A country of departure: migration and the everyday experience of hope, waiting, and 'bhagya' in Nepal

This thesis explores Nepali migration experiences at home and abroad. It describes, analyses and bears witness to how Nepali individuals and their families engage with the ideas and practicalities of migration and its ongoing ensuing trajectories. Based on over 15 months of multi-sited anthropological fieldwork in Nepal, Portugal, and the UK, I examine the imaginative aspects of migration among Nepalis, paying attention to their hopes and dreams as they are continually (re)shaped by the experience of leaving and returning to Nepal. I draw on Nepali migration experiences by focusing on related everyday activities, commitments, and pursuits within the conditions of hope, waiting and (mis)fortune that migration begets. In doing so, my thesis contributes to social and economic anthropology, and migration and Nepali studies as well as native anthropology and an anthropology of the future.

Throughout the dissertation, I consider debates and theoretical approaches to hope, waiting, dreams and (mis)fortune, and how they interact with ideas and practices related to migration among Nepalis. By examining how Nepali migrant workers (predominantly those working in the Gulf countries), and their families imagine, speak of, or act upon ideas of hope, waiting and dreams, I focus on the tangible, intangible and relational dynamics that transnational migratory individuals and groups experience. Engaging with theoretical approaches of hope, I espouse the concept of hope as both a social phenomenon and an analytical framework to understand migration in Nepal, which is also an attempt to build a space for anthropological engagement with philosophy. In examining the social and economic realities associated with migratory comings and goings by positioning everyday human experiences to discussions of migration, I claim hope as a relational and analytical tool for capturing migrants' lived experiences. Approaching hope as an analytical framework implies both potentiality and uncertainty; the former encompasses desires, dreams, and social imaginaries of the good life in the horizons of the future, while the latter examines unpredictable or precarious life contexts and how people confront them. As such, I probe hope alongside emic understandings of 'bhagya' and its multiple meanings such as (mis)fortune, luck, destiny or auspiciousness, and how these are manifested in the everyday social, economic or political discourse of migration in Nepal to extend insights on concepts such as 'waiting', 'dreams', 'potential futures', 'rural-urban connections' or 'social capital', among others - all critical towards elucidating a multifaceted migration phenomenon in Nepal. The concept of waiting is also crucial in this thesis since waiting is an experience imbued with activities and actions projected towards hoped-for futures. The interdeterminate notions of hope, waiting, and bhagya examined through ethnographic engagements in this thesis also offer a critical dimension to a discourse of migration - ones that go beyond strict economic considerations and explanations.