SOCIAL RELATIONS AMONG MIGRANT LABOURERS: A STUDY IN A MIGRANT SETTLEMENT OF TRIVANDRUM

Abstract

In recent years, Kerala has experienced an unprecedented flow of migrant workers from different parts of India. Higher wages, large employment opportunities and shortage of local labourers, make Kerala an attractive job market for workers from outside the State. Migrant workers in Kerala are a social reality. They have been subjects of various studies. Studies bring out different problems they face, highlight the impact of government policies and social security schemes on them and also tell about the reasons for lack of integration to the local people which include difference of language and culture, increase in crime rates by migrants, isolated settlements etc. However, their social life among themselves remains underexplored. there are greater dynamics at play when it comes to the social life of these migrant workers, hailing from different states and cultures, working and living together in isolated settlements leading to an intensive interaction among them. A qualitative study using the phenomenological approach was best suited for this study because the researcher seeks to understand and document the lived experiences and perceptions of migrant labourers living and working together. It tries to capture the phenomena of ‘co – existence’ and to know how they make sense of the world they live in. This intra migrant study is an effort to capture and understand the dynamics of the social relations and interactions among migrant laborers i.e. their attitude, feelings and behaviortowards fellow co-migrants, to assess how they overcome the linguistic, regional and culturalbarriers and analyze the result of such intense inter ethnic interactions.