IIAS Publications Series Monographs

Northeast Migrants in Delhi: Race, Refuge and Retail

Duncan McDuie-Ra

Northeast Migrants in Delhi: Race, Refuge and Retail is an ethnographic study of migrants from India's north-east border region living and working in Delhi, the nation's capital. Northeast India borders China, the Himalayas, and Southeast Asia. Despite burgeoning interest in the region, little attention is given to the thousands of migrants leaving the region for Indian cities for refuge, work, and study. The stories of Northeast migrants reveal an everyday Northeast India rarely captured elsewhere and offer an alternative view of contemporary India. Northeast migrants covet the employment opportunities created by India's embrace of globalization; shopping malls, restaurants, and call centres. Yet Northeast migrants also experience high levels of racism, harassment, and violence. Far from simply victims of the city, Northeast migrants have created their own 'map' of Delhi, enabling a sense of belonging, albeit an uneasy one. Interdisciplinary in nature, this book will appeal to scholars of anthropology, urban studies, geography, migration, and Asian Studies.

Dr Duncan McDuie-Ra, PhD is Senior Lecturer in Development Studies/ convenor of Development Studies, School of Social Sciences, University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia.

Reviews
"McDuie-Ra's illuminating account of the unexpected lives of northeast migrants in a metropolis compels us to rethink conventional ways of thinking about India's changing frontier lands and peoples. This rigorously researched and superbly written book is anthropology at its best."
Amita Baviskar, Associate Professor at the Institute of Economic Growth, Delhi University 

Review by Michiel Baas. In: South Asia: Journal of South Asian Studies. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00856401.2014.909347
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