Doctoral Dissertation Research: Understanding (Indian) Techno-mirgration: Experiences and Structural Conditions

本论文研究由美国国家科学基金会的科学、技术与社会项目和数学/物理科学与社会致同事信倡议下的MPS理事会支持，重点关注技术迁移。技术移民是一群受过技术教育的高技能人员的运动；这个项目着眼于印度和美国之间的技术移民。它将记录和分析技术移民的经验和看法，以及影响印度技术移民流动性和高度流动性能力的结构性条件。本研究的目的是了解：(a)技术科学劳动力的全球流动及其在不同物理和社会空间中的价值，以及(b)印度技术移民理解和评估自身流动性的方式。与印度技术移民（在美国和印度）的民族志接触将用于追踪他们的教育和职业轨迹，并了解技术移民的经验和结构维度之间的相互作用。对各种研讨会和会议的参与观察以及对文件的政策分析将支持民族志分析。本研究将借鉴科学技术研究和文化人类学领域的文献，并对其作出贡献。它将增加印度技术移民的经验记录，分析技术科学作为流动性和散居形成的推动者的作用，并将价值理论与当代全球化理论联系起来。本研究的分析结果可以为国家和全球有关高科技劳动力的移民政策提供潜在的信息。关注印度移民的主观经历也将表达他们的担忧。

This dissertation research, supported by the Science, Technology & Society program at NSF and the MPS directorate under the Math/Physical Sciences & Society Dear Colleague Letter initiative, focuses on technomigration. Technomigration is the movement of a group of technologically educated, highly skilled people; this project looks at technomigration between India and the United States. It will document and analyze the experiences and perceptions of technomigrants and the structural conditions that shape the mobility, and the ability to be highly mobile, for Indian technomigrants. The goals of this study are to understand: (a) global flows of technoscientific labor and how it is valued across diverse physical and social spaces, and (b) the ways in which Indian technomigrants understand and value their own mobility. Ethnographic engagement with Indian technomigrants (in the U.S. and in India) will be used to trace their educational and career trajectories, and to understand the interplay between the experiential and structural dimensions of technomigration. Participant observation at various seminars and conferences, and policy analysis of documents will support the ethnographic analysis. This study will draw on and contribute to literatures in the fields of Science and Technology Studies and Cultural Anthropology. It will add to the empirical record on Indian technomigration, analyze the role of technoscience as an enabler of mobility and diaspora-formation, and link theories of value to contemporary theories of globalization. The analysis resulting from this study can potentially inform national and global immigration policies with respect to high-tech labor. A focus on the subjective experiences of Indian immigrants will also give voice to their concerns.