From Indenture to "Good Governance": eMigrate and the Politics of Reforming Global Labour Supply Chains.

Contract substitution—in which workers sign one contract but end up working under another—is a common form of fraud faced by Indian low‐wage migrant workers working in the Gulf Cooperation Council states. This paper presents a study of workers' experiences of contract substitution alongside the eMigrate system, which is a digital registration system introduced by the Indian government in 2015. While a stated aim of eMigrate is to protect workers from contract fraud, these practices persist. We explore the colonial genealogies of eMigrate to show that not only has it adapted repertoires of worker protection inherited from the British Empire's indenture system, but that eMigrate risks facilitating conditions of unfreedom under the mantle of worker protection, much as the British imperial state did during indenture. We contend that recognising how legacies of indentured labour regulation persist through eMigrate has implications for contemporary campaigns for migrant justice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]