![]() In the following article, I locate two specific genres of folksongs as a medium of communication between migrating men and their left-behind homes. While many may see migration as an opportunity for marginalised groups to escape poverty and feudal social oppression, the social cost of such decisions is hardly talked about. However, one thing remained the same: sex-selective labour migration. As their migration trajectories were different, so was the kind of work they started specialising in. Bihari labourers instead became a major workforce within the Indian subcontinent with the rise of the manufacturing industry and other low-skilled jobs. Later, people from Kerala migrated to Burma and other East Asian countries as plantation labour and now make up the largest portion of the Indian diaspora in Gulf countries. Malayalees’ relationship with the Gulf states started with the spice trade, whereas Biharis were taken to the Caribbean Island as bonded labour during British rule. Kerala and Bihar, the two Indian states discussed in this piece, are heavily dependent on labour migration as a major source of income, though in very different ways. ![]() In South Asia’s developing countries, internal and international migration have been shaped by the economic mobility of the working class. ![]() ![]() However, questions around non-economic opportunity cost are not discussed enough. Migration discourses have mostly revolved around economics or, more recently, legality. ![]()
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