A recent piece published in the International Journal of Urban and Regional Research explores the multifaceted relationship between urban infrastructure and the exclusion of migrant workers. It describes in great detail the unique difficulties these workers combat in Indian cities. Authored by Nabeela Ahmed, the article titled “Infrastructure as Territorial Stigma: Labour Migrant Exclusions in the Indian City” was retrieved from phys.org on May 2, 2025. Infrastructure is central in enabling migration to happen. Even if often beneficial, it can deepen territorial stigmatization, notably for internal migrants employed within the construction profession.
The case study examines Nashik, in the state of Maharashtra, one of India’s fastest-growing metro regions. Ahmed’s scholarship sheds light on how infrastructural development affects internal migrants. Yet for all their contributions to thriving, growing cities, these economic migrants are often subjected to marginalization. The article explains that infrastructure is central to processes of territorial stigmatization along three key lines of theory and argument.
Most significantly, Ahmed uses Loïc Wacquant’s idea of “territorial stigmatization” to set the tone of her analysis. This framework explains how some urban areas are able to acquire stigmatized identities and attributes and experience social or physical ostracizing. Infrastructure such as water, sewage and other public amenities are being implemented unevenly across Nashik. This differential stigmatizes some neighborhoods, deepening social division and discrimination toward migrant laborers.
Second, the article contends that ongoing urbanization and infrastructural development churns out a new consumer base for stigmatized labor. The rapid expansion of construction projects necessitates a workforce that is often composed of internal migrants who face precarious working conditions. Ahmed suggests that while these workers are integral to urban development, they remain vulnerable to marginalization due to the stigmatized nature of their living and working environments.
Finally, Ahmed reminds us that territorial stigma is a relational, mobile, and multiscale process. Exclusion experiences aren’t just confined to one border wall or stern-looking border guard. Rather, they echo powerfully across scales and contexts. During their labor experiences and everyday lives, migrant workers must mediate potent social hierarchies in fractured urban jungles. They frequently experience significant obstacles to plugging into the larger community.