Bhachu, Parminder . Movers and Makers: Uncertainty, Resilience and Migrant Creativity in Worlds in Flux. . Routledge, 2021. pp. 198
| Published date | 01 August 2023 |
| Author | Gökçe Sanul |
| Date | 01 August 2023 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/imig.13160 |
International Migration. 2023;61:361–362.
|
361
wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/imig
Received: 22 May 20 23
|
Accepted: 23 May 2023
DOI: 10 .1111/imig .13160
BOOK REVIEW
Bhachu, Parminder . Movers and Makers: Uncertainty, Resilience and
Migrant Creativity in Worlds in Flux. . Routledge, 2021. pp. 198
Gökçe Sanul
Faculty of Comm unication, Izmir U niversity of Econo mics, İzmir, Turkey
Professor in the Departmen t of Sociology at Clark Universit y and author of the books entit led as Twice Migrants
(1985), Dangerous Designs (2004), Parminder Bhachu's research offers a ground- breaking analysis of the cultural
and tec hnical creativ ity of i nternational mig rants that enables th em to ada pt in chall enging settin gs. In t his re-
spect, Bhachu's latest book Movers and Makers: Uncer tainty, Resilience and Migrant Creativ ity in Worlds of Flux is
a capti vating monogra ph that see ks to expl ore the ways in which migrants rem ain resilient in their n ew homes
across borders de spite uncertainties. Th rough a rich and in- depth ethnographic stud y combined with a number of
incisive theore tical insights; Bhach u remarkably refines t he relationship betwee n migration and creativit y.
In the introduc tory chapter, Bhachu's per sonal experiences of fer an intimate opening to e xplore the interplay
between cre ativity and migratio n. Born in Tanzania and having l ived in four different c ontinents (East Afri ca, UK,
Asia and the USA), Bhachu defines hers elf not only as a multiple migrant but als o as a maker, due to her professional
vocation as an academic, as well as her improvisational s kills in knowing how to use limi ted materials duri ng the
early st ages of settleme nt. It is precis ely these improvi sational skills t hat underpin one of the key notions of the
book: jugaad. Jugaa d, a Punjabi and Hindu word that means to use tractor diesel engines for running water pump s,
represents the flexible mindset and problem-solving skills of migrants. For Bhachu, jugaad signifies that the cre-
ativity of migrants stems not only from their o ccupations in creative industries but also from their inherited skills
for finding sol utions in new and challengi ng settings.
Bhachu unpacks the relationship between creativit y and migration through nine case studies presented in
distinct chapters, and in the concluding ch apter, she highlights the collaborative skills of migrant communities in
offering a n innovative approa ch to dealing wit h the anxieties and fears that s hape prevailing po litical discourse s
around immig ration. Throughou t the nine case st udies, Bhachu rel ies on the stories and experiences of migrants
whose professional domains include “technolo gy, art , archite cture and arch itectural art, theater, science and
music” (p. 14). The migrants featured in these case studies share a common multicultural heritage by having their
roots in North India, with a story of migration either to East Africa or the UK, United States or Canada. Highlighting
their multiple migrant expe riences, Bhachu acknowledge s the inherited “maker” sensibilities of these migrants and
argues that the y “have taken these creative sen sibilities in new directi ons to build twenty- first centur y machines,
buildings, technology, architec tural art and much more” (p. 14). Th ese creative sensib ilities are concept ualized in
Bhachu's wo rk through t wo interrelated notions, namely movement capital and maker capital. These interr elated
notions underlie Bhachu's in novative app roach to reconfigure international migration from the persp ective of
creative migrants.
Movement capital signif ies be ing rec epti ve to chan ge and dev elop ing ski lls to ad just in novel en viro nment s. In ot her
words, it indicate s a “sophisticated managem ent of minority status” (p. 9). This t rait, shared by all creative age nts and
their a ncestors who deal with disturbance and disequ ilibrium, rend ers resilience a “source code of this movement
© 2023 Internati onal Organizati on for Migration.
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