An Economy of Lies: Informal Income, Phone-Banking and Female Migrant Workers in Kolkata, India

Publikation: Bidrag til tidsskriftTidsskriftartikelForskningfagfællebedømt

This article will analyze rural-urban migrant workers' multiple journeys of financial secrecies, gendered solidarities and covert income-management through the use of smartphones and net-banking in the city. Using the narratives of informal domestic workers in Kolkata, a city in eastern India, I show how migrant women managed a shadow network of personal savings, free of surveillance from their rural kin, that was creatively positioned at the interface of modern digital technologies and traditional social relations. I develop the concept of 'migra-monies' to underline how such hidden cash flows within migration landscapes emboldened female workers to envision non-normative gendered subjectivities and economically secure fiscal futures.

OriginalsprogEngelsk
TidsskriftJournal of Immigrant & Refugee Studies
Vol/bind20
Udgave nummer2
Sider (fra-til)164-176
Antal sider13
ISSN1556-2948
DOI
StatusUdgivet - 8 sep. 2022

ID: 304365949