"This paper discusses the case of Indian nurses who take up their profession as part of a family strategy, where planning for education and migration are intrinsic to the whole process. In effect, they migrate in a step-by-step phased manner: first within Indian states, mainly to metropolises, then to countries in the Persian Gulf, and further towards the West. It is not a simple, linear course of migration for them nor is it unique in any extraordinary way: yet their stories offer a terrain that is hitherto unexplored. The processes of migration start in the family milieu and involve considerations of job opportunities and information networks, working through precarious work contracts and unreliable middlemen. Meanwhile, their plans often include the life stages of marriage and motherhood. But anyhow, becoming a nurse in India today is in effect preparing to leave one’s homeland, if not forever, at least for long periods of time. The question of constant mobility and negotiation of boundaries within family and the outside world are, therefore, at the heart of the matter.
