Resilience of deaf Indian migrant women

1. Sanchayeeta Iyer, PhD candidate
RESILIENCE OF DEAF
INDIAN MIGRANT WOMEN

2. INTRODUCTION
• My PhD study emerged under MobileDeaf’s
overarching theme – deaf people on the move across
international borders (temporary and permanent)
• My study focuses on how deaf migrant Indian women
navigate through a new life in the new city – new
environment, new people, new language and new
system (freedom and constraints)
• Aim of this presentation is to share selected findings to
celebrate the resilience of these women

3. • London as a superdiverse city
• Under the political climates of Brexit
and hostile environment
• History of the UK – India relations
from the colonization era
(Commonwealth, post war etc)
• Third of the large Indian community in
the UK lives in London (Harrow
Brent)
• Research started during the COVID
pandemic
CONTEXT OF THE STUDY

4. METHODOLOGY
Visual
approach:
self portrait,
photos,
video diary, etc
Online
observation
(e.g. Facebook)
In depth
one-to-one
interviews
(2/3 times)
Informal chats
(ongoing)
Fieldnotes

5. PARTICIPANT
BACKGROUNDS
• All moved to London on spouse visas
• 3 got married in their early 30s (arrived in the UK 2014, 2018); 2 got
married in their early 20s (live in the UK for nearly 20 years)
• All except one are from middle class backgrounds ('middle class' not
a fixed category)
• All their husbands are deaf British citizens (three born in the UK, two
from overseas)
• Four from Mumbai and one from Kolkata
• Four have visited places outside of India before coming to the UK

6. EXPERIENCES OF
BELONGING
• Transition into a new (gendered) household and take up a new
role as a daughter in-law and wife (later a mother) - own
desire/dreams
• Interact with British deaf communities - dealing with negative
attitudes and adapt to different social rhythms and schedules.
• Process of participating in the labour market – experience
constraints e.g. course structure, interview process
• Their identities/subjectivities - what it means to be a deaf, Indian
and gendered person in the UK

7. CASE STUDY: VANDANA
• Experienced criticism from the deaf community – limited
interaction with the community
• Long working hours for 10 years - worked through two
pregnancies and had a short maternity leave – endurance and
acquired sense of personhood.
• Had to quit to become a full-time housewife - less time to interact
with deaf friends and became depressed. However…
• Interactions with parents of her sons’ classmates – given her
confidence, recognition and status.
• She views herself as a strong woman who “fight against all odds”

8. • The impact of the pandemic on the process of making home in
the city
• Delay in forming relationships with the deaf community and
entering the labour market – delay in inculcating a sense of
belonging in the city
• Immobile/being stuck in the city
• Timed out of everyday life
• Time to interact with people back home/s
• Tensions with husband’s family
COVID PANDEMIC

9. COVID PANDEMIC

10. CONCLUSION
• Looking through these women’s narratives and the nuances of
their gendered experiences one can see how institutions and
structures shape people’s everyday practices and future
aspirations.
• The acts of agency by migrants show how they regain control of
their experience and their journey.
• Migration is a gendered process and these women have shared
narratives of their resilence and courage as they proceed in their
life course trajectories in London.