The business of postcolonial immigration: marketing of immigration services in Punjab, India

Abstract

In this paper, I show that immigration consulting agencies in the Doaba region of Punjab, India, mobilise the imaginary of the ‘West’ as a place to be successful and modern in order to sell their services. My focus is on the design of promotional materials created by the agencies that are well integrated into the visual landscape of this region. Thus I analyse this imaginary as presented in banners, posters, and signboards. The visual data is complemented with semi structured interviews conducted with staff and owners at the agencies, ethnographic observations as well as information gleaned from the agencies’ websites. The study is novel in its exploration of the visual environment in pre-migration contexts where international migration is portrayed as a central path to prosperity. It is exploratory in nature and raises many questions for future researchers to pursue.

DISCLOSURE STATEMENT

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

[1] It is important to recognise that visual methodology is yet to be fully embraced by the discipline of Sociology. It was an important aspect of sociological investigation as suggested by Becker (1974) who pointed out that the American Journal of Sociology in its initial fifteen years did routinely publish photographs. But, the development of the discipline as a scientific one, modelled after the physical and natural sciences, undermined the importance of visual knowledge in the exploration of social life. In that vein, reliable indicators of culture and social life are considered those that are removed from its natural settings (Stanczak 2007). As Gregory Stanczak asserts, generating tables, experiments, census data, and various other forms of information that can be abstracted and removed from the social circumstances is viewed as ‘hard data,’ or evidence that is unbiased. Even qualitative research, although included as part of a legitimate scientific investigation, occupies a lower position than quantitative studies of society within the discipline of Sociology. Visual research methods is even more removed from standard qualitative methods and one that is intricately intertwined with the visual circumstances that it seeks to analyse and thus, violates that foundation of ‘science’ and seen as unsuitable for the scientific study of social phenomenon. However, the visual, as a form of knowledge and methods, has been revived for sometime now. The creation of the journal Visual Sociology in 1986, today known as the Visual Studies journal, as well as the creation of the journal Senses and Society in 2006 show that voices in favour of it have been gaining ground and thus, have been pushing the boundaries of the sociological conceptualization of science.

[2] https://www.six-degrees.com/an-international-guide-on-use-of-colour-in-marketing-advertising/

[3] It should be noted that cultural meanings in the Indian context are likely to have been shaped by meanings attributed to colours in Hinduism because it is the overarching influence in Indian society.

Additional information

Funding

This work is funded by SDG Research Grant through the Global Programs and Strategy Alliance (GPS Alliance), University of Minnesota; and Memory, Movement, Montage Collaborative by Institute for Advanced Study, University of Minnesota.

Notes on contributors

Diditi Mitra

Diditi Mitra’s research focuses on race and immigration. Currently, Mitra is working on exploring gender dynamics in international migration from Punjab to the United States. She has authored Punjabi Immigrant Mobility in the United States: Adaptation through Race and Class and co-edited Race and the Lifecourse: Readings from the Intersection of Race, Ethnicity and Age. Mitra holds a Ph.D. in Sociology from Temple University.