Vulnerable Masculinities? Gender Identity Construction among Young Undocumented Sikh Migrants in Paris

• Main Author: Christine Moliner
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: MDPI AG 2020-12-01
• Series: Religions
• Subjects: Sikhs in France; undocumented migration; masculinity; construction sector; fitness; philanthropy
• Online Access: https://www.mdpi.com/2077-1444/11/12/680

This paper discusses the impact of immigration policies on the ways young undocumented Sikh migrants in Paris negotiate their masculinity. The current criminalization of labor migration from the global South in Europe is disrupting long established patterns of upward mobility through international migration, that entailed remitting money home, getting married and reuniting with one’s family in the host country and moving up the socio-professional ladder from low-paid jobs to self employment. Instead, the life of an increasing number of Sikh migrants in France and elsewhere is marked by irregular status and socio-economic vulnerability. In this context, undocumented Sikh migrants try to assert their gender identity in multiple ways, characterized by homosociality, the importance of manual labor, specific forms of male sociability marked by the cultivation of their body, while remaining firmly grounded in a Sikh/Panjabi religious universe through <i>seva</i> (voluntary service) and gurdwara attendance.