Abstract:

In this article, I argue the significance of the border between land and sea for the regulation of labor migration. I identify an early sense of this border in the East India Company's efforts to prohibit the trafficking of slaves overseas by foreign powers. I focus on a shift in the imaginary of the border with the advent of the indentured labor system. New permits, passes, and registration procedures were implemented to materialize the voluntariness of emigration for indentured laborers. Through an examination of Indian emigration legislation, I trace the continuous recalibration of the border through the differential inclusion of new occupational groups and labor migration streams under the umbrella of state regulation. I reevaluate the campaign for the abolition of indentured labor as a further recalibration of the border between land and sea that distinguished discrete rights of mobility for laboring subjects divided and multiplied by the category of skill.

摘要：

在本文中，我认为陆地和海洋之间的边界对于规范劳务移民的重要性。我认为东印度公司禁止外国势力将奴隶贩运到海外的努力早已意识到了这种边界。我着眼于随着契约劳工制度的到来，边界的想象发生了转变。实施了新的许可证，通行证和注册程序，以实现契约劳动者的自愿移民。通过对印度移民立法的审查，我发现在国家法规的保护下，通过新的职业群体和劳务移民流的不同纳入，边境的不断重新校准。