Paper short abstract:

I will examine how young Indian students in Germany use international mobility to exert influence over various temporal experiences. I will argue that temporal agency is an important part of the students’ navigation of different modes of belonging in transnational space.

Paper long abstract:

Germany has become an attractive destination for Indian students and scientists. Most of these young Indians frame their stay in Germany as temporary, as part of a larger trajectory leading to an imagined arrival point in the future. Thus, time in form of temporariness and an orientation towards the future, has a great influence on the students' transnational practices and navigation of different modes of belonging. On the other side, the young students make use of international mobility to realize their own aspirations. An essential part of this process is the application of temporal agency (Flaherty 2011, Ringel 2016).

Using Flaherty's (2003) concept of time-work, I will show how the young Indians students in Germany use international mobility as a strategy to gain influence over various temporal experiences. An important aspect that I will discuss is how the students consciously/unconsciously use their mobility to manipulate the timing of important events like marriage and their return to India. I will argue that temporal agency is, in the case of the young Indian students, an important part of the successful navigation of different modes of belonging in transnational space.