Migrant capital: The role of internal migrants in mediating agrarian-industrial transformation in Northern India

• Low and high-skilled migrants contribute to local communities undergoing structural transition. • Landowning and dominant communities benefit through the rental economy catering to migrants. • Services such as contracting, transport and catering for factories provide lucrative business opportunities for locals, besides retaining social dominance. • Landless locals find fewer benefits as they can neither find industrial jobs nor start businesses. • The pre-existing inequalities among locals are largely reproduced during structural transition. Rural-urban migration is a fundamental part of the structural transformation of economies. However, in labour-abundant economies such as India, where local and internal migrant labour are both available, firms prefer to hire cheaper migrant labour. What is the dynamic between the locals and migrants that emerges in this case? This paper aims to answer this question by analysing the role played by migrants in mediating the transition from the agrarian to the industrial. Using qualitative data and focussing on the case of Noida and Greater Noida in the vicinity of the Delhi National Capital Region, this paper conceptualises contributions of migrants to local communities as “migrant capital” generated by their role as (a) tenants that sustain a local rentier economy benefitting the locals; (b) consumers who invigorate the local market of service provision. These economic opportunities thrive on the presence of a large migrant population with specific needs. Existing research has examined the contributions of migrants to their native communities– however, the crucial role of migrants in sustaining the rural to urban and agrarian to industrial transformation in receiving communities is overlooked.