Paper Short Abstract:

This paper examines experiences of ‘berojgaar’ (unemployment) among Nepalis who seek work abroad, which are continually (re)shaped through everyday activities, commitments, and pursuits within the conditions of hope and waiting that migration begets amidst conditions of precarity.

Paper Abstract:

This paper examines Nepali labour migration by analysing the notion of ‘berojgaar’ (unemployment) to understand how it shapes everyday experiences of hope, waiting and imaginative future(s) among Nepali migrants and their families. It discusses hope and waiting, both in the individual and collective sense and examines how it underlines precarious migratory undertakings among Nepalis by paying close attention to the conditions of unemployment in Nepal. In examining the social and economic realities associated with migratory comings and goings amidst precarity by positioning everyday human experiences to discussions of work, this paper extends on ‘waiting’ and the ways in which waiting is experienced – not simply as a condition of precarity but also as phenomena imbued with inspiration for actions projected towards hoped-for futures. I argue that ‘berojgaar’ among my Nepali interlocutors aptly captures people’s doubts and uncertainties (Khosravi, 2021) and coexists alongside potentials of hope (Crapanzano, 2003; Hage, 2003; Miyazaki, 2004). Approaching waiting 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. By drawing on various theoretical approaches to waiting alongside ethnographic examples, I articulate on understandings and experiences of ‘waiting’ among my Nepali interlocutors – to illustrate how hope and imagination alongside conditions of unemployment are interwoven within migratory aspirations and undertakings, as they ongoingly shape each other and mould people’s everyday experience and imaginative future(s).