Forced, Reversed and Sustained: Governance and the Mobilities of Migrant Workers During the COVID-19 Pandemic in India

The article explores the multi-faceted phenomenon of forced migration, particularly in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, which triggered large-scale reverse migration among marginalised workers. Focusing on migrant workers from Odisha, the study applies the concept of liminality and employs a qualitative approach to examine the dialectics of social mobility. It highlights the ruptured experiences of these workers and the paradoxes of mobility during the crisis. The analysis reveals how the pandemic reshaped work structures, governance, family relations, gendered morality and community participation, redefining social mobility not simply as upward or downward movement, but as a process marked by ambivalence and transformation.