All about My Skills, not Me or Mine: Vignettes of Precarity among Skilled Indian Professionals in the UK

Arun, Shoba (2018) All about My Skills, not Me or Mine: Vignettes of Precarity among Skilled Indian Professionals in the UK. In: India Migration Report 2018. Routledge India. ISBN 9781138498167

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Abstract

Indian migrants form a significant proportion of UK’s skilled labour force. In migration related discourses, mobility is viewed as an asset, capital or value attributed to the migrant individual self. This study captures vignettes of migrant experiences of Indian professions across various economic domains in the UK, illuminating the simultaneity of precariousness and resilience. Their lived experiences do not fit neatly into the traditional concept of skilled worker-citizen relationship as policy shifts and broader ideological changes fostered by an anti-immigration climate produce discursive patterns of alignments between the labour market and work practices disrupting professional, personal and familial arrangements.