International Migration, Goan Diaspora andthe Caste Dynamics in Goa: A StructurationApproach

The Goan Diaspora emerges out international migration, which is a three hundred year old phenomenon. The birth of the Goan Diaspora is centered around the socio-economic changes brought about in ‘Goa’ due to the process of Portuguese Colonization for 451 years. The colonization of Goa contributed to the disruption of the ganvkari and caste system. However, the upper caste continued with their hegemony for the entire period of Portuguese rule. In this paper a humble attempt is being made to present the role of Goan Diaspora in the upward social mobility of the left-behind family members. This is made possible due to the socio-economic linkages of the Goan diaspora with the sending society. We would like to present the upward social mobility as a dialectic process that contributes to the structuration of the caste structured society in to a class structured one, thereby leading to a new structure of the village. The paper findings are based on interviews with twenty four respondents and participant observation undertaken for a period of thirty months in three villages i.e Assolna, Velim and Cuncolim in Goa. The entire process of change from caste based society to a class based society is showcased through the emergence of ‘dominant class’. The ‘Dominant class’ which comprises of the ‘diasporic’ households, influences the rest of the Christian households with reference to the seven hallmarks, it is these seven hallmarks that contribute to the motivation to migrate, thereby resulting in a culture of migration in AVC. The culture of migration is a duality centered around the agency and agents thereby resulting in the transformation of caste structure to class structure. The analytical framework is based on Anthony Gidden’s Structuration theory.