“This is our area and that is theirs”: Scripting the spatiality of migrant masculinity in Goa, India

Abstract

This chapter documents how migrant masculinity in Goa is spatialized through the performances of migrants in the spaces that allow or restrict these performances. By emphasizing the spatiality of masculinity in this chapter, the author tries to situate performances of masculinities within the intersecting discourses of migration and poverty. The performances of migrant masculinities are positioned within inclusionary, exclusionary and liminal spaces and are part of everyday lives and everyday geographies for the migrant men in Goa. For this study, inclusionary spaces are those that the migrants create for themselves through the space-making activities. Similarly, exclusionary spaces are those where migrants experience discrimination and exclusion from full participation in public life. Liminal spaces are more the metaphorical spaces where migrants find themselves “betwixt and between.” The key theme in this chapter is the role of space in scripting migrant masculinities.