In this chapter I discuss why Northeast migrants choose to come to Delhi. I focus on two main reasons. The first is the demand for labour from the Northeast. This needs to be understood in the context of Delhi's transformation into a ‘global city’ through neo-liberal capitalism and the changing consumer and business landscape of the city. The drive to transform Delhi into a global city has been critiqued for reorganising, sanitising and enclosing urban spaces which has excluded the urban poor, labourers, and migrants. The end result is an uneven urban landscape with differentiated rights of access and participation. One of the neglected aspects of this focus on exclusion is the ways in which the new spaces created by Delhi's transformation enable inclusion for Northeast migrants in these very spaces. The desire for Northeast labour in the de-Indianised spaces of the global capital draws migrants from the frontier. It is precisely because these spaces are crafted as global that they are open to peoples outside the boundaries of the nation. Economic inclusion is possible in spaces that are stripped of distinct national signifiers: shopping malls, spas, restaurants, and call centres. Outside these spaces of economic inclusion, Northeasterners continue to live as exceptional citizens.

The second reason is that Delhi is seen as the best destination for higher and tertiary education. This has been the primary historical reason for migration from the Northeast to Delhi, and this continues today though on a much larger scale. Delhi has India's best universities and colleges; all of which have reserved places for Sixth Schedule tribals and members of other ethnic communities under different reservation schemes. Delhi is the site where the tools of the Indian state can be learned; tools that can be used to acquire the highly valued Indian Administrative Services (IAS) posts back in the Northeast. In response to this, the education sector in Delhi has expanded and specialist colleges and tuition schools have proliferated.

Explaining Delhi's Popularity

The last chapter discussed the acceleration of migration out of the Northeast to other parts of India. The difficulties of obtaining reliable data aside, the largest share of these migrants head to Delhi.