Publications
Gated Luxury Condominiums
in India - A Socio-Spatial Arena for New Cosmopolitans (Routledge, 2024)
Gated Luxury Condominiums in India: A Socio-Spatial Arena for New Cosmopolitans critically examines gated luxury condominiums in contemporary India, exploring their role in shaping elite power and identity within the framework of neoliberalism. It delves into the spatial structure, perception and post-occupancy experience of these enclaves, offering valuable insights into India's urban development.
Segregation by Design: Migrant Housing and the Afterlives of Colonial Spatial Ordering in Frankfurt (ISCTE-IUL, 2026)
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Colonial and Post-Colonial Landscapes Working Paper Series, Vol. 2, Dinâmia’CET-Iscte, ISCTE-IUL, Lisbon, pp. 111–120.
This paper examines the spatial politics of migrant housing in Frankfurt, focusing on how private landlords and intermediaries shape hidden geographies of exclusion for Indian Highly Skilled Migrants (HSMs). Despite being among Germany’s most affluent and rapidly expanding migrant groups, Indian professionals face systematic barriers in the rental market and are concentrated in ageing, substandard properties. Segregation emerges not through planning policy but through racialised landlord discretion that recodes prejudice as market rationality.
Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork and urban mapping, the paper conceptualises these housing formations as shadow architectures—spaces where profit, race, and neglect converge. The analysis reframes segregation as an architectural and economic process, revealing how neoliberal urbanism and racial capitalism intertwine to sustain colonial hierarchies of value. By centring landlords as active agents, the study exposes housing as a key technology of governance in Europe’s postcolonial city.
Neo-colonial narratives in modern migration: Housing practices and class dynamics of Indian migrants in
Frankfurt a. M. (Current Sociology. Sage, 2025)
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Type: Journal article
Statements on Future Housing Settlements. (Historisches Museum Frankfurt, 2025)
Veiled Vignettes: Tracing the Hidden Heritage of Indian Religious Spaces in Frankfurt. (Bauhaus-Universitätsverlag Weimar, 2025)
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Type: Book section
There is No There There, MUSEUM MMK, Frankfurt, 13 April—29 September 2024 : report (Routledge, 2024)
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Urban Narratives of Migration: Dwelling Practises and Identity Formation among Indian and Turkish Highly Skilled Migrants (HSM) in Frankfurt and Berlin (RePLITO, 2023)
Tuba Inal-Cekic, Dhara Patel
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In our collaborative dialogue, we delve into the experiences of highly skilled migrantsundefined from India in Frankfurt and the "new wave" Turkish migrants in Berlin. As researchers with distinct professional backgrounds, we address common questions from our unique perspectives, shedding light on the intricate dynamics of dwelling in new cities. Dhara Patel examines the housing experiences of Indian migrants in Frankfurt, while Tuba Ial-Cekic offers insights into the moving and dwelling experiences of the 'new wave' in Berlin, emphasizing their engagement with the city.