26. August 2025

New Publication by Ayesha Hussain New Publication by Ayesha Hussain

"Networks of Dependencies: Undocumented Pakistani Migrants in the 'Publicita' Firms of Their Co-Ethnics in Italy"

Congratulations to BCDSS PhD researcher Ayesha Hussain for her most recent publication "Networks of Dependencies: Undocumented Pakistani Migrants in the Publicita Firms of Their Co-Ethnics in Italy." The chapter is part of the book South Asians in Southern Europe: Exploring Labour, Identity, and Desire

Migration specialists use the term "social capital" to refer to social networks. This chapter uses ethnographic data collected from Pakistani migrants living in Brescia to illustrate the impact of limited opportunities in formal employment, participation in the segmented informal sector among established migrants, and reliance on labour provided by undocumented migrants of the same ethnicity. It focuses on the implicit significance of social networks, particularly ethnic bonding networks, as a form of social capital for newly arrived migrants, thereby facilitating their incorporation into small-scale entrepreneurial endeavours. The chapter employs Floya Anthias' (Translocations 4(1), 5–20, 2008) conceptual framework of "translocational positionality" to explain the disparities and inequities observed in a variety of locations and the emergence of asymmetrical dependencies between various migrant groups of Pakistani descent.

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The book, part of the book series Migration, Diasporas and Citizenship, focuses on an emerging group of low income South Asian migrants who are increasingly migrating to four Southern European countries: Greece, Italy, Spain, and Portugal. While homogenized under the overarching category of "South Asian," the migrant trajectories and migrant experiences and encounters in these host countries are quite disparate and distinct from each other. The empirically rich contributions in the volume examine how national, religious, ethnic, gender, and/or class differences shape differing outcomes in migration trajectories, livelihood strategies, inclusion in host communities, family reunification, and migrant subjectivity for this set of racialized migrants and their families. The volume focusses on four broad themes, namely: Migration governance and labour regimes; migration strategies and experience – transnational mobility and social mobility; identity and belonging; and family and gender relations. This book fills a gap in scholarly works in the fields of migration studies, diaspora studies, and migrant labour, and it will be of interest to students and scholars in these and related fields.

 

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