Kaleidoscopic Ethnicity: International Migration and the Reconstruction of Community Identities in India

by Prema A. Kurien

Overview

Co-Winner of the 2003 American Sociological Association's Asia/Asian American book award.

Based on ethnographic research in three communities (Ezhava Hindu, Mappila Muslim, and Syrian Christian) in Kerala, India, which sent large numbers of workers to the Middle East for temporary jobs, Kaleidoscopic Ethnicity explores the factors responsible for the striking differences in the groups’ patterns of migration and migration-induced social change. Most broadly, Prema Kurien seeks to understand what ethnicity is and how it affects people’s activities and decisions. She argues that, in each case, a community-specific nexus of religion, gender, and status shaped migration, and was, in turn, transformed by it.

The religious background of the three groups determined their social location within colonial and postcolonial Kerala. This social location in turn affected their occupational profiles, family structures, and social networks, as well as their conceptions of gender and honor, and thus was fundamental in shaping migration patterns. The rapid enrichment brought about by international migration resulted in a reinterpretation of religious identity and practice which was manifested by changes in patterns of gendered behavior and status in each of the three communities. What makes this book unique is its focus on the sociocultural patterns of short-term international migration and its comparative ethnographic approach.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780813530895
Publisher:	Rutgers University Press
Publication date:	08/07/2002
Edition description:	None ed.
Pages:	332
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.80(d)

About the Author

Prema A. Kurien is assistant professor of sociology at the University of Southern California and a research associate for the Project on Religion and the New Immigrants in Los Angeles, at the University of Southern California's Center for Religion and Civic Culture.

Table of Contents

Preface and Acknowledgments
1. Ethnicity and International Migration
2. The Kaleidoscope of Ethnicity: Religion, Status, and Gender
3. Colonialism and Ethnogenesis
4. The Middle Eastern Migration from Kerala
5. Ethnicity and Migration in Veni: Strengthening Solidarity and the Joint Family
6. Ethnicity and Migration in Cherur: The Decastification of Status
7. Ethnicity and Migration in Kembu: Strengthening the Nuclear Family and Women
8. The Ethnic Kaleidoscope and International Migration Revisited
Notes
Glossary
References
Index

Editorial Reviews

Returning to her ancestral home of Kerala, India, Kurien (sociology, U. of Southern California) conducted an ethnographic study of out-migration to Persian Gulf nations by tracking three communities that have sent workers there for temporary jobs since the 1970s: Ezhava Hindu, Mappila Muslim, and Syrian Christian. After analyzing factors accounting for differences in patterns of migration, earnings use, and social change in the context of ethnicity issues since colonial days, she concludes that these nouveau riche patterns were shaped by, and in turn have transformed, social status, gender behavior, and religious identity. Includes a glossary. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

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