Anu Abraham

Senior Researcher

Email: anuabr@prio.org

Anu Abraham
This profile contains centre-specific content. View the full profile at PRIO.org.

News & events
Publications
Blog posts
Audio & video

Multimedia

Monday, 24 Mar 2025

Mumbai MigrationRhythms animation. Illustration: PRIO/PositiveNegatives

Rahul, Varsha, Shankar and the City of Opportunity (Hindi)

Rural to urban migration is contributing to improved living standards and realising life aspirations for many across Asia. This animation tells multiple migration stories across generations, to Mumbai. Watch in Hindi or English, or read the comic in either.

News

Wednesday, 26 Feb 2025

MigrationRhythms project animation. Illustration: PositiveNegatives (Renren Galeno)

Moving and Staying: the Path to Middle Class Life in Asia

A Filipino nurse with family in Manila, three intertwined lives in Mumbai, a ‘self-made’ man in Karachi and the journey of a woman in Hanoi. Through four animations, the MigrationRhythms project explores how migration shapes social mobility across generations.

Book chapter

2024

A methodologically oriented interrogation of connections between migration and social mobility in South Asia

Book chapter in South Asia Migration Report 2024: Remittances, Resilience and Rehabilitation

PRIO Paper

2024

Middle Classes, Moving and Staying in Karachi

PRIO Paper

PRIO Paper

2024

Middle Classes, Moving and Staying in Hanoi

PRIO Paper

PRIO Blogs

Thursday, 7 Mar 2024

Project photo from fieldwork in Hanoi. Karen Liao / MigrationRythms project / PRIO

Facing Imbalances in Global Knowledge Co-creation

Global South-North asymmetries, or imbalances, in resources and access to mobility are often pervasive in international research, including research on peace, conflict, migration and development. Research projects can be experienced as extractive in many contexts around the world. This means that the research process feels like it is taking something ...

Recorded event

Friday, 10 Nov 2023 08:30–10:00 UTC+01

Hanoi, Vietnam. July, 2023. Photo: Karen Liao

01:30:20

Rethinking Development Through Global Urban Middle Classes

In this seminar we draw on examples from cities in Africa and Asia to discuss how these emerging realities challenge current notions of ‘development’.

Recorded event

Friday, 11 Nov 2022 08:30–10:00 UTC+01

Presenting on stage: Professor Jonathan Rigg. Photo: PRIO / Angelica Estevez

01:18:09

It Depends: Unpicking the Development Impacts of Migration in Asia

Welcome to a seminar on development impacts of migration in Asia, and how we can make sense of them, with professor Jonathan Rigg (University of Bristol).

Multimedia

Monday, 24 Mar 2025

06:31

Rahul, Varsha, Shankar and the City of Opportunity (English)

Rural to urban migration is contributing to improved living standards and realising life aspirations for many across Asia. This animation tells multiple migration stories around education, work or love, enabling social mobility across generations, to Mumbai.

News

Wednesday, 11 Dec 2024

Karachi (photo from MigrationRhythms fieldwork, Marta Bivand Erdal). Photo: n/a

The urban middle classes in Asia are growing: Does migration matter?

The urban middle classes in Asia are growing. What characterizes urban Asian middle-class families and their processes of becoming middle-class? And does migration matter for families’ social mobility?

PRIO Paper

2024

Middle Classes, Moving and Staying in Mumbai

PRIO Paper

News

Wednesday, 25 Sep 2024

A busy street in the City of Manila. Photo: Karen Liao

Call for Papers: Theorizing Migration and Social Mobility in Asia and Beyond

Focusing on the Asian context, we seek to explore the interactions between multiple forms of migrations and processes of social mobility, whether upward, downward, or sideways. The Call for Papers is open till 15 October 2024.

PRIO Paper

2024

Middle Classes, Moving and Staying in Metro Manila

PRIO Paper

Journal article

2024

Impact of international migration on intergenerational educational mobility in migrant sending households: does socio-economic status matter?

Journal article in Journal of Social and Economic Development

News

Tuesday, 13 Dec 2022

Presenting: Professor Jonathan Rigg. Photo: PRIO / Angelica Estevez

Recording available! 'It depends: Unpicking the Development Impacts of Migration in Asia'

In this talk given at PRIO on 11 November 2022, Jonathan Rigg draws on work across rural areas of Southeast Asia (Thailand, Laos and Vietnam) and South Asia (Sri Lanka and Nepal), and sheds light on the mixed developmental origins, effects and impacts of migration on people, communities and environments.

Current projects

Project

May 2021 – Apr 2026

Migration Rhythms in Trajectories of Upward Social Mobility in Asia

Led by Marta Bivand Erdal. Funder: European Research Council.