Femininity, mobility and family fears: Indian international student migration and transnational parental control

Abstract

In this paper, I explore the migration of Indian-trained nurses enrolled in a post-graduate critical/geriatric care programme at a Canadian public college. Calling upon recent literature on gender, modernity and mobility in India, I examine the extent to which skilled transnational migration is shaped by gender relations established in India. While feminized international migration suggests increased autonomy of female migrants, this research highlights two important dimensions of such migration. The first is that family migration strategies are major determinants of the occupational choice and migration processes that daughters engage in, and the second is that the moral subjectivity of daughters is maintained through transnational methods of care and control.

Keywords:

• international migration
• students
• gender
• India
• Canada
• nursing

Acknowledgments

I would like to thank Alison Mountz, the editors of this special issue, and two anonymous reviewers for their helpful comments on earlier drafts of the paper.

Notes

1. Pseudonyms are used throughout the paper.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by a grant from the Social Science and Humanities Research Council [grant number 410-2010-1013], and the Centre for Excellence in Research on Immigration and Settlement, Ontario Metropolis held with Dr Hennebry with collaboration of the Post Graduate Nursing Health Sciences Program at “Canadiana” College, Ontario. Research Assistance in Canada was provided by Amy Arbuckle, Lindsay Blackwell, Virpal Kataure and Jennifer Guo, and in India by faculty and students in the Geography Department at Panjab University, Chandigarh.