MIGRATION IN FAR WEST NEPAL

Abstract

In Nepal, international labor migration to India and overseas, as well as internal migration to the rural Nepalese lowlands, is of high socioeconomic significance. Scholarly debates about migration in Nepal have gradually shifted from an economic to a more holistic perspective, also incorporating social dimensions. However, little evidence has been generated about internal migration to urban destinations and the potential linkages between international and internal migration. This article draws on Bourdieu's “Theory of Practice” and sees migration as a social practice. Accordingly, migration practice is regarded as a strategy social agents apply to increase or transfer capitals and ultimately secure or improve their social position. Evidence for this argument is based on a qualitative case study of ruralto- urban migrants in Far West Nepal conducted in July and August 2009. The study at hand addresses linkages between internal and international migration practices and provides insight about a social stratum that is often neglected in migration research: the middle class and, more precisely, government employees. The authors show that social relations are crucial for channeling internal migration to a specific destination. Furthermore, they unveil how internal migration is connected to the international labor migration of former generations. Finally, the authors examine how migration strategies adopted over generations create multi-local social networks rooted in the family's place of origin.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

This study was conducted within the framework of the Thematic Node 1 (“Institutions, Livelihoods, Conflicts”) of the Swiss National Centre of Competence in Research (NCCR) North–South: Research Partnerships for Mitigating Syndromes of Global Change, and the ProDoc research module “Negotiating rural development in South Asia's periphery.” The NCCR North–South is co-funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF) and the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC). Further funding was provided by the ProDoc (SNSF) project “Negotiating rural development in South Asia's periphery.” A debt of gratitude is owed to Kiran Maharjan, who accompanied both Ephraim Poertner and Mathias Junginger on their field research trip and provided invaluable translation, explanations, and scientific support. We are furthermore indebted to our colleagues Rony Emmenegger and Susan Thieme for their fruitful feedback and suggestions in the process of writing this article.

Notes

¹Kollmair et al. 2006; Sharma 2007; Thieme 2006.

²Shrestha 1990.

³KC 2003.

⁴Adhikari and Gurung 2009; Bhattrai 2007; Bruslé 2008; Kansakar 2003; Kaspar 2004; Müller-Böker 2003; Müller-Böker and Thieme 2007; Pfaff-Czarnecka 1996; Shahi 2005; Sharma 2007; Subedi 1991; Thieme 2006; Thieme et al. 2005; Thieme, Müller-Böker, and Backhaus forthcoming; Upreti 2002.

⁵Kollmair et al. 2006; Seddon, Adhikari, and Gurung 2002; Shrestha 2008; Wyss 2003.

⁶Agergaard 1999 (Household), 1999 (Settlement); Müller-Böker 1997, 1999, 2000, 2001; Shrestha 1989, 1990; Thapa 1989.

⁷Bhattarai-Ghimire and Upreti 2008; Tamang 2009; Ghimire, Upreti, and Pokharel 2010.

⁸Graner 2001; Luitel 2006; Timalsina 2007.

⁹Bohra and Massey 2009; Dahal, Rai, and Manzardo 1977; Subedi 1993.

¹⁰See Skeldon 2006.

¹¹Graner 2001.

¹²Bruslé 2008; Pfaff-Czarnecka 2001; Shahi 2005; Thieme 2006; Thieme, Müller-Böker, and Backhaus forthcoming.

¹³Cameron 1998; Müller-Böker 2003; Müller-Böker and Thieme 2007; Pfaff-Czarnecka 1989, 2001; Shahi 2005.

¹⁴Pfaff-Czarnecka 1996; Thieme 2006.

¹⁵See Grandin 1988.

¹⁶Massey et al. 1994, 700.

¹⁷Brettell and Hollifield 2007, 2.

¹⁸De Haan and Zoomers 2005; Dörfler, Graefe, and Müller-Mahn 2003; Herzig and Thieme 2007; Thieme 2006, 2008.

¹⁹Bourdieu 1977.

²²Bourdieu and Wacquant 1992, 16.

²⁰Bourdieu and Wacquant 1992, 15–16.

²¹Dörfler, Graefe, and Müller-Mahn 2003, 15.

²³Schwingel 1995, 61–62.

²⁴Ibid., 76.

²⁵Dörfler, Graefe, and Müller-Mahn 2003, 18.

²⁶Bourdieu and Wacquant 1992.

²⁷Schwingel 1995, 88–93.

²⁸Ibid., 83–85.

³²De Haan and Rogaly 2002, 9.

²⁹Thrift 1996, 15.

³⁰Bourdieu 1991.

³¹Ibid., 34.

³³Herzig and Thieme 2007, 1097.

³⁴Thieme 2008, 60.

³⁵Herzig and Thieme 2007, 1096.

³⁶Sharma 2003, 381.

³⁷Dhangadhi Municipality 2008.

³⁸One kattha = 339 m2.

³⁹ Adhiya refers to the practice of giving land under tenancy, whereupon the rent is not paid in money but as half of the crop yield.

⁴⁰See Agergaard 1999 (Settlement).

⁴¹Government employment usually involves relocation to different workplaces within Nepal.

⁴²Agergaard 1999 (Household), 103.

⁴³Ibid.

⁴⁴Herzig and Thieme 2007, 1093–94; see also Kaspar 2004.

⁴⁵Bista 1994, 63.

⁴⁶According to Bourdieu (1985, 725), social classes are “sets of agents who occupy similar positions and who, being placed in similar conditions and subjected to similar conditionings, have every likelihood of having similar dispositions and interests and therefore of producing similar practices and adopting similar stances.”

⁴⁷Bourdieu 1998, 37.

⁴⁸Shrestha and Conway 1985, 69–70.

⁴⁹Already Dahal et al. stated that “the caste system of the hill people seems to have considerably relaxed in the Terai, although it continues to remain rigid in the hills” (Dahal, Rai, and Manzardo 1977, 128).

⁵¹One bigha = twenty kattha = 0.678 ha.

⁵⁰See Bruslé 2008; Müller-Böker 2003; Thieme 2006.

⁵²Cameron 1998; Müller-Böker 2003; Müller-Böker and Thieme 2007; Pfaff-Czarnecka 1989, 2001; Shahi 2005.

⁵³Agergaard 1999 (Household), 104.

⁵⁴Bista 1994, 130.

⁵⁵An important social institution in Nepal is aphno manchhe (literally “one's own people”), which is a manifestation of collectivism and a natural form of social organization (Bista 1994, 4). Aphno manchhe stands for their own secure inner circle of social associates, which very few Nepalis are willing to leave. “Nepalis will never be willing to knock down existing circles of identity unless they have the option of crossing the line from one to another, and this will not be possible for the vast majority of the people except for those in the middle classes in urban areas with a modern education” (Bista 1994, 99).

⁵⁶Dahal, Rai, and Manzardo 1977, 43.

⁵⁷The bus fares between Dhangadhi and the district headquarters of Bajhang, Chainpur, cost about Rs. 700 in 2009 (one way).

⁵⁸CDMA stands for Code Division Multiple Access, which is a method used by various radio communication and mobile phone technologies to enable many users to communicate on one channel (Viterbi 1995).

⁵⁹See Kaspar 2004, 136.

⁶⁰Conway 2005.

⁶¹Vertovec 1999, 450.

⁶²Conway 2005, 274.

⁶³Hay 1998, 25, emphasis in original.

⁶⁴Subedi 1993.

⁶⁵Thieme 2006.

⁶⁶Müller-Böker 2003; Pfaff-Czarnecka 2001; Shahi 2005.

⁶⁷Bourdieu 1991.

⁶⁸Skeldon 2006.

⁶⁹Bruslé 2008; Pfaff-Czarnecka 2001; Shahi 2005; Thieme 2006; Thieme, Müller-Böker, and Backhaus forthcoming.

⁷⁰Subedi 1993.