GOA-Migration

[Frederick Noronha <fred@bom2.vsnl.net.in>]

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: 

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Q: You've done considerable research on Goan migration. Where all 
has this taken you, and where are you headed?
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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. 

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Q: You did work on the position of women in Goa too...
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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.

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Q: What next, then?
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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. 
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Q: There are no figures or statistics about Goan migrants 
worldwide. What would be your guess?
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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.

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Q: How old would you rate Goan emigration to be?
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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....

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Q: You've written on how Goan mothers had sacrificed to ensure 
their children had a good education....
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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.
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Q: Increasingly, overseas Goans seem to be moving into highly 
skilled professions? Isn't that a new trend?
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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.

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Q: Do you perceive any trends in changing migration?
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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.

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Q: What sparked off such a huge migration in Goa's case?
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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.

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Q: Also the widening gap between education and jobs available in 
Goa?
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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.