Circular Migration and Precarity: Perspectives from Rural Bihar

Datta, Amrita (2020) Circular Migration and Precarity: Perspectives from Rural Bihar. The Indian Journal of Labour Economics, 63 (4). pp. 1143-1163. ISSN 0971-7927

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Abstract

Migration and mobilities are vastly underestimated in India. In particular, circular migration remains poorly captured as circular migrants move back and forth between source and destination regions. Based on survey data from rural Bihar, an important source region of migration in India, this paper finds that a vast majority of migrants work and live in precarity in predominantly urban and prosperous destinations across India. However, those at the lowest rungs of the social and economic ladder in source regions—the scheduled castes and scheduled tribes, other backward classes I and the labouring class—are the worst off at destination; they are part of the most precarious shorter-term migration streams, earn the lowest incomes, have the poorest conditions of work, and live in the harshest circumstances. The paper shows that social and economic hierarchies, and in turn, precarity in source region is reproduced at destination, and, thus, there is little evidence that spatial mobility is associated with social mobility. Focusing on migrants’ location, work, employment, income, housing, and access to basic services at destination, the paper foregrounds migrant precarity and adds to a small body of empirical literature that is significant in understanding the spatial and structural elements of circular migration in India and in turn, the migration crisis that emerged as a result of the economic shock of the COVID 19 pandemic. © 2020, Indian Society of Labour Economics.

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IITH Creators:

IITH Creators	ORCiD
Datta, Amrita	UNSPECIFIED

Item Type:

Article

Additional Information:

I am thankful to the Indian Council of Social Science Research for funding this research, to Vikas Dubey for database management of the research project, and to the editors of this Special Issue for their thoughtful comments. Any errors remain solely mine.

Uncontrolled Keywords:

Bihar; Circular migration; COVID 19; India; Labour migration; Rural–urban migration

Subjects:

Arts > Liberal arts

Divisions:

Department of Liberal Arts

Depositing User:

. LibTrainee 2021

Date Deposited:

27 Oct 2022 09:33

Last Modified:

27 Oct 2022 09:33