Research

My book project, Between Home and Host, advances a transnational framework for understanding immigrant political incorporation. I argue that immigrants’ enduring attachments to their home countries are not just background conditions of migrant life but constitutive features that shape how groups form, articulate grievances, and mobilize in the host context.

The project centers on South Asian immigrants in the United States who have mobilized the Dalit identity—the lowest stratum of the caste hierarchy—to advocate for explicit protections against caste-based discrimination. This case illustrates how divides internal to immigrant populations, such as caste, persist and adapt in the host country, shaping patterns of exclusion and belonging. To broaden the analysis, I also examine parallel mobilization efforts in the United Kingdom and Canada, showing how differences in host institutions and migration regimes shape immigrant mobilization and pathways to political incorporation.

Methodologically, the project combines more than 60 in-depth interviews with activists, academics, and community members with a survey experiment measuring caste bias in the U.S. diaspora. This mixed-methods design captures both the lived experience of caste-based discrimination and systematic patterns of bias.

“Varieties of Caste-Systems” with Harris Mylonas (under review)

“From Grievances to Claims-making: Norm Entrepreneurs, Transnational Ties, and Local Politics in U.S. Anti-Caste Mobilization”

“Rights Without Recognition: Exploring Legal Consciousness in South Asian Anti-Caste Activism in the United States”

“Homeland Politics and Diasporic Social Boundaries: Experimental Evidence from Indian Americans”

“Mobilizing Under Threat: Subversive Framing and the Rise of Pakistan’s Pashtun Tahafuz Movement”