THE USES OF MONEY AMONG MIGRANT WORKERS : A SOCIOLOGICAL SYNTHESIS OF MONEY AND MIGRATION

Abstract

This study attempts to examine the sociological link between money and migration among a group of Indian migrant workers. It is proposed that understanding how the uses of money in the lives of these migrant workers both shape their social relations and are in turn shaped by them will help us to realize the extent of the "embeddedness" of the economy in interpersonal relationships. The migrant does not just come and earn the money and go home. Along the way, money is used by him and others to establish, maintain, reinforce, control or even disrupt interpersonal relationships. Are we ourselves guilty of controlling and disrupting? In exploring the migrant worker's relations with those he interacts with, we can also begin to ask ourselves to what extent we have let money "impersonalised" our own interpersonal relationships.