Indian nurses in the Gulf: two generations of female migration

Communication, appel à communication, sélection par comité scientifique internationalWhen in the middle of the seventies, Indian nurses started to be hired for newly built hospitals in the Gulf, it was an unexpected opportunity for the most adventurous of them to ensure unexpected good wages. One generation later, thousands of young girls, predominantly Christians from Kerala, fill up the nursing schools all over India with the intention of migrating after graduation. Hence the nursing diploma is obviously considered as a passport opening the world not only to the nurse herself, but also to her relatives. Families encourage this female migration since it is very consciously regarded as a privileged opportunity to increase social mobility.<br />The migration opportunity has consequently changed the status of nurses, which used to be rather low in India. It has also been a chance for the young nurses to set up life strategies, based on the experience of the older migrants. Migration to the Gulf is now considered as an intermediate step before further migration to the West, the new open line. For the young nurses, migration doesn't only mean a better status and a better economical situation, it is moreover a way to get more autonomy or agency, as women, than they can get in their own country