Abstract
Migration is a positive global phenomenon in scale, complexity, and impact. This chapter is about rural-to-urban migration among Badagas. It begins with a brief review of migration as a salient theme in previous writings about the people, and then describes a study of rural-to-urban migrants in Bangalore to understand more about their experiences of leaving the Nilgiris, living in the city, being Badaga, and becoming City Badaga. It unpacks the complexity of the migrants’ lives as they attempted to uphold some sense of autonomy and heritage as Badaga while also becoming functional members of an urban society and searching for a better future. A thread tying together the findings was a deep personal sense of being Badaga, and on this common background rested diversity and flexibility as the chapter shows various ways Badaga identities and quality of life change following migration. The chapter also uncovers the conditions, processes, and contexts of identity construction, and sheds light on complex relationships between migration, identities, and quality of life. It is an important endeavour considering that India has a large number of migrants and urban dwellers and will continue to do so.
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Davey, G. (2018). Migrants’ Voices. In: Quality of Life and Well-Being in an Indian Ethnic Community. SpringerBriefs in Well-Being and Quality of Life Research. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-90662-1_4
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-90662-1_4
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