Dr.

K Trilok Chandan Goud Mahila Pratishtha ISSN 2454-7891

Volume:6 Issue:1 July – Sept. 2020
Impact Factor: 2.2225

Social Networks and Transnational Migration:

A Study of Telugu Professional Migrants
and Role of Women

Dr. K Trilok Chandan Goud[1]

Trilok Chandan Goud, ICSSR Post Doctoral Fellow at the Department of
Sociology, University of Hyderabad, Hyderabad, Telangana State, India.

ABSTRACT
Telugu Diaspora has a long history of international migration; we can find
different patterns of migration from Andhra Pradesh at different times.
Generally, migration of Andhras can be classified into two major waves: a)
the colonial migration during the ninetieth and early twentieth century,
which was indentured and kangani form of labor migration, and b) the post-
world war II migration of Telugus to developed countries such as the USA,
the UK, Australia, New Zealand, and Canada, which includes the migration
of professionals such as engineers, doctors, scientists, students and so on, we
see the brain drain process from this period. Caste plays a vital role in
Indian society, without knowing the caste system in Indian society; we
cannot understand any social issue. International migration from India is
not just a movement of people from India to a foreign nation, larger social
issues are involved in it, many feel that they get the high social status if they
work in a foreign nation, when we see migrants from south India
particularly Andhra and Telangana a large number of migrants are from
dominant caste[2] (Kamma, Kapu, Reddy, Raju, and Velama), parents of
these elite and upper-middle-class groups feel that they get high
prestige/status within their community if their son/daughter work in a
foreign nation. Male migrant families expect high dowry if their son is
working in aboard or return from aboard. With this attitude, many other
caste groups (OBCs and Scheduled castes) are also falling in false prestige
that they get a high social status if their son/ daughter works aboard.
Globalization and internationalization of higher education have been a
major driving force behind this trend, as well as a rising middle class in
India, able to afford foreign university programs, expanding incomes,
economic growth and rising tertiary enrolments are key reasons for Indian
growth in foreign employment.

Key words: Telugu Diaspora, transnational migration, women

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Introduction
IOM's current estimates are that there are 272 million international migrants
globally (or 3.5% of the world’s population) many are migrating to high-
income countries (IOM 2020). Migration and dispersion are natural, universal,
and complex phenomena and is a natural process for all living beings. Human
history since the very ancient days is replete with population movement across
national borders due to economic, socio-cultural, geophysical, and political
reasons (Cherunilam, 1987:33). International migration from India also has a
very old history, as discussed Indians migrated to different countries on the
bases of economic, socio-cultural, geophysical, and political reasons. By and a
large migration of human beings is mostly for better economic prospects.
Economic reason like trade relations between countries like West Asia and
South Asia promote international migration, socio-cultural aspects like the rise
and spread of Islam since the seventh century AD, Hajj pilgrimage has a major
reason for Indians to travel to the Arab world, specifically to Mecca and
Medina (Jain, 2007:14, Zachariah and Rajan, 2012). India also acted as an
Indentured labor system during British rule is one of the political reasons for
Indian emigration.
Indian labor migration started during the colonial period and continued after
independence. The abolition of slavery in the British colonies led to the
emigration of Indian as indentured labor to work in the plantations and mines
to both faraway places in different British, French, Portuguese, and Dutch
colonies such as Guyana, Jamaica, Trinidad, and Fiji and to not so distant
lands such as Malaysia, Mauritius, and Singapore and even to neighboring
countries such as Burma (Myanmar) and Sri Lanka (Naidu, 1991;
Satyanarayana, A. 2001; Laxmi Narayan, 2017).

Telugu Diaspora has a long history of international migration. We can find

different patterns of migration from Andhra Pradesh at different times.
Generally, migration of Andhras can be classified into two major waves: a) the
colonial migration during the ninetieth and early twentieth century, which was
indentured and kangani form of labor migration, and b) the post-world war II
migration of Telugus to developed countries such as the USA, the UK,
Australia, New Zealand, and Canada, which includes the migration of
professionals such as engineers, doctors, scientists, students and so on, we see
the brain drain process from this period.

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The second wave of large-scale emigration of Indians took place to the Middle
East, the six countries belonging to the Gulf co-operation council (GCC) –
UAE, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Kuwait, Bahrain, and Qatar. It is a recent
phenomenon that began in the 1970s and peaked up in the early 1980s (Naidu,
1991) and continued.

Post Colonial Migration (Brain Drain[3]): Postcolonial migration is different

from other migration periods. In this period, voluntary migration of skilled
professionals such as doctors, engineers, entrepreneurs, students took place in
developed countries like the United Kingdom, the USA, Canada, Australia,
and New Zealand. This form of overseas Indian emigration to developed
countries popularly known as “Brain Drain” [4](Jain, 2016). “Nearly 750,000
Indian emigrants have become permanent residents in the developed countries,
with the United Kingdom accounting for 44 percent of that inflow, the United
States for 26 percent, Canada for 14 percent, and Australia for 5 percent”. This
flow continued until the 1970s (Madhavan 1985: 462), migration to all these
countries is continuing, these countries receiving a large number of migrants
from India.
Migration to the USA from the Andhra region can be roughly divided into
three different waves between the 1960s and now. The first-wave migrants
who went to the USA in the 1960s and the 1970s in substantial numbers were
doctors or scientists. The second wave largely comprised software engineers
who moved out since the late 1980s and the 1990s. In the third wave, students
migrated to the USA, often to do M.S. in IT and computer science.
International Organization for Migration (IOM) estimates outward migration
from India: 15,573,953 in 2015, 1.17% of all citizens of India lived outside
their country of origin[5].
A study conducted by the Center for Immigration Studies (2018)[6] in the
USA says Telugu is the fastest-growing foreign language in the US “Of
languages with more than 400,000 speakers in 2017, the largest percentage
increase from 2010 to 2017 were among speakers of Telugu (up to 86
percent); Hindi (up 42 percent). This implies the Telugu population is
migrating to the US compare to any other migrants.
Migration generally takes place with wage differences, but the regional
impact, social, and kinship networks had played a crucial role in migration in

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this study region. Migration is a universal phenomenon, which we see that the
people move from one place to another place in search of work, job and high
earning opportunities, etc. but in recent times for better and quality education,
people from different sections started moving from one place to another and
foreign countries are not exempted from migrating. With the impact of
globalization, the value of education has become more important to compete
in the global market. With emancipation, education became the only agenda
for every community to educate their children by providing quality education
and employment.

The four most popular destination countries are as follows: the United States,
the United Kingdom, France, and, Germany. Besides these, significant
numbers of foreign students were also enrolled in Australia, New Zealand,
Canada, and Japan. The dominance of English-speaking destinations, such as
Australia, Canada, the United Kingdom, and the United States, may be
explained by the fact that professionals intending to work abroad are most
likely to have learned English in their home country or wish to improve their
English language skills through immersion and work abroad. An increasing
number of institutions in non-English speaking countries now offer courses in
English as a way of attracting more foreign professionals.

"From the very beginning of the twentieth century, a small number of

intellectuals, mostly students, also came to the US and would later provide
leadership to the community. The first group of Indian students arrived on the
Pacific Coast sometime in the winter of 1901-1902. In 1906, the student
community in the whole of the US was less than 100. The Indians were then
called "Hindus" (to differentiate from the American Indians) irrespective of
their religion. This name remained stuck well up to the 1930s. From 1899,
until the beginning of world war I, a total of 6,656 East Indians entered the US
2,844 was debarred from entry and 98 were deported. These immigrants to the
US and Canada were agriculture laborers, came in majority from the mostly
unskilled" (Kumar, 2003).
Professional migration to developed countries for many Telugu's, employment
abroad is a social prestige, privilege, and upward social mobility, though some
migrate for better standards in employment and high quality of living, but
because class positions are dynamic and fundamentally unstable. In these

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developed countries high living standards, job opportunities, and income

maximization after education are some of the driving forces for many migrants
to move abroad. The major reason is previous social and kinship networks are
one of the prime factors for migration. Despite the growing importance of
international migration, very often migration is just regarded as an integral
part of a migration or as the migration of the skilled. This paper is mainly
based on primary and secondary data collected from various national and
international documents and reports such as the Ministry of External Affairs,
International Labor Organization, and International Organization for
Migration, India Center for Migration, and Ministry of Foreign Affairs reports
on the international migration.
Socio-Cultural factors for Migration:
Caste plays a vital role in Indian society, without knowing the caste system in
Indian society; we cannot understand any social issue. International migration
from India is not just a movement of workers from India to a foreign nation,
larger social issues are involved in it many feel that they get the high social
status if they work in a foreign nation when we see migrants from south India
particularly Andhra and Telangana a large number of migrants are from
dominant caste[7] (Kamma, Kapu, Reddy, Raju, and Velama), parents of these
elite and upper-middle-class groups feel that they get high prestige/status
within their community if their son/daughter work in a foreign nation. Male
unmarried migrant families expect a high dowry if their son is working aboard
or return from aboard. With this attitude, many other caste groups (OBCs and
Scheduled castes) are also falling in false prestige that they get a high social
status if their son/daughter works aboard. Globalization[8] and
internationalization of the job market have been a major driving force behind
this trend, as well as a rising middle class in India, able to afford foreign visits,
expanding incomes, economic growth, and rising tertiary enrolments are key
reasons for Indian growth in foreign employment. Also, foreign student
policies have become a tool in the international competition for skilled
persons. Providing attractive salaries to work routes has lead to a
diversification of destinations for interested migrants.
Caste, Kinship, and Marriage:
NRI marriages in the 1990s and 2000s were dominant phenomena in the
marriage practices of Andhra and Telangana. If the groom is an NRI he was

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paid the huge dowry, and the assumption was he would take the bride to a
foreign nation it maybe America, Canada, Australia, and the UK. This practice
was very much prominent in few dominant castes of Andhra and Telangana.
According to a report titled “Problems Relating to Overseas Indian Marriages”
submitted to Lok Sabha (2014) by a committee says, the brides of Overseas
Indian marriages have undergone and experienced a lot of problems which
ultimately led to the abandonment by the husbands. The abandonment occurs
even before she is taken to the foreign country of her husband’s residence or
while traveling to the foreign country and which is ultimately resulted in
coming back within a year or either sent back or forced to flee.

The common issues/problems relating to Overseas Indian/NRI marriages

being faced by Indian Women include Abandonment of the wife for various
reasons, Domestic violence, NRI husband already married, Continued
demands for dowry, pre and post marriage, lenient legal system abroad in
respect of grounds for divorce.

Theorizing International Migration

There is a vast body of literature on migration, with interpretation from
different disciplinary perspectives. Different scholars like sociologists,
anthropologists, economists, and geographers have discussed migration
theories. Sociologists discuss migration from the perspective of social causes
and the influence of migration on the host society. They believe, it is a chain
of events. The first person emigrates and sends “Happy settled” information
for his family members and relatives who are living in the native country. And
then others also migrate to the same country with his help. Sociological
explanations of migration focus on the importance of cultural and social
capital. “Cultural capital refers to knowledge of other societies and
opportunities they offer, as well as information about how to go about moving
and seeking work elsewhere. Social capital refers to the connections needed to
migrate safely and cost-effectively” (Castles, 2002: 1150).

Economists look at migration as an economic issue that deals with wages,

employment, and poverty, etc. Geographers deal with migration as a
movement factor; they look migration in a distance angle with more concern
for space. Many theories have been proposed by different scholars such as E.
G. Ravenstein [9], Evertee S. Lee[10], and Lewis Fei-Ranis. They proposed

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different models that are also critically discussed. Several theories have been
proposed by different scholars for migration, like the Neo-classical economics,
new-economics of migration, and network theory. These theoretical
frameworks have been adopted for this dissertation. Let us have a brief
discussion about these theories.

International migration is not directly driven by spatial differentiation in

unemployment and wage rates, but rather by anticipated future economic
benefits in terms of better incomes and higher-earning careers over the longer
term. Another key difference, which applies, as we shall see particularly in the
case of Indians, is that there is not usually an individually acted-upon agency.
To a greater or lesser extent, they are steered by their parents (and maybe other
family members), who will often be making the key financial contribution.

Family:
The common factor in our comparative analysis is family connections.
Although we treated this as a separate factor in the survey, in practice it
intersects with other elements in the decision to work abroad, not least in the
way that this can make it a family decision rather than an individual one, even
if this does not discount the circumstances where the basic decision is taken by
the migrant, who then receives family endorsement and perhaps financial help.

- Investment
- Social class and Cultural capital
- Family attachment

Networks of Kinship, caste, and endogamous transnational marriage alliances

create a transnational habitus, which sees caste and Kinship as vital nodes that
link migrant's places of origin and destination. As a result, aspirational and
material migration pathways are etched between coastal Andhra and the USA,
creating a transnational community, members of which are excluded from the
dominant caste.

According to Massey et al., (1993) “Migrant networks are sets of interpersonal

ties that connect migrants, former migrants, and non-migrants in origin and
destination areas through ties of kinship, friendship, and shared community
origin. They increase the likelihood of international movement because they

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lower the costs and risks of movement and increase the expected net returns to
migration”. Network theory can also be observed as chain migration. Chain
migration means “the movement of people tends to leave to those places
where they have contacts and where the old migrants serve as links for the
new migrants; and the chain which is thus formed is usually termed as chain
migration” (Cherunilam, 1987: 06).

While previous scholars spoke of ‘chain migration,’ in recent years much

emphasis has been put on ‘migration networks’ and the way these develop as
links between communities at home and in destination areas (Castles, 2002).
Network theory may be the best suitable for this study because migration
started from one region with a less number and after it became huge by chain
migration and network from old migrants. Old migrants may influence the
non-migrants to migrants.

Culture of Migration
According to Massey and Kandel (2002), the essence of the culture of
migration argument is that non-migrant observes migrants to whom they are
socially connected and seek to emulate their migratory behavior. Syed Ali
(2007) conducted a study in Hyderabad regional capital of Andhra Pradesh
state in India, where he says Hyderabad city is now the capital of the IT sector
and huge investments are coming to Hyderabad and job prospects are
increased, even though young Hyderabad’s are willing to migrate to foreign
nations like USA, Saudi Arabia, even though there are greater restrictions on
Visa and fewer prospects for laborers in Gulf states. All these are because of
the Culture of Migration, they get high status and huge dowry if he is an
immigrant. The remittances sending home attract non-migrants at home. Syed
Ali explained this with different examples, marriage between a male laborer in
the Gulf with female doctors and a professional in Hyderabad.

The Context
Rapid population growth and low living standards in poorer countries also
encourage international migration to developed countries (Salt, 1992: 1077).
Though the standard of living is comparably better for these groups, the
prestige and social status through foreign employment motivated them for
migration. Besides the historically deprived reasons such as gender, caste, etc.,
it is also identified that migration has an impact on migrants and their future.

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Based on the review of literature, it is recognized that the Culture of migration

has its influence on foreign employment. In the whole process of migration for
livelihoods, apart from the family members, children constitute the most
vulnerable segment with reduced chances for finding a better future. The
prospects to acquire basic education becomes a challenging task. Further, the
literature also reveals that there is a significant need to understand the
educational challenges of professionals of international migrants because this
particular issue has not been adequately highlighted in employment, whereas
issues related to migration alone received considerable attention.
How Culture of migration has motivated may professionals to migrate to a
foreign nation? Caste and Kinship relations play a vital role in the process of
migration, due to this culture there a large number of non-migrant who are
effected morally and mentally where they could not migrate to a foreign
nation. "Brain-Gain" is also leading to "Brain-Drain", a large number of
students who migrated to the foreign nationals are willing to get a job and
settle in the foreign destination. Aging is also a major issue in this scenario,
aged parents are losing psychological and moral support where there are kept
away with their children.
The paper will attempt to fill the knowledge gap, in terms of understanding
educational facilities and challenges faced by international migrants from the
destination view in the global sector with a case study based research in
Andhra and Telangana. Further, the paper will also attempt to assess the socio-
economic and cultural dimensions of international migrants and their
participation levels in various aspects related to foreign education and
employment.

Conclusion
This paper discussed several factors that have resulted in the migration of
Indians to a foreign nation. Telugus have been an integral part of Indian
emigration in various forms at different points of history. Caste is an important
and even essential part of social machinery, as are morality and law, part of
the complex system by which human beings are enabled to live together in an
orderly arrangement of social relations. In this chapter, we have also discussed
the background of migration from Andhra Pradesh internationally. Andhra
Pradesh has long migration history since pre-colonial time and it continued to

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date, but the pattern of migration changed from time to time. A large number
of skilled professionals migrate to the developed countries and unskilled
persons migrate to the Gulf region in the present situation.

Social networks play a vital role in the migration of professionals to a foreign

nation. A large number of caste organizations functioning in host countries to
strengthen the community bondage among the migrants, there are few
organizations in host nations (USA) where caste plays a vital role in their
activities, Example: ATA and TANA, Reddy community mostly represents
ATA and Kamma community represents TANA.

This paper examines the socio-economic conditions of migrants in the two

Telugu speaking states of India. Apart from economical issues study area
witnessed a larger socio-psychological impact on families "left behind". NRI
marriage is a common practice in two Telugu states and a large number of
brides faced dowry harassment, divorced and there are few suicides in the host
country by the brides (Married women). The study observed macro and micro
levels of the socio-economic factors and the process of migration. Caste,
region, culture, social networks, family, marriage, and gender played a crucial
role in the whole process of migration. It is observed, the social cost of
migration is a crucial player in the whole understanding.

Acknowledgment
I would like to thank ICSSR (Indian Council of Social Science Research) New
Delhi, for their generous funding in the form of Post Doctoral Fellowship. I
thank all faculty members of ICSSR including the academic section for their
continuous support. I also thank the Department of Sociology, University of
Hyderabad.

REFERENCES

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Jain, P.C., and Oommen, Ginu Zacharia. 2016. South Asian Migration to Gulf
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Endnotes
[1] Dr. K Trilok Chandan Goud, ICSSR Post Doctoral Fellow, Department of
Sociology, University of Hyderabad.
[2] Dominant Caste- A Caste to be dominant, it should own a sizable amount of the
arable land locally available, have the strength of numbers and occupy a
high place in the local hierarchy- M N Srinivas
[3] Brain Drain: Emigration of trained and talented individuals from the country of
origin to another country resulting in a depletion of skills resources in the
former (IOM), https://www.iom.int/key-migration-terms. Accessed on 01
June 2017.
[4] Brain Drain: the exodus of talent and skill, India’s cream highly skilled
professionals to the developed countries comprising doctors, engineers,
scientists, teachers, architects, and entrepreneurs. The skilled migration to
the developed countries picked up in the post-mid-1960s and became more
prominent with the more recent migration of the IT workers (Khadria,
2006).

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[5] http://www.iom.int/countries/india. Accessed on 01 June 2017

[6] https://cis.org/Report/Almost-Half-Speak-Foreign-Language-Americas-Largest-
Cities
[7] Dominant Caste- A Caste to be dominant, it should own a sizable amount of the
arable land locally available, have the strength of numbers and occupy a
high place in the local hierarchy- M N Srinivas
[8] [9] Ravenstain. E.G, The Laws of Migration, Journal of the Statistical Society of
London, Vol.48, No. 2 (June.1885).
[10] Lee. E.S, A Theory of Migration, pp.282-97 56 J. A. Jackson (Ed), Migration
(London 1969).

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