Paper Short Abstract:

This paper explores how mobility remains an "illusion" among rural migrants of Western India, despite their annual cycle of migration for sugarcane cutting. Focusing on the experiences of sugarcane migrants, the paper engages in deconstructing the hegemonic discourse on socio-spatial dimensions of mobility.

Paper Abstract:

In this paper we discuss the case of sugarcane migrants in Western India who undergoes spatial mobility but fail to achieve socio-economic mobility. Migration is a seasonal phenomenon prevalent annually among rural migrants who hail from the lower socio-economic class. They practice this phenomenon every year with the hope that someday they will advance their living standards. However, such upward mobility is never achieved. Mobility in socio-economic sphere therefore remains an “illusion” among migrants. Based on ethnographic field work, the paper focuses on the illusionary dimensions of mobility through studying the annual cycle of sugarcane cutting migrants and the scale of their achieved socio-economic mobility. The paper discusses a broader question of how the migrants are stuck in being immobile despite their continuous cycle of spatial mobility; and how do they make sense of their “immobility”, particularly in the socio-economic spheres. Mobility in social sciences has been studied in two ways: the physical mobility of human society, generally understood as migration, and the mobility in terms of socio-economic advancement. Through this paper we introduce a new dimension to the mobility studies by using the phrase “mobility as illusion” and its application to the empirical case of the sugarcane cutting migrants.