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Dams have had significant impact on the hinterlands of the regions in which they are built. Since the 1980s, there has been a growing body of empirical literature that has critiqued the fallout of dams on populations residing in the catchment areas and face uncertain futures due to inadequate or lack of rehabilitation policies that do not consider the long-term impact of the displacement on the economic, social and political lives of the affected population. Due to such encompassing effects, dams have long been the points of critique for environmentalists and social activists in the countries of the South. In south Asia, the Narmada dam controversy raised questions of displacement and water politics in the decade of the 1990s specifically but raised larger questions on the nature of adivasi relations with the Indian state, and the nature of development and paradigms of progress in the region. However, there are few studies in the field of anthropology or displacement studies that have examined the relationship between development projects and how these are remembered among those adversely affected by them. Based on fieldwork over 8 months, this thesis seeks to explore the different ways in which displacement due to the Ukai dam in the south Gujarat region of India is remembered by a group of 3 adivasi villages. It focuses specifically on the perception of the displaced adivasis and contexts and creation of the varying memories of displacement across social status, gender and generations in these three villages. In remembering the processes of disempowerment among displaced groups, the different groups of adivasis articulate the hunger and marginalisation that pervades their everyday lives. This thesis attempts to look at this fibre of social suffering and how this is experienced and lived out by the displaced villagers 30 years after the event of being displaced due to the dam. Through the focus on remembering displacement, the thesis attempts to examine the process through which pre-existing hierarchies are strengthened in the postdisplacement period and the disempowerment experienced by some of those already living on the margins in the pre-dam socio-economic and political structures. By focusing on the different memories and experiences of disempowerment from a long-term perspective, the thesis calls into question the singularity of an `impoverished community' and the role of development projects in exacerbating pre-existing hierarchies rather than transforming them.

Au Cameroun, le développement rapide et exponentiel des TIC a suscité un énorme espoir au sein de la population notamment auprès des couches dites « vulnérables ». Il s’agit de femmes camerounaises et de jeunes qui voient en ces technologies de l’information et de la communication (TIC), un moyen d’émigrer en Europe et en France en particulier. La « cybermigration maritale » est une parfaite illustration de la manière dont les Camerounaises, grâce aux TIC, construisent des « cyberstratégies migratoires » .« Chercher et trouver son blanc » sur la toile est devenu tellement banal que la cybermigration maritale semble être un véritable problème de société dans ce pays d’Afrique centrale. Ainsi, cette thèse s’attache à analyser dans la perspective socio-anthropologique ce phénomène qui touche certaines camerounaises de Yaoundé et du Nord-Pas-de-Calais. L’approche empirique faite d’entretiens semi-directifs et de récits de vie répond à quatre principales questions, à savoir :Qui est cybermigrante ? Comment parvient-elle à émigrer ? Pourquoi émigre-t-elle ? Et quelles sont les technologies modernes de l’information et de la communication qu’utilise-t-elle pour émigrer ? Dans une deuxième approche, cette thèse s’attache à rendre compte de la « cybermigration maritale », telle qu’elle est racontée par les femmes camerounaises du Nord-Pas-de-Calais. Ainsi, la « cybermigration maritale » est donc abordée sous deux angles à savoir : la cybermigration maritale « vue du dehors » avec les potentielles cybermigrantes de Yaoundé et la cybermigration « vue du dedans » avec les cybermigrantes du Nord-Pas-de-Calais. / In the Cameroon the rapid and exponential development of ICT has aroused great hope amongst the population especially where the most vulnerable categories are concerned, in particular young people and women who see this information and communication technology as a means to emigrate. Cybermigration is a perfect illustration of the way in which Cameroonians build migratory "cyberstrategies" thanks to ITC. "To look for and find and white man" on the net has become so commonplace that marital cybermigration seems to be a real social problem in this central African country. Thus, this thesis strives to analyse by means of a socio-anthropological perspective this phenomenon which concerns a certain number of Cameroonians from Yaoundé and the Nord-Pas-de-Calais. The empirical approach consisting of semi-direct interviews and life stories answers four main questions which are: Who is a cybermigrant ? How does she manage to emigrate? Why does she emigrate? Which modern information and communication technologies does she use in order to emigrate? In second part, this thesis tries to make sense and describe the marital cybermigration as it is told of by Cameroonian women of the Nord-Pas-de-Calais. Marital cybermigration is therefore dealt with from two points of view wich are : cybermigration seen from the outside with potential cybermigrant women and cybermigration seen from wikim with cameroonien cybermigrants from the Nord-Pas-de-Calais area.

This PhD dissertation is concerned with highly skilled new Chinese migrants (HSNCMs) in the UK and their transnational (or trans-boundary) careers and business practice between China and Britain. The research subjects are those HSNCMs who have established careers and business connections between China and the UK since 1990. This research pays special attention to relationships between the transnational practice of HSNCMs, brain circulation (or their knowledge exchange with China) and China’s globalisation. Three main topics are discussed in this dissertation: First, it examines the states’ engagement which has a direct impact on transnational mobility of HSNCMs in the UK. Second, it analyzes transnational network building of OCP associations (professional associations of HSNCMs) linking between HSNCMs and China. Third, it discusses individual transnational career and business activities and identity construction of HSNCMs in order to understand China’s brain circulation in the UK context. The main theoretical object of this paper is to combine brain circulation studies with the theoretical framework of transnational migration studies. The findings of this research show that states’ policy engagement (especially China’s initiatives) is very powerful. Through transnational network building of OCP associations, HSNCMs integrate their personal development into the national projects of Mainland China. For individual HSNCMs, their transnational practice is diverse in terms of their different social backgrounds. For most HSNCMs with trans-boundary careers and business practice, their transnational identities are combined with Chinese consciousness. They have set up strategies to develop their careers and business between the sending country and receiving country. The multiple interactions between HSNCMs and China, therefore, have produced a significant impact on the brain circulation of HSNCMs and the globalisation of China.

This thesis examines the lived experience of economic migration of young and degree level educated migrants from Poland to Britain. The main aim is to explore how the participants of economic migration within the borders of the European Union experience migrating. The special feature of this migration is the fact that they leave a postcommunist country and come to a country with a well established capitalist economy and long-standing democracy. The particular questions are: how these migrants construct their experience of migrating, are they faced with any problems while doing it, and if so - how do they resolve them? The data comes from twenty-two semi-structured interviews with migrants educated to degree level who were residents and worked in one of the regions of England at a professional level or below their qualifications (manual or simple clerical work). The research utilises the critical discourse analysis perspective; the data is approached with analysis focused on linguistic choices (lexical and grammatical) evident in the respondents’ statements. This kind of analysis enables observation and in-depth interpretation of the way experiences of migrating are constructed. The migrants’ narratives were full of discursive struggle while constructing their experience of migrating. Firstly, the interviewees made an effort to present their migration as rational. Secondly, they were trying to rationalise their financial needs to refute accusations of greed for money. Thirdly, the underemployed migrants justified their employment choices by distancing themselves from work below that which they were qualified for. Fourthly, the interviewees were making an attempt to withdraw from a multicultural community by constructing the negative Other. Exploring lived experience of living and working abroad reveals competitive discourses and ways of coping with ambivalence. Understanding these discursive practices requires knowledge of their beliefs and values that underpin the discourses available in the Polish postcommunist society. Overall, the narratives overflowed with dilemmas that showed this migration as more complicated on an individual level than the official discourse of free movement of people in the EU suggests. This thesis captures the migrants’ lived experience within one year after the EU enlargement; it reflects on the narratives being shaped when migrants were given the opportunity to introduce the new discourses on migration or re-think the old ones as a result of new macro-processes in the European Union. This research complements other studies exploring migrants’ voices in search of insight into what their experiences were and how they made sense out of them. However, with the methodology used, it focuses more on uncovering the struggle over arguments available to build their stories. It offers explanation to their discursive practices by analysing them against the discourses as being products of postcommunism. The study’s results may shed more light on recent processes within this group of migrants and also inform institutional policy and practice about problems affecting members of this group, reported in this thesis.