2 - The Sheffield Area’s South Asian Migration Networks

Summary

Chapter 2 focuses on the social networks of South Asian immigrants to the Sheffield area. It begins with an exploration of the origins and reasons for the migration of Pashtuns, mostly from Chhachh in northern Punjab. This ethnic group was the first and most numerically dominant South Asian migration to the area during the period. The chapter also examines the crucial primary role of the biradari (clan) in facilitating and sponsoring this pioneering migration from the villages of Punjab, North West Frontier Province (NWFP) and Kashmir. Through the more cosmopolitan environment of employment aboard British merchant ships as lascar seamen, the kinship-based networks supporting migration were bolstered by contact with those outside the biradari. Pioneering immigrants were thus able to establish contacts ashore in Britain. The chapter argues that these early links, which included white natives within a working-class milieu, were crucial in the establishment of successful early South Asian immigration and settlement, not only in the Sheffield area, but in towns and cities across Britain.