Abstract
Meenakshi Thapan. 2023. Work, Family and Integration: Indian Migrant Farmers in Northern Italy. Singapore: Springer. xix + 156 pp. Notes, references, index. €109.99 (hardback—ISBN: 9789819955800).
In their seminal book, The Age of Migration, Hein de Haas, Stephen Castles and Mark J. Miller stress that ‘despite regional differences, contemporary migration is shaped by similar forces of social and economic transformation affecting societies and people around the world’ (de Haas et al. 2020: 3). Meenakshi Thapan’s book, Work, Family and Integration: Indian Migrant Farmers in Northern Italy, based on her long-term research, tells the story of one such compelling migration stream—from Punjab in north-western India to Emilia-Romagna in northern Italy—through the lenses of transnationalism, family ties, kinship networks, youth, identity, belonging and aspirations. The book is divided into five chapters. The first two chapters set the context for the empirical research presented in subsequent chapters and locate the study in the wider literature on migration and transnationalism. The source region of the migration stream under study is Punjab, the site of India’s Green Revolution and, historically, among its most prosperous states. Punjab’s relative economic decline over the years and a lack of employment opportunities in the source region are the root causes of migration. It is in this context that Thapan argues that the motivation to migrate is in search of a better life, the good life, and is mediated by kinship networks.
The destination region of this migration stream, Emilia-Romagna, is among the richest and most advanced regions of Italy, globally renowned for its dairy production. Young Italians do not value work in dairy but wish to continue their family farming and cheese-making businesses. It is here that Punjabi migrants—paradoxically, those who may not be farmers in India—take up this work to support their migration project. The migration destination of Italy needs to be understood in the context of the stricter border regimes in the USA and Canada, as well as Germany and France. Migration through illegal routes is preferred; there is no other option as migrants do not have the requisite language qualifications required through the formal migration systems. Though the pioneer migrants came to this region only in the late 1970s, with the intention to migrate to the UK/Canada/USA, with time, Italy became the final destination for migrants due to the possibilities of a quick path to stability and prosperity and family reunification. The overarching context of this migration is the labour shortage in critical sectors and the low birth rate in Italy, making high immigration a necessity for the growth of the national economy.
The empirical work is divided into three stand-alone chapters. Chapters 3 and 4 focus on the experiences of women and youth migrants, respectively, while chapter 5 discusses individual and collective strategies of integration in the host society. Thapan foregrounds the family—conceptually and empirically—in unpacking the migration project. In doing so, she is able to skilfully intertwine and disentangle the intrahousehold dynamics of gender and generation in the family migration project. In the migration stream under study, family reunification, that is, to join their spouses, is the most common route for migrant Punjabi women. Typically, these women are less educated and ‘experience a double burden of exclusion: prevented by their partners from working outside the home or going out into Italian society, many women remain indoors out of what they consider their own choice’ (p. 72). By disaggregating her respondents by age, levels of education and engagement in public life, Thapan shows that educated working women are connected with the outside world, while homebound married women—older women, even more so—tend to experience isolation. There is wealth, status and prestige associated with international migration. Yet, ‘social isolation is very much an outcome of international migration’ (p. 73), Thapan argues, based on the rich narratives of her respondents.
Chapter 4 highlights the tensions between the freedom and aspirations of young migrants, vis-à-vis the pull of the family, as well as the simultaneous belonging and integration young people desire in their families and Italian society. The immediate family at the destination anchors young people by providing emotional sustenance and security. At the same time, the family is perceived as a barrier to integration. Thapan shows that young people do not see and live in such binaries as they skilfully navigate family and community, on the one hand, and Italian society, on the other. Youth experiences are also gendered; young women—particularly in intergenerational families—are doubly marginalised. Their mobility is restricted, and their seclusion is enforced after school hours. No such restrictions are placed on young men. Young women experience shame as they are subject to the shackles of patriarchy in a faraway land. At the same time, like the older generation, the youth, too, feel isolated in Italian society. Yet, Thapan shows, change is happening at the margins; young women and men are ‘seeking a way out of the community through forms of education, employment or simply ways of being in a different social and cultural world’ (p. 98).
What about the assimilation and integration of Punjabi migrants into Italian society? Does it lean towards a melting pot or a tossed salad? In chapter 5, Thapan explores migrant integration through the axes of employer–employee relations, religion and civic engagement. Notwithstanding isolated cases of employer–employee solidarity, the paternalistic attitude towards migrants by Italian employers reiterates the subordinate status of migrants. Despite experiencing resentment, migrants seek no redressal but work with ‘mixed emotions of simmering discontent’ on account of their migration project that promises a good life for their families and a better future for their children (p. 114). This pervasive situation is stoically described as an ‘increased income, but no sense of well-being’ by one of the respondents (p. 115). In Thapan’s analysis, migrants’ exploitation and discrimination, cultural differences between migrant and host societies and the xenophobic tendencies in the host society emerge as significant barriers to integration. These structural factors play a role in the othering of second-generation migrant youths, who, in turn, feel ambivalent about the future of integration in Italian society.
In sum, Thapan has written an important book—of hope and resilience—among Punjabi migrants in northern Italy. Not only is this work valuable for migration studies, sociology and cultural studies, but it also contributes towards much-needed ‘contextualised, disaggregated and intersectional understandings of migration’ (Deshingkar 2017: 119). It is the rich narratives of migrants that are the core of the book. Thapan’s knowledge of the Punjabi language not only preserves the essence of the words of her respondents but also ensures that nothing is lost in translation. Instead, it brings alive the rich tapestry of migrant experiences. For readers familiar with Punjabi, the direct quotes and phrases in the vernacular, such as ‘doobta dil’ (sinking hearts), ‘so hum phas gaye hain’ (we are stuck) and ‘kuch kho gaya hai’ (something is lost), will strike an intimate chord, as it did with this reviewer.