RJ p 12-1342:1
Scientific Final Report

Purpose
The projects overall ambition has been to understand mobility and marginalization among indigenous or tribal peoples in the Northeastern region of India. As formulated in the application, four sets of interrelated questions were central;

(i)    how do special constitutional provisions contribute to, and address the structuring of migration and experiences of poverty in the Northeast;
(ii)    how do labor migration cycles emerge from the region and what do they explain about new forms of impoverishment and/or affluence;
(iii)    how do land ownership patterns and changing land use regimes contribute to the emerging politics of resource control and development in India, especially in its restive Northeast and
(iv)    how have indigenous communities (of the region), coped with these changes.


In general we have pursued these issues throughout the project, but more than anything else we have come to look at out-migration from the region and especially then the migration of young people to the main cities of metropolitan India. In this context we have begun to formulate a general theory of “indigenous migration”, arguing that the mobility of indigenous communities have certain unique traits setting it apart from migration of larger, majority communities. One such aspect concerns the mutual recognition of responsibilities to the community and ancestral lands. The present wave of migration is facilitated by a large demand for laborers in the fast growing Indian service economy. English language skills, a general Western cultural sensibility along with generic Asian, racial features make the indigenous youth attractive to the corporate sector. To account for this form of labor we apply and develop the notion of “affective labor”, that is, labor that provide care for clients. As we show, such labor first of all requires a radical bodily and mental reconfiguration. The young want to get out in the world, out of their villages and a life based on subsistence agriculture and they set out on an uncertain journey we call “wayfinding”; a journey without a fixed end and with little prospect of return despite strong attachment to ancestral land and concerns for community matters, constantly looking for new opportunities, mobile, re-adjusting plans in relation to possibilities in their new places of dwelling. As we account for, however, life in the service industry and more generally in the Indian mega cities is hard for the young migrants. Most tell about daily racial discrimination, and for women, often with a sexual connotation. Family members back home worry for their safety. Community or ethnically based churches or student organizations provide a key function in providing security and assistance in acute situations.  

Migration research has exploded during the last 5 years largely as a consequence of the “migration crises”. Much of this research focuses understandably on the experiences and consequences of border-crossings and subsequently how nation-states cope with transnational migrant flows. Our project looks instead into the much less discussed and researched aspect of internal migration. The indigenous communities studied have a long history of transnational migration, moving between areas that today form separate nation-states, but today as we account for here the mobility is largely within the parameters of India. Yet, this mobility involves movement across vast geographical and cultural differences.


Implementation
The original project idea was to focus on two villages or set of villages in the Northeastern states of Assam respectively Manipur. This idea was, however, dropped at an early stage. We have instead developed a more fluid or mobile methodology where we have selected a number of strategic locations, one being a training and grooming centre in Dimapur, the economic centre of the state of Nagaland, and another being service sector in the southern state of Kerala, following migrants in and through these different sites and also meeting up with their friends and family at home and away. We have also involved four young researchers, two Indian and two Swedish, doing separate case studies in the respective states of Assam (two cases), Meghalaya and Nagaland; all supervised in the field by Dr. Dolly Kikon. In addition senior researchers at the Tata Institute of Social Sciences has participated in research activities and seminars. TISS has also functioned as the local host for the project. To do fieldwork with mobile people poses particular challenges, not least in establishing trust.

Critical findings
The most important insights of the research projects concerns the frictions in contemporary indigenous societies relating on the one hand deep attachment to place and the young generation aspiring for mobility. We explore this friction through the individual lives and stories of young migrants and their families. The young no longer want to work the land, and in seeking a life outside the village the youth embark on a journey that not only change them personally but also have repercussions for the entire social fabric. Through our research we have outlined the basic features of the present, still unfolding, migratory moment in Northeast India. Race as we show is central to the story, both in terms of desired phonotypical attributes in the service sector, but also as a source of discrimination and violence in metropolitan India. Work in the new service economy – in hotels, spas, restaurant or airlines – pays relatively better than the more traditional work available for tribal migrant labor such as unskilled construction or seasonal agriculture. The project thus engage the young generations mobility both spatially and corporally, pointing to the becoming of new cosmopolitan tribal subjects, grounded and yet constantly in movement. As we argue, it is the corporate sector and not the state that has embraced the Northeastern youths. The state affirmative action framework for scheduled tribes presupposes that people stay put in place and as such make little difference in the lives of the diasporic indigenous population residing outside of ancestral territories.  

New research questions
The key question we are up against is how the mobile indigenous youth will be able to keep the relationship to the land, both in terms of legal rights to land but also the indigenous knowledge and ways of being in the world that ongoing dwelling generates. The generational aspect is critical here. Most of the migrants are young and here we would like to further examine into how marriage and children might change their desire or aspiration for return.

We would also like to pursue a comparative angle of the project and explore further how the northeastern migrant experience resonates with indigenous migration elsewhere in the world. Research in the US, Canada, Australia and the Nordic countries does indeed suggest important similarities, but this requires further investigation.      
 
International dimension
The project is built on various international collaborations, originated from a joint proposal with London School of Economics. We have later developed relations with Stanford University, University of New South Wales (Sydney), Melbourne University, Amsterdam University, Vienna University, and more recently with Tromsö University. Our main collaborative partner institution, however, is Tata Institute of Social Sciences in Guwahati, Assam.


Dissemination of results
Besides publications and lectures and conference presentations we have made a consistent effort in bringing the research in conversation with a larger public; photo exhibition touring four cities, three larger seminars for civil society actors, filmed interviews with migrants, podcast, newspaper articles and a research platform (Zomianet.org, soon to be released). We are presently negotiating with Tromsö University Museum, specialized on indigenous issues, to show the entire Wayfinding exhibition with photos and interview films.