Award Information
The project studies the new immigrants from India in the software industry. The aim of the project is to show how the organization of a quintessentially global industry has created different streams of labor migration to the United States and new (and unequal) categories of transnational actors. Using a multifaceted theoretical perspective that incorporates industry analysis, network theories and migration flows, and through multi-sited ethnographic research in different locations in India and the United States, I would like to address the following research questions: (1) Who are the different migrants and what are the diverse networks – economic, social, organizational – that propels migration? (2) Do the same networks that facilitate initial movement also influence career mobility once in the U.S.? (3) Can initial advantages or constraints be built up or overcome? And, if so, how? (4) What are the impacts of transnational ties that link migrants to their home societies?