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Aspiration, reunification and gender transformation in Jat Sikh marriages from India to Canada
Author(s) -
MOONEY NICOLA
Publication year - 2006
Publication title -
global networks
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.685
H-Index - 65
eISSN - 1471-0374
pISSN - 1470-2266
DOI - 10.1111/j.1471-0374.2006.00151.x
Subject(s) - gender studies , citizenship , transnationalism , sociology , ethnography , identity (music) , modernity , geography , political science , anthropology , law , physics , politics , acoustics
In this article I explore marriage as a strategy of family migration among a transnational community of middle‐class Jat Sikhs. Family reunification and status aspirations are examined as central concerns of the transnational movement of Jat Sikhs from India to Canada. It is argued that Jat Sikh transnationalism and gender are mutually‐constitutive: migration strategies can construct women, as well as men, as agents of marital citizenship, and in facilitating migration, transnational marriage may transform practices and notions of gender and status. The article is based on preliminary ethnographic research among Jat Sikh brides in Toronto and Vancouver, and forms part of a larger study of gender, modernity and identity in Indo‐Canadian Jat Sikh marriages.