In search of better options: An ethnographic study of migrants from Bharse, Nepal.

Abstract

In this study, I envisaged how migrants search for better options of the community structure of origin within and outside the country. I specifically explored migrants’ experiences and opinions vis-à-vis their socio-cultural premises in search of better options. The bigger questions of the study were: why migrants detached from the community structure of origin and how they built the networks with the recipient community structures, how migrants created their positionalities in the recipient community structures, how migrants embodied the opportunities and constraints that they experienced, and how migrants tailored their strategies for the future. Fetching the ideas from the relevant literatures, I employed structuration and social capital theories to interpret the stories of migrants. I also explored the subjective experiences of migrants from multi-locations following the principles of ethnography. I trussed interviews, observation, virtual conversations, and other field notes to inscribe the stories of migrants. ii From the vivid stories of migrants, I understood migration occurred in both unfavourable and favourable conditions of the community structures of origin. While migrants experienced a series of challenges in their everyday life, they strived for better options on the one hand, and on the other, the better conditions of migrants in the community structures of origin also propelled them in search of better options. For this, the migrants received information from their relatives, friends, and acquaintances by building social networks about the recipient community structures to make a migration decision. Being settled in the new community structures, they also contrived new social, economic/professional, and residential positions which were the better options. In addition, migrants experienced new opportunities and challenges in the new community structures. The bliss and plight were the binary opposites for migrants. The migrants contemplated new strategies which helped them explore better options further within and outside the current community structures. This study largely answered the questions of how migrants aspired in search of better options in the myriad socio-cultural premises.