What does ‘identity’ really mean for the migrant workforce beyond its function in production relations? How are forms of identity evoked within broader social relations in a migrant context? This article explores these questions by looking at how the Tamil Dalit tea workers in the South Indian state of Kerala experience the stigmatisation of their identity categories in the context of two significant events that occurred in the tea belt—an economic crisis and a conflict between two states over managing a dam. The way ‘migrant’ workers are categorised in their ‘host’ society is discussed here as fundamental to how they experience life both in and out of their workplaces. Extending Philippe Bourgois's notion of conjugated oppression, I argue that when dominant groups stigmatise, evoke and employ certain aspects of the workers' identities to their disadvantage, they are engaging in a phenomenon that I call ‘categorical oppression’.

中文翻译：

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绝对压迫：南印度的身份表现

除了在生产关系中的职能外，“身份”对移民劳动力真正意味着什么？在移民背景下如何在更广泛的社会关系中唤起身份形式？本文通过考察印度南部喀拉拉邦的泰米尔·达利特茶工作者如何在茶带中发生的两个重大事件（经济危机和两个国家之间的冲突）的背景下如何对自己的身份类别进行污名化来探讨这些问题。国家对水坝的管理。这里讨论“移民”工人在其“东道国”社会中的分类方式，这是他们在工作场所内外体验生活的基础。扩展Philippe Bourgois的共轭压迫概念，我认为，当优势集团污名化时，就会唤起并雇用工人的某些方面。