Intermittent mobility as a livelihood strategy for landless rural people in Andhra Pradesh
Year of publication
2025
Authors
Salmi, Jelena
Abstract
This article analyses the multiple causes and temporalities of mobility between the Rayalaseema region of Andhra Pradesh and Mumbai’s Madh Island in India. For several decades, the fisheries of Madh Island have been the destination of migrant workers from the rain-shadow region of Rayalaseema. Development practitioners, researchers, and the media have generally addressed migration from Rayalaseema in the context of droughts. Problematizing narratives focused on exceptional weather events, I suggest that for landless lower-caste people, who constitute the majority of migrants, everyday life is characterized by stable instability related to climate, government policy, land ownership patterns, and the vagaries of informal work. Disrupting conventional binaries between forced/voluntary movement and temporary/permanent migration, I develop the notion of intermittent mobility to characterize how migrants creatively combine urban and rural opportunities in their efforts to live with multicausal stable instability and build a better future for their children. Intermittent mobility as a rhythm of life reflects not only migrants’ strategic intentionality but also their position within a field of unequal power relations; while generated by structural vulnerability, mobility can be an important source of intergenerational resilience.
Show moreOrganizations and authors
Publication type
Publication format
Article
Parent publication type
Journal
Article type
Original article
Audience
ScientificPeer-reviewed
Peer-ReviewedMINEDU's publication type classification code
A1 Journal article (refereed), original researchPublication channel information
Publisher
Volume
51
Issue
3
Pages
898-914
ISSN
Publication forum
Open access
Open access in the publisher’s service
No
Self-archived
Yes
Other information
Fields of science
Political science; Other humanities
Keywords
[object Object],[object Object],[object Object],[object Object]
Publication country
United Kingdom
Internationality of the publisher
International
Language
English
International co-publication
No
Co-publication with a company
No
DOI
10.1080/1369183x.2023.2295236
The publication is included in the Ministry of Education and Culture’s Publication data collection
Yes