This paper presents an alternative viewpoint on debt-migration in brick-kilns and the construction industry, through migrants’ perceptions of poverty, identity, aspirations and long term life goals. Often described as neo-slavery and neo-bondage, debt-migration has been viewed as an extension of caste and class based exploitation by policy makers, academics and NGOs alike. In contrast migrants’ perceptions of their own life trajectories and the role of particular labour markets and social relations (especially labour market intermediaries) are fundamentally different. [KNOMAD].