, man comes before the law. So if anyone needs anything, the church answers. In one text, Christ said, what you do for one person, you have done for me. For Christian people, in every man, woman or child, there is Christ inside. The level of religious motivation is in the New Testament, this belief that Christ is everywhere’. 28 This kind of close interaction across faiths is markedly visible in small towns in Emilia-Romagna where I conducted fieldwork and may very well not be the case even in other bigger towns in the region and in the rest of the country.

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even political parties like Lega Nord also have influence over those who come to church. The fact is that Lega Nord is in the govt. even if it is only 3% in the country, it has influence. The reason for this influence is that people are afraid about the influx of immigrants and Lega Nord provides some kind of security. The media doesn’t tell the truth. They are afraid of foreign people. People think that foreign people come to take away the welfare benefits’. Volunteers working for different associations assert that the Bishop is not the same thing as the church, he is open, concerned about change. The govt. of the town is concerned about the economic emergency, poverty is increasing, unemployment and a general economic crisis; ‘families are no longer a solid point in our society. Society is more fluid now, family is not strong among both Italians and the immigrant population’. There is not much money with the local govt., how to deal with the poverty or alcoholism, etc. The focus of citizens’ organisations seeking to deal with the well-being of immigrants through a holistic approach contrasts sharply with the government’s efforts to handle issues in a piecemeal manner. There is a greater effort to understand issues and resolve them through a larger perspective that has the well-being of generations in mind. But there is no concern (in the govt.) with developing a new culture. The pathology in society is a consequence of bad relations; we need to create an inclusive society by focusing on relationships. Some problems are in the symptoms but the cure lies not only in facing the problem but also to make an intervention in society. For example, there is a problem about drug addiction among youth. The govt. acts by taking care of people who have this addiction but we think we must put the problem in the larger context which is relationship. This is not easy to understand. The govt. tries to face a single problem. We are trying to make them understand that this problem is the symptom of a larger problem. So we work with community care. It is important, fundamental, so the action is individual in the purpose of caring. So, a community that says, “I care”. We are trying to build a culture where at the centre there is a person who is a satisfied citizen but we are trying to forge one who is active and participates in the community’s life. The govt. of the town is cooperating although it is the Bishop’s idea through a project. One of the sponsors of the festival is the govt. so there is an approval by the govt. of dealing with this problem. We have created some relationship with the foreign people, some relationship. Participation in the festival by citizens of Fidenza was very low in the first years but in 2011, many more citizens have participated. The participation of the local community is there. We need time to accomplish this. We must respect histories of the people, involving them. The process is slow but we have started through the festival. Many festivals are organized by local organisations. We, however, create this event with the people. It is not an imposed event. In the first year, about 600 people participated, and there were 2000 in the second year. So people are seeing more happening. Festival gives a message and we gain a visibility in the town. The govt. of the region is Left-wing traditionally but the govt. in the town now is Right-wing, since 2009. They know however who we are. They have great esteem for us because we are working for the community and they need us.

This narrative by a young volunteer at the festa once again highlights the linkages between citizens’ associations, the local government and its initiatives and the people themselves. It is not always possible that all these will work together but even if they come together for instrumental purposes, it results in creating better conditions for immigrants and fosters inclusive integration. There is a sense when such informal aspects of civic engagement that are primarily to educate one another about working together and performing various activities and

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tasks together fails to incorporate all faiths and all cultures. A volunteer tells me, ‘People from Ecuador, Maroc, Senegal, Argentina, Colombia, Ethiopia, Moldavia, Romania, are participants in the festival. But not the Indians or the Chinese, they do not participate at all’. These communities remain closed and isolated and do not seek to engage in the activities that seek to cross borders of faith, culture and social differences and their isolation is commented upon by several social workers, volunteers and activists at the venue. The festival is only one aspect of the work of the church in the community in Fidenza. Caritas runs health clinics, shelters, food kitchens and other activities with the help of volunteers. The range of activities depicts the engagement with activities that cater to the well-being of the immigrant apart from the pastoral care and efforts at integration. In Reggio Emilia, the municipality runs a health centre, a Family health centre (centro salute famigilia) that is solely a facility for irregular immigrants. It provides basic care but for consultation with medical specialists, it collaborates with Caritas who has a full-fledged health centre at its premises in Reggio Emilia. The administrative head of the family centre asserts that this is a unique partnership as normally public institutions such as this work independently from other nongovernment institutions. In this case, the collaboration is crucial for their success. At the same time, this may be seen as a partnership for mutual benefit between the municipality and Caritas that does not really have the interests of the illegal immigrant at the centre but a mere practical division of labour. The truth is that whatever the motivations, such partnerships serve to foster the well-being, health and overall welfare of the immigrants. These well-established networks facilitate and enable the positive integration of immigrants who may otherwise lack access to health care, cross-cultural interaction and so on. It is significant that such collaboration does not end with public–private partnerships alone. The linkage between faith based organisations of different kinds is a new development in the social landscape where the church has been critical of Islam. The most important request for association with Caritas has come from an Islamic immigrant organisation in Fidenza that has sought to make a donation to Caritas. This is the first time such a connection has been established. This organisation administers a mosque in Fidenza and organised free food and shelter for its community but members of the community prefer to eat at the Mensa in Caritas instead where in relative anonymity they are also provided with free shelter, furniture, and sometimes money. Caritas has accepted the offer and has asked for the donation of particular kinds of food items which they are unable to access themselves. The role of Muslim youth in this process of participation by the Islamic community cannot be overstated as they constitute large members of the community and seek to participate in the local community in diverse ways. This form of engagement with the wider society has come from youth who have no doubt been socialised through religion and yet seek engagement across religious barriers, previously unknown. In recent years, the work of Caritas has somewhat changed direction. While the focus on migration is not as it was in the past, the church continues to work with Punjabi migrants in the Lazio and Piedmont regions, with agricultural labour and in countering the economic exploitation that they face. The advocacy work that

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Caritas does in this area helps irregular migrants who are ‘victims of exploitation’, do not speak Italian, and live separately, outside ‘the normal life of the community in the region’, to know their legal rights, and become integrated with the community (Interview with the Caritas local head of migration policies and internal projects). This is under the ‘Presidio’ project of Caritas.29 The work of Caritas in Italy now also focuses on the war in Ukraine and the refugees who have come into Italy as a consequence. Caritas realises that the reception of Ukrainian people in Italy has been very different from that extended to Africans, who may have also left Africa due to an emergency. It is very difficult for the Caritas workers to explain to the local population about the situation in Ethiopia and why people arrive in Italy from there. The situation is far too complex for the local people to grasp or appreciate the influx of large numbers of people who may arrive by boat. This brings Caritas a reputation of working only with migrants and not with the Italian poor or needy. This is not necessarily true as Caritas does work with the local community as well; however, the work with migrants is more visible because migrants stand out in the population (Interview with the Caritas local head of migration policies and internal projects). In recent years, Caritas has started work on implementing their project on ‘Humanitarian Corridors’ which includes resettlement programmes for refugees and migrants, or with international students who are alone in a strange environment, through an engagement with the local population.30 The connections between public institutions, non-governmental agencies, Caritas, immigrant associations and faith organisations nonetheless point to the development of new forms of civic engagement in the public sphere, those that cross different kinds of borders. There is also a willingness and openness among the agents of the church to connect to hugely different faith based organisations in order to achieve their aims and realise their goals of service to the people through the culture of charity, solidarity and volunteering that prevails within it. However, in recent years there has been a process, a form of an aggressive capitalism, with its attendant lures, that encourages personal gain and a self-centred ‘good life’, that has resulted in a greater culture of individualism in society. This brings with it a momentum that tends to push to the margins all efforts to develop, nurture or sustain a collective experience of co-integration. Many voluntary associations working for immigrants have closed. Social activists, civil society and even some functionaries of the church are disappointed. It appears that integration is no longer a valid goal to strive for; it is now all about self-interest and self-gain, and what each one can obtain for themselves and their offspring. The ongoing war in Europe and the resultant effects it has had on the European economy has also no doubt shaped this form of encapsulated existence, despite the significant role of others in the labour market, and elsewhere, in making the capitalist dream a reality. There is unemployment but the young do not prefer the 29

The objective of the Italian Caritas Presidium Project ensures the presence of specialised operators and volunteers who engage with workers employed in the agricultural sector and in clear conditions of exploitation, providing a place to listen, guidance and protection with respect to their legal, health and work situations. This project is more in use in southern Italy. 30 For more details on the project, see https://www.humanitariancorridor.org/en/humanitarian-cor ridors/ (Accessed on 23 May, 2023).

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hard jobs which they leave to the migrants whom they do not value in any deep sense. The younger generation of Punjabi immigrants are not really into seeking a space in the ‘social circle’ of the local community. They have more options to ‘fill their time’ (Interview with a social worker). It is a fluid situation, moving with the flow of the times, heightened individualism, war, uncertainty, economic precariousness and right-wing policies that seek to push back on immigration. An ambiguous future awaits the migrant in Italy, perhaps more so than in earlier years.

5.4 A Fractured Social Fabric: the Migrant as a Soulless Inmate Sabrina, an Italian activist working with migrants from different nationalities in Fidenza and the surrounding region shares her thoughts about how her engagement with migrants and her fellow citizens has changed in the last few years. Her experience focusses on the shortcomings on the part of the migrants as well as on the attitudes of the local citizenry and professional services. In the 1980s and 1990s, my colleague and I wanted to build a fire [so to speak], we wanted to bring the culture inside the community. The soul of the group was run by the Italians but it was very difficult to find a passion for it in the people coming from other countries/ communities. So, there was no initiative from the foreigners. They have certain “needings”, for example, they need to enter Italy, need a job, need medical service, food, clothes, etc. And religion plays a huge role, as the orthodox church in eastern Europe, the mosque or the temple became the focus point of staying together as a group. We were not trying to build a better way of life but to inform our Italian citizens that another way of life is possible with immigrants. Institutions are there for solving problems but we need to open ourselves to another culture. It doesn’t matter if I don’t read the Koran or eat Indian food. But there is a need for us to find a new condition, a rich new culture, that enters into our schools, workplace, etc. The Catholic church was on a mission and worked in many public projects. When they were completed, the people disappeared. So, only my colleague and I were left and felt that a better way was to have a personal link with the migrants, enter their homes, have personal meetings and have a personal commitment. It is a political way to open ourselves [to others]. No doubt, we enriched ourselves in this way but we don’t know if this had any results. As a country, we are looking at CVs of doctors, engineers [among potential immigrants], and the rest are just rejected. People will then enter illegally and we will have a worse condition, as in the south [of Italy], for example. If I were in their condition, I would also try to enter Italy. The Catholic church gives up in a sense. They provide the first needs, food and shelter, but if it is full, what can they do? As a migrant, you are in a programme for six months, or in refugee programmes, for one year, so, it is okay. Then, you are on the road. It is very difficult to find work. So, people are trying to leave Italy for Scandinavia, Germany. But first, they live illegally for years and years. The social services are obliged to take care of you but if you need to be treated for a long time, you need papers [documents], or registration, but if you don’t have any, they put you on the road.

On the one hand, Sabrina is critical of the state and the agents of the state who neglect illegal migrants and tend to focus on the highly skilled migrants alone when

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it is actually those who are less skilled and ready to do hard labour, who need recognition and acceptance. She, however, also points to the difficulties with the community of origin which tends to dominate and control migrants in different ways. If you stay in the community [the community of origin], and accept the conflict in the community, are close to the community and submit to rules, maybe you can get some help from them. If you are outside the community, then there is a problem. How does the power mechanism arise when the community grows here? The communities [of origin] are growing in Italy, so there is an interesting issue. The local government also looks for someone in the community who can talk to them. They look for the leader in the name of the community. But such leaders are very dangerous for the community as well.

In other words, the community tries to assert their will on to the migrant by imposing community ‘rules’ or norms onto the migrants, such as whom to find employment with, where to reside, how to look after their families, especially ‘errant’ youth. The leader in fact takes on the face of the migrant, especially new entrants, with the local government and social service sector. This does not always augur well for migrants who have to deal with state regulations on the one hand and community norms on the other. Sabrina comments on youth in Italy and their lack of commitment to the presence of migrants from different cultures in their midst: We tried to maintain the promise that we had when we were young: to open our minds, open our hears, put ourselves in someone else’s shoes. It was a way to look ahead. Now, young people don’t have the same route. The questions now that concern them are about the environment, about the future. They are not worried about the migrants. Many of them mix with the migrants, marry them also, but I don’t know if they really integrate. The young people today are not so political and are more in silos, in boxes, individualistic.

In Sabrina’s analysis, the young do not really seek integration. They look more for assimilation of the migrant into their culture and way of life. There is an inequality in this process where one culture remains paramount and to integrate means to adapt to this culture and to allow it, in fact, to take over one’s identity completely. In such a context, to integrate means therefore to erase one’s culture, one’s language and identity to take another identity which may be fragile and superficial but seems to ‘fit’ the idea of the ‘ideal’ migrant. The migrant therefore becomes a soulless inmate, a made-to-order, as it were, part of Italian society, without really embodying the culture of the host community in any deep sense.

5.5 Concluding Comments The possibilities for integration no doubt are opened up through practices of cosmopolitan sociability among people belonging to different cultures, faiths and linguistic backgrounds.31 The pathways of integration opened up by such interventions prevail at different levels of individual and collective strategies that are evolved 31

Only some aspects of such interaction have been examined here and the work of organisations that work for youth and children in school has not been taken into account.

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by different groups, collectives, and organisations of people. The church and its agencies welcome immigrants through their reception and listening centres, shelters, food kitchens, health care, counselling and even monetary loans or donations for specific needs. The labour unions and other labour associations provide information and services related to the immigrants’ rights in the context of employment, wages, and benefits. Cultural and immigrant associations help in organising workshops and annual events for the benefit of the social integration of immigrants. Their efforts are based on their commitment to solidarity but their views also reflect the differences that may exist for example between union officials and the workers on the ground. Italian employers seek to engage in joint economic projects with their Indian employees whose work ethics and practices they value and extoll. The workers themselves may not be interested in such common projects. Immigrant workers, especially from India, are rather circumspect precisely because they want to quietly do their work, earn some money, send it home, stay out of trouble without getting too involved or engaged in anything else. All Indian immigrants assert that this as their only goal in Europe, a goal that has been well internalised by the second generation, especially young men, who choose also not to speak out against the racism they may encounter for fear of ‘spoiling their chances’ for higher education or employment in Italy. There are ambiguities and uncertainties therefore in these strategies which seek an openness towards but are not without their share of pitfalls and complexities especially in how the other is defined and constructed. Building cosmopolitan sociability is therefore crucial to the process of integration but, at the same time, engenders ambivalent outcomes. There is no doubt that certain elements of difference prevail even in the efforts by immigrants and local citizenry to bridge gaps and cross barriers. In fact, there is a combination of ethnically shared perspectives and religious affiliations and an openness towards others. It is not always possible therefore to have completely similar perspectives, representations or religious identifications. These are the limitations to developing a cosmopolitan perspective in transnational societies. In addition, there is a power dimension in such forms of cosmopolitan sociability that is shaped by gender, religion, race and ethnicity, as well as legal status, and these need to be fully understood when we examine cosmopolitanism and forms of engagement. Indian immigrant women forge their own individual strategies out of domestic spaces. Young girls and boys in high school seek to build connections and frame subjectivities in different ways from the dual worlds of exclusion they are encapsulated in. The second-generation Indian youth, in institutions of vocational and industrial training in the region seek out better employment opportunities through forms of co-existence. Unlike their parents’ approach, which was based on clinging to culture and tradition, their effort to integrate through an appropriation of the Italian language, open culture of friendships across gender, food choices, is their primary strategy for economic gain and social well-being. Men seek to forge working relationships that protect their self-interests and simultaneously engage them in other worlds in a hugely unequal and complex world. What emerges from these complex behavioural, social and affective conditions is

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that migrants and their others remain committed to a joint project that serves to bring them together for different purposes. Their acts of engaging with each other with full knowledge and intent, and directed towards fruitful engagement and change, indicate their commitment to the project of integration and therefore constitute ‘acts of citizenship’. At the same time, their embeddedness in the field of power urges us to pose further questions in seeking to understand such acts. In addition, the current situation in Europe, with an ongoing war and continuing economic uncertainty, results in a cautious approach towards immigration that simultaneously has an effect on integration. In Italy, the particular political party currently in power has a clear policy that is not encouraging for immigrants and therefore state thought continues to frame both the place of the immigrant as well his or her social condition in largely negative terms. The exploitation at the hand of ‘agents’ and unscrupulous employers is an added burden. The ideal of cosmopolitanism as one of ‘immanent self-transcendence’ is not yet realised and we need to understand that the multiple pathways towards integration, in whatever limited form, are the first steps towards transcending difference and finding mutually constructive means of individual and collective participation in the public sphere.

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Index

A Acculturation, 35 Acts of citizenship, 110, 136 Affect, 26, 33, 58, 124 Affective and social worlds, 91 Ageing population, 13, 38, 40 Agency, 3, 33, 34, 37, 42, 43, 48, 50, 52, 75, 76, 80, 86, 89, 90, 105, 109, 111, 124, 127, 132, 135 how individuals exercise, 33 individual acts of, 34 not a passive experience, 90 Aggressive capitalism, 132 Alternative sexuality, 50 Ambivalent other, 91 Arranged weddings, 83

B Belonging, 3, 26, 36, 40–42, 50, 53, 55, 58, 62, 71, 75–77, 81, 84, 85, 89–91, 94, 96, 99, 104, 105, 116, 122–124, 134 added value of, 123 a feeling of, 105 build a sense of, 50 closed form of, 71 different ways of, 104 dilemmas of, 85 experience of, 58 forms of, 71, 104 in an ethnic structure, 36 incorporates within it, 94 legal forms of acceptance and, 105 migrants search for, 124 reproduce conventional and new ways of, 123

sense of, 53, 55 sense of identity and, 53 stories of loss and, 26 through work and engagement, 96 to a particular though diverse ethnic group, 42 to many worlds, 62 traditional forms of, 122 ways of, 105 Bishop, 28, 127–130 Bodily and sensory experience of difference, 81 Bossi-Fini law, 13, 111

C Capital, 45, 90 cultural, 90 social and cultural, 45 Caritas, 11, 25, 54, 113, 126, 127, 129, 131, 132 Catholic church, 28, 54, 75, 111, 113, 125–128, 133 Circus, 59, 60 Civic engagement, 4, 78, 108, 109, 111, 120, 122, 126, 130, 132 individual and collective strategies of, 108, 109 informal aspects of, 122 in formal processes, 109 understanding forms of, 120 Civic networks, 123 Civic participation, 76 Class distinctions, 47, 118 Clutch of patriarchy, 53 Co-integration, 132

© The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2023 M. Thapan, Work, Family and Integration, Migration, Minorities and Modernity 6, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-99-5581-7

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140 Community development, 124 Co-presence by proxy, 101 Cosmopolitanism, 110, 111, 135, 136 Cosmopolitan sociability, 43, 108, 122, 134, 135 Cultural difference, 42, 74, 79, 91, 104, 116, 121, 129 Cultural diversity, 42, 45, 86 Cultural exchange, 43, 54 Cultural integration, 43, 89, 108 Cultural loss, 79, 80 Cultural merging, 80 Cultural translation, 111 Culture, 3–5, 13, 35, 36, 38, 41–43, 50, 53–55, 58, 61–63, 73, 74, 78, 80, 82, 84–86, 89–91, 97, 103, 105, 107, 108, 111, 112, 114, 123, 124, 126, 128, 130–135 a medium of social interaction, 42 ancient, 62 and community, 123 and identity, 41 as a conservative force, 86 as dynamic, heterogeneous, changing, and transformative, 42 clinging to, 135 content of, 73 dominant, 53 embodied or actualized, 82 enabling and transformatory, 85 European, 103 forms of interaction between, 124 Indian, 78 mutually constructed, 80 not a homogeneous or a static entity, 86 of charity, solidarity and volunteering, 132 of individualism, 132 Panjabyat, 54 propagate this, 124 reproduce their, 123 timeless, 55 traditional, 63 trying to build a, 130 Culture of migration, 5, 57 Culture of service, 54, 129 seva, 54 Cultures of migrants, 42 D Dairy farming sector, 14 Dairy farms, 14, 20, 23, 25, 26, 59, 77, 92, 95, 114, 121, 125

Index Dependent migration, 72 Diaspora, 2, 37, 41, 50, 51, 55, 122 and transnational migration, 41 Diasporic community, 37 Diasporic consciousness, 5 Difference, 35, 36, 42, 45, 81, 90, 93, 98, 111, 115 fear of, 35 emotive and embodied experience, 90 experience of being, 98 lens of, 93 migrants experience this, 36 political, 45 sameness and, 98 the experience of, 90, 115 ties of, 111 Discipline, 97, 98 Displaced migration, 36 Domain of affect, 122 Domestic violence, 70 Donkey flights, 9 Double exclusion, 90, 91 Dynamics of mobility, 37, 52 E Economic factors, 2, 11, 57 Education scenario, 7 Embodied agency, 94 Embodiment, 90 Emigration of Sikhs, 5 Emotional dynamics, 44 Emotional experience of shame, 98 Emotional turmoil, 43 Emotions, 28, 33, 41, 43, 44, 55, 56, 79, 80, 85, 90, 105, 113, 114, 123 attachments based on, 43 complex, 55 expressing appropriate, 80 move in and out of boundaries, 44 steeped in, 43 Employment opportunities, 7, 34, 39, 44, 55, 57, 61, 92, 135 Employment patterns, 14, 84 Employment rate, 11, 17 Enforced seclusion, 91 Ethnic community, 58, 59, 72, 74, 77, 92 Ethnic identity, 77 Ethnos, 35 Experience of strangeness, 80, 85 F Failed migration project, 116

Index Faith based organisations, 131, 132 Familial life, 3, 28, 69, 89, 96, 104 the significance of, 96 Familial loyalty, 84 Familial separation, 99 Familial values and norms, 103 Family, 1, 3–5, 7–10, 14, 25, 26, 28, 33, 34, 43, 44, 49–52, 55, 58–63, 69–73, 75–78, 80–85, 89–105, 114, 115, 117–119, 121, 123, 126, 127, 129–131, 134 absence of, 89 and community, 95 be together as a, 95 binding practices of the, 95 central to her thoughts, 99 disruption of, 94 domain of the, 97 extended, 92 generations and, 123 hierarchical, 44 home in the Punjab, 80 honour, 94 lap of her, 99 located in the, 95 no love or closeness in the, 103 of origin, 102 remains committed to, 103 remains paramount, 99 safe havens of the, 80 safety and security of, 94 shaped by the, 104 story of struggle and hardship, 95 traditional, 93 Family honour, 72, 77 Family reunification, 10, 13, 23, 70, 75 Family reunion, 11, 104 Festa dei Poppoli, 128 Financial support, 51, 93 First generation learners, 58 Forced migration, 36, 37 Forced separation, 101 Forms of capital, 35, 43 capital, 35 Forms of engagement, 75, 79, 108, 120, 135 Forms of exclusion, 38, 111 Freedom, 3, 56, 59, 82–84, 89, 93, 94, 99, 102–105 grant them no, 93 loss of, 99 nurture her love for, 104 quest for, 3, 89 urge for, 94

141 G Gangmastering, 120 Gender and generation, 80, 89 Gender discrimination, 74 Gendered migration, 69 Gender identities, 51 Gender roles, 49, 51 Globalization, 39, 48 Gurudwara, 27, 54, 76, 95, 97, 124, 125 physical space of the, 54 H Habitus, 90, 104, 118 socialised and embedded, 104 Heterogeneity, 4, 50, 53, 55, 75, 84 Human trafficking, 70 Hybridity, 48, 50, 55 I Identity, 93 dual or mixed, 93 Identity, 93 dual or mixed, 93 Illegal migrants, 38, 46, 47, 133 Imagination, 26, 41, 54–58, 61, 62, 84, 104, 105, 110 imaginaries, 56 Imagined future, 2 Imagined landscape, 2, 34, 55–57, 61 Imagined world, 57 Immigrant youth, 44, 58 Immigration in Italy, 10 Immigration laws, 13, 19 Inclusion, 71 Indianness, 96 Informal immigrants, 48 Instrumental integration, 110, 118, 125 Integration, 4, 11, 80, 84, 89, 94, 98, 105, 108–110, 112, 114, 116, 118, 121, 125, 129, 131, 132, 136 a difficult proposition, 112 commitment to, 105 consequences for the, 113 costs of, 11 cultural inscription of, 80 forms of, 110, 116 fruitful, 89 goals of, 110 inhibiting their, 94 into the local community, 125 measures for, 11 nuanced strategies of, 84

142 positive, 131 possibilities opened up for, 121 process of building, 110 processes of, 4, 108 quest for, 114 struggles for, 110 with Italian workers, 118 through multiple routes and directions, 110 Intergenerational tensions, 44 Internal migration, 40 International migrants, 39 Intersectionality approach, 69 Intersectional approach, 33 Intimate relationships, 75, 100 Intra-community conflicts, 95 Irregular immigrants, 3 Irregular migration, 8, 9, 38, 108 Italian neighbours, 75

K Kin networks, 14, 19, 23, 58, 71, 73

L Labelling, 74, 117 Labour migrants, 13, 37 Labour migration, 3, 40, 41, 45 Legal citizenship, 105 Lega Nord, 111, 130 Local citizenry, 4, 54, 104, 108–110, 112, 124, 126, 133, 135 Local initiatives, 75, 110 Loss of embodiment, 81 Loss of personhood, 97

M Market economy, 49 Marriage market, 72 Masculine identities, 85 Memory, 5, 41, 55, 56, 81, 92, 101 of their middle school years, 92 Mental construct of Europe, 62 Mental constructs, 57, 61 Methodological nationalism, 42 Middling migration, 62 Migrant mobilities, 33 Migrants emotions, 33, 41 Migrants social world, 53 Migration flows, 48 Migration policy, 11, 38, 46, 132 Migratory project, 3, 5, 35, 72, 116

Index Millennial migrant, 44, 61, 62 quintessential, 62 Mixed marriages in Italy, 102 Mobility patterns, 3, 53 Model Italian citizens, 117 Multiculturalism, 108 N Nation-state, 34, 35, 37, 39, 53, 58 Navchintan, 79 Neoliberal racism, 112 Non-familial perspective, 103 Non-recognition of household labour, 49 Northern League, 111 P Parmesan, 5, 15, 17, 23 Participatory citizenship, 109, 122 Partition, 1 Pathways of integration, 36, 108, 109, 134 Patriarchal norms, 98 reproduction of, 98 Political gains, 13 Political mobilisation, 120 new forms of, 120 Politics of victimisation, 74 Populorum Progressio, 127 Postracial society, 107 Potential emigrants, 2 Potential immigrants, 3, 27, 56, 61 Potential migrants, 27, 34, 62 Predatory capitalism, 2 Q Quest for integration, 42 R Racialisation of migrant women, 74 Regular migration, 8 Religion, 3, 36, 37, 42, 50, 53, 54, 76, 77, 108, 110, 112, 122, 123, 125–127, 129, 131, 133, 135 and its ritualistic practice, 123 cultural values embedded in, 122 in the second generation, 123 Religious experience, 76, 77 Religious institutions, 108, 109, 122, 124 Religious pluralism, 122 Religious symbol, 110 Remittances, 8, 10, 39–41, 52 Rete Intercultura, 25

Index Returnee migrants, 57 Return migration, 33, 97 S Sanatoria, 13 School experience, 82, 91 Seasonal migration, 40 Secondary migration, 116 Segmented labour market, 37 Sexual intimacy, 51 Sociability practices, 108 Social and cultural capital, 58 Social class, 2, 26, 33, 76, 96, 117 Social exclusion, 80, 91, 92 Social isolation, 4, 26, 71, 73, 80, 85, 96 Sociality, 42, 71 Social networking sites, 84 Social process, 4, 36, 39, 85 Social worlds, 4, 53, 54, 71, 74, 105, 110 Spatial networks, 39 Spoilt identity, 82 State policies, 37, 38, 53, 54 State policies and practices, 34 State-thought, 34, 35, 52, 63, 74, 107, 136 Strategic forms of intervention, 78 Structural constraints, 37, 50 Subordinate integration, 4, 109, 110, 117 Substance abuse, 7 Subtle racism, 91, 114 Symbolic violence, 74

143 Syrian refugees, 37

T Tangled mobilities, 33 Tentative integration, 128 Territorial space, 85, 124 Testimonies, 34 in the words of migrants, 34 Transnationalism, 3, 33, 41, 42 Transnational social fields, 39 Transnational spaces, 43, 71 Turco-Napolitano Law, 13

U Unemployment figures, 6, 17 Unskilled migrants, 11, 47 Upward mobility, 14, 56, 57, 84

V Violence, 33, 36, 49, 70, 98, 113 civil war and, 36 shelter, 70 Vulnerability, 90

W Work and identity, 3