Ethnicity across Borders: Mobilization against Dalit Discrimination in the US

• In Event: Identity and Discrimination in South Asian Politics

Abstract

Why and how do social identities tied to a specific context retain political salience in vastly dissimilar political environments? Extant literature on identity politics emphasizes the pivotal role of state institutions and government policies in determining the range of social identities, including those of migrants, that are available for group-based politics within a specific context. Hence, one would expect identities tied to the caste hierarchy – most commonly associated with South Asia – to have limited political salience in a foreign institutional context such as the United States (US). In recent years, however, members of the South Asian diaspora have mobilized the Dalit identity – the lowest stratum of the caste hierarchy – to secure explicit legal protections against caste-based discrimination in the US. I argue that experiences of everyday discrimination, directed towards Dalits by fellow members of the South Asian diaspora, politicize this otherwise invisible migrant identity and drive vulnerable migrants to develop group consciousness. Drawing on data from in-depth interviews with members of the South Asian diaspora and discourse analysis of media coverage of Dalit rights activism in the US, I present a novel account of how invisibility and discrimination can enable social identities to retain political salience in notably dissimilar political environments.

Author

• Anum Syed, George Washington University