Profile
Ambi-PhD Researcher-IRPS

Ambi

PhD Researcher in International Relations and Political Science
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Spoken languages
English, Hindi

PROFILE
 

Ambi is a PhD researcher in International Relations and Political Science at the Geneva Graduate Institute. Before beginning her doctorate, she worked as a Consultant and Research Lead at the Centre for Migration, Mobility and Diaspora Studies at the Indian Council of World Affairs. She has contributed to research and policy initiatives on labour mobility, ethical recruitment, and migration governance in collaboration with the Ministry of External Affairs of the Government of India, the International Organisation for Migration (IOM), the International Labour Organisation (ILO), and the International Centre for Migration Policy Development (ICMPD).

Ambi holds a Master’s degree in Migration Studies from the University of Oxford. Her doctoral research is supported by the Ryoichi Sasakawa Young Leaders Fellowship Fund (SYLFF).

She is currently a member of the fifth cohort of IMISCOE’s PhD Academy and the Youth Committee on Migration Data and Displacement, the Migration Youth and Children Platform (MYCP).
 

PHD
 

PhD Thesis Title: Spatio-Temporal Realities of Platform-Based Migrant Workers: Implications for Labour, Mobility and Aspirations in India

My research examines how app-based gig platforms reconfigure the everyday lives of internal migrant workers in Indian cities. It focuses on how platform-mediated work shapes labour conditions, mobility through urban space, livelihood-making, and migrants’ aspirations to move, stay, return or remain connected across places. Bringing migration and mobility studies into conversation with scholarship on platform labour and the digital economy, my research uses qualitative and ethnographic methodologies to analyse how migrants negotiate the intersecting demands of platforms alongside experiencing migration and mobility aspirations.
 

Selected Publications and Works
 

  • Ambi. 2025. “Rethinking the Age of International Migration and Mobility: Global Trends, Indian Futures.” In Towards a Changing International Migration and Mobility Agenda: The Indian Perspective, 1–18. New Delhi: Indian Council of World Affairs.
  • Ambi. 2024. “South Asian Migration to Jordan: Expectation Versus Reality.” In Handbook of Migration, International Relations and Security in Asia, edited by A. A. Ullah. Singapore: Springer.
  • Ambi. 2023. “Passport Privilege and Temporal Disparities: Re-Evaluating ‘Safe, Orderly, and Regular’ Immigration.” Routed Magazine.
     

Areas of expertise
 

  • Migration and Mobility Studies
  • Platform Labour and the Gig Economy
  • Labour Migration
  • Qualitative and Ethnographic Methods