**6. Conclusions**

Gender has always been a very complex issue in the Sikh community. For the past three centuries, contrary to the teachings of the Sikh religion, the Sikh society remained patriarchal, where men had full control over social, economic, and political a ffairs and women were limited to domestic chores. The traditional occupations of Sikh men in agriculture and armed services and misogynistic social norms and practices prevalent in the broader Indian society, facilitated the reproduction and strengthening of the patriarchal structure of Sikh society. It helped Sikh men to construct their masculinity as protectors and providers for their families. The centrality of upper caste men in the public sphere, their exclusive control over resources, and control over women become essential ingredients for the construction of hegemonic Sikh masculinity.

In the last two decades, the loss of traditional occupations and the fear of losing the breadwinner's role have expelled Sikh men from rural India to South European countries, such as Italy and Spain. In addition to the labour force, they have also brought their ideas about gender roles and the expected form of traditional Sikh masculinity to their new destinations. They have very high expectations of masculinity, which stem from the folkloric history of the Sikhs and they represent an idealised form of real man in the Indian context, one who is physically and psychologically strong, economically well-o ff, dominant, highly moral, and heterosexual. Sikh men in Italy and Spain aspire to have all these traits, but, due to their low skills, irregular status, and lack of social and economic capital, struggle to construct their desired form of hegemonic masculinity (Connell and Messerschmidt 2005). Rather, the self-exploitation of Sikh men to earn money working in harsh conditions bring on elements of neoliberal masculinity (Cornwall et al. 2016) in the Sikh community, which encourages young Sikh men to risk their lives on dangerous journeys to irregularly enter Europe.

In addition to the challenges in the economic sphere, the traditional configuration of gender roles has been challenged due to the shortage of women in marital and reproductive age groups and the dissemination of higher education for women in the Sikh community in India. Men have started losing control over women. More educated Sikh women do not want to marry less educated men in Italy and Spain, which leaves a large number of Sikh men with no chance of getting a bride in the Sikh community. This rejection in the marriage market harms their self-respect. They feel uncomfortable with their more educated wives, even if they manage to marry a girl with higher level of education than their own. These wives do not hesitate to contradict them when it comes to their rights and freedoms. The fear of being rejected in the marriage market and marrying a woman with more education generates anxiety among Sikh men regarding their position in the family and construction of their desired form masculinity. As parents, Sikh men have begun to support their daughters to ge<sup>t</sup> higher education, but they still struggle to give them total freedom to choose their partners and lifestyles of their own choice. This fear and insecurity at times manifests itself in the form of excessive control, aggression, and domestic violence, which creates the elements of toxic masculinity (Sculos 2017) in the Sikh community in both countries.

The Sikh community has been in Italy and Spain for a relatively short time span. Most Sikh men belong to the first generation and their ideas about gender roles are more influenced by their home society, which is highly patriarchal. Their attempts to maintain total authority in the family often leads to domestic violence and generational conflicts, which is not a healthy sign for any human society. Now the time has come when Sikh men in Italy and Spain have to rethink their perception of masculinity, shedding the toxic elements, including aggression, dominance, and control, and renouncing their full authority in their family and social spaces. In their new socioeconomic context, they have to negotiate their position in their families and in society on more equal terms (as suggested by Demetriou 2001). In this regard, Sikh men that are born and educated in Italy and Spain, who are more exposed to the host society (in which gender equality is fully respected), can play an important role in creating an egalitarian Sikh society, dreamed of and preached about by all Sikh gurus centuries ago.

**Funding:** This article is funded by R&D&I project, Demography, migrations and new statistical frontiers: Big Data, Continuous Population Registers and Administrative Records, funded by the Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness, Spain gran<sup>t</sup> number CSO2017-85670-R.

**Conflicts of Interest:** The author declares no conflict of interest.
