Punjabi Immigrant Mobility In the United States

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xvi

   PDF

2. Introduction: Arriving, Being, and Becoming

   • Diditi Mitra

   Pages 1-28

3. Negotiating the State: Hoping to Belong

   • Diditi Mitra

   Pages 29-56

4. Looking for Work: Punjabi Choices and Punjabi Options

   • Diditi Mitra

   Pages 57-87

5. Experiencing America: On the Wheels of Race and Class

   • Diditi Mitra

   Pages 89-137

6. Fighting Back: Managing Subordination, Becoming Americans

   • Diditi Mitra

   Pages 139-163

7. Immigrant Punjabis: Living the “American Dream”?

   • Diditi Mitra

   Pages 165-189

8. Back Matter

   Pages 191-208

   PDF

How did so many Punjabi immigrants come to find themselves behind the wheels of so many New York City taxi cabs, and what do their stories have to teach us about how immigrants must navigate life in a new society? Diditi Mitra analyzes how race and class influence settlement patterns in the United States, based on her extensive interviews with 59 Punjabi taxi drivers, organizers of the New York Taxi Workers Alliance, laywers who represent drivers in taxi courts, owners of taxi fleets, and an official of the New York Taxi and Limousine Commission. What emerges is an unprecedented exploration into how society shapes the 'choices' made by immigrants as they adapt to America.

• mobility
• Nation
• race
• state

"Punjabi Immigrant Mobility in the United States is a revealing and intricate contribution to the literature on Punjabi immigrants in contemporary America. Diditi Mitra's research is particularly useful to scholars and students seeking to understand how racial marginalization and class determines the formation of identity for new migrants to the Global North." - Immanuel Ness, author, Guest Workers and Resistance to US Corporate Despotism, professor of Political Science, Brooklyn College, City University of New York

"Diditi Mitra provides nuanced insights on the role of race and class in the settlement process and experiences of Punjabi immigrants in the US, particularly of Punjabi taxi drivers in New York City. Woven through with engrossing narratives and thoughtful analysis, this volume makes an important contribution to the fields of migration studies, labor studies and Asian American studies." - Margaret Abraham, professor of Sociology, Hofstra University

"Taking the case of ever-visible yet under-studied Punjabi taxi drivers in New York City as her starting point, Diditi Mitra explores the ties between social class, race, and immigration. Her perspective is multidimensional and heuristically solid - I am particularly impressed by her attention to the dialectic between the socially constructed hierarchies these immigrant workers bring with them and the racialized cast to the narrative given by their new locale. Mitra's book will be of great interest to not only the students and scholars of race and social structure, but also to those of economics, demography, political science, and yes, even of New York City itself!" - Salman Akhtar, MD, professor of Psychiatry, Jefferson Medical College, Philadelphia, author of Immigration and Identity and Immigration and Acculturation

DIDITI MITRA PhD is Assistant Professor at the Department of Sociology/Anthropology at Brookdale Community College, USA.

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