The Legible Invisibility of Caste: Reading caste through the experiences of Indian migrant women in Germany

A Migration, Im/mobility and Place seminar

In this Mobility, Im/mobility and Place seminar, Sanchali Sarkar will discuss her research into the impact of caste on Indian women in Germany, investigating how it affects their mobility, jobs and social belonging.

PhD student
Sanchali Sarkar
Date
Tuesday 22 Sep 2026, 12:00 - 13:00
Type
Seminar
Spoken Language
English
Room
Room 1.31
Location
International Institute of Social Studies
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For Indian women in Germany, caste intersects with gender, class and the status of migration, and it affects access to mobility, jobs, and even everyday social belonging. 

Based on qualitative analysis of interviews of Indian women across professional and academic sectors in Germany, Sarkar emphasizes how caste operates as a transnational structure of inequality that also engages with global regimes of labour, citizenship and recognition. 

She addresses the ‘epistemic injustice’ (Guru & Sarukkai, 2012) in the case of 'lower' caste Indian migrant women, where gender intersects with caste resulting in several forms of marginalization. She highlights that caste is not a geographically bounded phenomenon but a transnational system of inequality requiring attention beyond its place of origin within the context of mobility and migration.

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