42 – Exploring international Migration in South Asia: a socio-cultural approach

October 2, 2025
8:30 am
UGX61
Migration has been a longstanding feature of people in the Bengal Delta. Records of migrating to the adjacent areas in the subcontinent and far away countries in the South Pacific and West Indies islands are available since the British colonial administration in the early 19th century. So, it is unsurprising that Bangladesh – the independent country comprising the largest share of geography and population in the Bengal Delta – has emerged as a significant source of international migration and a top remittances-receiving country in the contemporary world. This session explores migration in South Asia by looking at the Bengal region in general and Bangladesh in particular. While a discussion of the causes and consequences of migration in the Bengal Delta and South Asia will be covered, this session will primarily focus on the non-economic dimensions of migration. Keeping up with the growing interest in understanding migration by going beyond an economist bias, this session invites papers that explore, for example, how the governments in South Asia approach migration, how the native population treats non-citizens (including racialization, discrimination, etc.) in the receiving countries and cities within countries, how migrants experience the state and society in their destination countries, how migrants engage in transnationalism, what role does the media and communication technologies play in shaping migration in this region. Besides the regional focus, this panel invites papers on the positionality of the researchers to understand knowledge production about migration in and from South Asia.

Convenor

Dr. Hasan Mahmud

Presentations

Success, Failure, Doomed Beyond Measure: The Troubled Life of the Bangladesh-Malaysia Labor Migration Relation
Ghosh Sahana - Dept of Sociology and Anthropology, National University of Singapore, Singapore, Singapore
Sailors and Settlers: The Migratory Trends and Social and Cultural Institutions of the Indian-Chinese Community of Calcutta
Das Joita - National University of Singapore, National University of Singapore, Singapore, Singapore
Between Exclusion and Social Cohesion: Refugees and migrants in South Asia
Aithal Vathsala - Faculty of Applied Social Sciences, University of Applied Sciences Würzburg-Schweinfurt, Würzburg, Germany
Negotiating Citizenship Rights in Pakistan With a Bengali Identity
Abbas Mazhar - Government College University Faisalabad, Government College University Faisalabad, Faisalabad, Pakistan
Lashari Samee - Houston Community College, USA, Houston Community College, USA, Houston, United States
Hassan Bilal - Department of Comparative Politics, University of Bergen, Norway, Department of Comparative Politics, University of Bergen, Norway, Bergen, Norway