Currently, I am researching transnational migration of families from Panjab, India to the United States. More specifically, I am looking at the significance of gender relations in shaping decisions surrounding migration. In so doing, I look at the intersections of gender with rural/urban background, caste identity as well as socioeconomic status in shaping such decisions. Because I am interviewing men and women in both places, the work takes me back and forth between America and Panjab, India. The methodology includes ethnography, semi-structured interviews as well as collection of visual data (film and photographs). Below are a sample of photographs from my fieldwork.
Annual Event, Carteret, New Jersey 
Dr. Kang, sarpanch, Khassan village – on his visit to the US, 2018 
Khassan Village School, a village where I interviewed families 
Tea break in Jalandhar City_ Photo credit- Monika Deshwal_ copyright Four Nine and a Half Pictures 
Sikh Day Parade, 2017, Carteret, New Jersey 
Jalandhar City bus stop; Photo Credit- Monika Deshwal_Sagar Gusain; Copyright- Four Nine and a Half Pictures
The current project is a natural outgrowth of my previous project examining the underlying factors that led to the dominance of immigrant Sikhs from Panjab in the New York taxi industry as yellow cabbies. I interviewed immigrant cabbies and various other significant actors (owners of fleet garages, lawyers/representatives for the cabbies, organizers at New York Taxi Workers Alliance and official at New York Taxi and Limousine Commission) who could shed light on the immigrant Sikh niche in the industry. This is the work that culminated into the book “Immigrant Punjabi Mobility in the United States: adaptation through race and class” that was published by Palgrave Macmillan in 2012.