Dr. Amrita Datta is a Marie Curie Fellow at the Department of Sociology, University of Siegen. She has earned a Doctoral degree in Sociology from Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi. Earlier, she moderated the web-talk series titled “Corona Conversations: Mobility in a (post)COVID-19 Future”, supported by the DAAD and hosted by the GSSC, University of Cologne. Her research focus includes Indian migrants in Germany with reference to transnational practices, gender and post-COVID-19 shifts in the diaspora. Presently, she is working on her monograph on the experiences of social exclusion and inclusion for the Indian high-skilled migrants in Germany. Most of her publications are based on her doctoral and postdoctoral research experiences on the Indian communities in Germany.

High-skilled Migration, Indo-German Migration, Transnational Labour Migration, Covid-Mobility Interface, Gender and Migration, Future of Migration, Diaspora, Mobility, Globalization, Ethnography, Practice Theory, Qualitative Research Methods

• 2017- present   Opinion pieces on media and politics in India: countercurrents.org and NewsClick
• 2021   Datta, A., Can Blue Collar Migrants Survive City Lives Amidst Covid-19?: A Conversation with Nina Glick Schiller, Transcience: A Journal of Global Studies, Vol. 12, Issue 1, 2021
• 2021 (accepted)  Basu, A. and Datta, A., What is Development? Locating the Indigenous communities in India, Asian Journal of Social Theory, Vol 1. Issue 2
• 2021 (Under review) Datta, A., Indo-German Transnationalism: Between Place-making and ‘Homing’ (tentative), Palgrave Macmillan, London 
• 2020     Datta, A., Does Covid-19 Facilitate New Migration: Exploring a Fast-expanding Indian Diaspora in Germany, Boasblog/Witnessing Corona, doi: https://boasblogs.org/witnessingcorona/does-covid-19-facilitate-new-migration/
• 2019     Datta, A., Undervalued Dissent: Informal Workers’ Politics in India (by Manjusha Nair) in International Sociology, Volume: 34 issue: 2, pp. 175-178 
• 2017     Datta, A., Mediascape and Identity Reproduction and Sustenance: A Case of Indian Guest-workers in Germany, Journal of Media Critique, Vol 3, Issue 12, pp. 213-225 
• 2016     Datta, A., Ethnoscape-Financescape Interface: Work Space Experiences for Indian Guest-Workers in Germany, Transcience: A Journal of Global Studies, Vol.6, Issue 1, March, pp. 51-68 
• 2016     Soyler, T., Basu, A., Datta, A., Hindistan'dan tanıdık bir hikâye, Birikim Dergisi, Vol. 10, pp. 106-114
• 2014     Datta, A., The Left Debacle in Lok Sabha 2014: A Critical Overview, Mainstream Weekly, Vol. LII, No.25, pp. 51-57
• 2014     Datta, A., ‘Adda’ as the Locale of Bengali Public Sphere: From Coffee House to Barista, West Bengal Sociological Review, Volume III, pp. 17-25 

Indian High-skilled migrants in Germany: Transnational Practices and Prospects (Funded by: Marie Sklodowska-Curie Actions, Duration: 2021-2023)

Project Information

The project focuses on the transnational practices, motivations of immigration, and trends and prospects of the Indian immigrants in Germany including the latest entrants - Blue Card holders and Indian students in German universities. With the Covid-19 as the special lens, the project proposes to argue that the fast expanding Indian diaspora in Germany impacts the German social life at large and vice versa. Consequently, the project aims at responding to the following questions:

1. What are the motivations of migration for Indians in Germany?
2. What are the transnational practices of the Indian migrants in Germany?
3. What are the networks or pathways explored by Indian women migrants in Germany for transnational practices? What kind of practices emerge from those networks?
4. What are the short and long term impacts of the Covid-19 on the growing Indian community in Germany?