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The Implications of Being Thrice-Marginalized: Work Migrants in India During the Coronavirus Lockdown

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Migrants and the COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract

When the Coronavirus lockdown started in India, migrant workers in cities and large towns had to return to their low-resource homes in villages and small towns. The majority of workers had no income during this time, and little idea when they would be able to return to their comparatively better-paying jobs at urban centres. This paper points to the three levels of marginalization suffered by these resource-constrained migrants, having to do with their points of origin and destination, and the situation of the pandemic. Based on interviews conducted with return migrants in the states of Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and West Bengal during the pandemic lockdown, this paper uses the investigative lens of the CCA to focus on the structures and cultures which created stress, and the operation of agency, which alleviated it to some degree, for return migrant workers at home.

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Correspondence to Devalina Mookerjee .

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© 2023 The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd.

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Mookerjee, D., Roy, S. (2023). The Implications of Being Thrice-Marginalized: Work Migrants in India During the Coronavirus Lockdown. In: Kaur-Gill, S., Dutta, M.J. (eds) Migrants and the COVID-19 Pandemic . Palgrave Macmillan, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-19-7384-0_5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-19-7384-0_5

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  • Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Singapore

  • Print ISBN: 978-981-19-7383-3

  • Online ISBN: 978-981-19-7384-0

  • eBook Packages: Social SciencesSocial Sciences (R0)

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