On 2 June 2011 04:54, Roland Francis <[email protected]> wrote: > You ask why such a study would be needed especially when Sheila > Mascarenhas-Keyes ("our Sheila" to you) has completed a similar study. You > then link a brief description of Sheila and her study. This is where there > is definite foot-in-the-mouth. Anyone bothering with the link would discover > that "our Sheila" wrote about entrepreneurship and that her mandate was to > study British Indians and British Chinese entrepreneurs and discover ways of > reducing productivity gaps between the UK and USA, France and Germany.
It should be Dr. *Stella* Mascarenhas-Keyes. From a 1999 interview below. Thanks to Goacom.com for archiving it for me: http://www.goacom.com/news/news99/mar/msg00003.html GOANS HAVE MIGRATED, ON A LARGE SCALE, FOR OVER THE PAST 100 YEARS London-based Stella Mascarenhas-Keyes was born in Kenya, and like many Goan expatriates, came back to discover her roots. Over the years, she's undertaken much research on migration out of Goa. Her work would allow her to claim the position of being among the foremost researchers on Goan out-migration. During a recent visit to her home region, she spoke to FREDERICK NORONHA, explaining the significance her past work and her future plans. Excerpts: ----------------------------------------------------------------- Q: You've done considerable research on Goan migration. Where all has this taken you, and where are you headed? ----------------------------------------------------------------- Since 1977, I've been looking at the Goan community in different landscapes. For instance, I initially started off looking at Goans in London. That was quite a minimal, sociological study. Then, moving on, I came to Goa to study international migration from Goa. I worked in one particular village for an inter- generational study over why people from Goa went overseas over the last century. I stayed in the village as a participant. In the course of that, I found something else. A majority of those who went out overseas were Catholics, though some Hindus did go to elsewhere in India. At the same time, a large number of in-migrants from other parts of Goa were coming into the areas vacated (by out-migrants) to undertake the jobs. So there was a transformation going on. ----------------------------------------------------------------- Q: You did work on the position of women in Goa too... ----------------------------------------------------------------- Yes. Subsequently, I wrote a couple of papers analysing the position of women and how their identity had changed over time. Then, I was involved in writing up the PhD, drawing on the almost 20 months study done in Goa. Both anthropological and historical sources. Some work in the archives in Lisbon and interviewing some families, besides some minimal work in Australia and Canada. After the PhD, I was involved in other jobs and had four children. But in 1992, I came to Goa for about six weeks, and was particularly concerned to see what was the impacts of the Gulf War on Goan migration, and on those who had returned. ----------------------------------------------------------------- Q: What next, then? ----------------------------------------------------------------- Now, I've just received a scholarship from the Gulbenkian Foundation, to bring all these studies together into one book. What I'm going to do is... looking at linkages between Goa and the different locales in which Goans are spread. Both historically and at the moment. And links between communities in different areas. Also, the issue of the Goan identity. What does it mean in a community that is dispersed in space, but still has a memory of its ancestry. ----------------------------------------------------------------- Q: There are no figures or statistics about Goan migrants worldwide. What would be your guess? ----------------------------------------------------------------- A: Yes. It's very difficult to say. The problem is that Goans are not a category in any official statistics (abroad). Apart from East Africa until the end of colonial rule. I'd not like to hazard a guess. In London, when I did the study over two decades ago, I know there were something like 10,000. It may have increased since. Or decreased. ----------------------------------------------------------------- Q: How old would you rate Goan emigration to be? ----------------------------------------------------------------- Large scale migration abroad -- there's always been periodic and sporadic migration -- has really been over the last 100 years. In terms of scale, both in terms of numbers and remittances and socio-economic impact (this has had a big impact). One of the things that is not evident elsewhere is the role of women in migration, as in Goa.... ----------------------------------------------------------------- Q: You've written on how Goan mothers had sacrificed to ensure their children had a good education.... ----------------------------------------------------------------- I think the role of women , in general, in studies about migration, have been underplayed. But in Goan migration, they've played a significant role. There's always been a small independent migration of women, i.e. as individual earners. But, increasingly, you find women went to places like Africa, as associational migrations. They went with their husbands. Some did get jobs. But on the whole their job was to reproduce the next generation of migrants. Not just biologically, but culturally. It was anticipated that their children would join migratory strands. This required a change in motherhood patterns. That required a reinterpretation of motherhood, from being mainly a nurturing person, concerned with child-welfare she also had to see to the intellectual, educational development of children. So, there was a greater emphasis on education. On language, as a method of upward mobility. Ensuring as much as possible, the use of a Western language in the home -- English or Portuguese. The use of certain foodstuffs or tonics to ensure the development of brain, rather than brawn. Once Goan women were in settler communities, they've actually taken up independent employment. Before marriage, or after, as far as was compatible with bringing up children. The vehicle for that has been education. But also the availability of clerical and secretary jobs all over the British colonial empire. Subsequently, Goan migrant women in the West have gone into higher education in large numbers. ----------------------------------------------------------------- Q: Increasingly, overseas Goans seem to be moving into highly skilled professions? Isn't that a new trend? ----------------------------------------------------------------- There was always an incipient trend towards the professionalisation of the Goan community. (What made a difference) I think it's the availability of education. Many migrants go overseas and invest in land. In the Goan case, there's less investment in land. But there's more of the investment of remittances into the education of children. This helped emigrants, over generations, take to professional jobs in greater numbers. ----------------------------------------------------------------- Q: Do you perceive any trends in changing migration? ----------------------------------------------------------------- Goans will (continue to) want to migrate. Partly, because children being educated, they feel they don't have the same economic opportunities for professional development. More so when compared to the West. One trend I see is among the youth of Goa who show a greater interest in Goa itself. They're concerned about inappropriate tourism, or environmental hazards. It might just be the enthusiasm of a few spirited individuals, which could die off. Or it might become much stronger, and an incipient trend towards a greater renaissance among the younger generation of Goans. ----------------------------------------------------------------- Q: What sparked off such a huge migration in Goa's case? ----------------------------------------------------------------- A number of factors. Socio-economic factors were deteriorating for Goans in the (late) Portuguese period. Most Goans suffered from things like land taxation, raising of funds for the expeditions of the Portuguese elsewhere (both religious and military), the appropriation of land from the village communities, allowing outsider control of village land, changes in the usufruct rights of lands. This all removed people from their earlier source of livelihood. ----------------------------------------------------------------- Q: Also the widening gap between education and jobs available in Goa? ----------------------------------------------------------------- Of course. As people migrated and invested in education, the gap between expectations and reality was aggravated. Goans don't migrate only for economic reasons. Their perception over economic conditions have changed, and there are different ideas about what is an adequate lifestyle, an appropriate salary, or suitable job conditions. It's is relative depravation, not that you can't feed yourself and survive. Expatriates might also put on a particular show when they're back, which might not co-relate with their reality abroad. Frederick Noronha :: +91-9822122436 :: +91-832-2409490
