Transnational masculinity: Indian nurses’ husbands in Ireland
Résumé
I have met many young Christian men in Kerala whose ambition, like Philip’s, was to migrate by marrying a nurse. If the matrimonial market used to be harsh on nurses a few decades ago, the picture has changed and nurses are now on high demand. The stigma attached to this profession in India has certainly not completely vanished, but in Kerala, nursing has become a real chance to enhance one’s career opportunities. While visiting matrimonial websites (See for instance keralamatrimonials.com, keralamatrimony.com or shaadi.com), it is easy to check how much they are looked after by prospective grooms. However despised may the commonly named USA nurses be by the highest class/casts (George, 2005), they tend to represent the key to the Western dream for loads of young men belonging to the Christian Malayali middle class who don’t envisage the possibility of a bright future in their own country.