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Paper short abstract:

This paper seeks to understand how overseas labour migration is shaping inequalities in rural Nepal at a time of agrarian and ecological stress. It shows that remittance flows and migration outcomes largely parallel pre-existing economic position and migration is critical for class reproduction.

Paper long abstract:

Overseas labour migration has increased exponentially in Nepal over the last three decades. While agrarian stress associated with climate change, rising costs and rural monetisation set the context within which migration takes place - the search for work overseas is by no means restricted to the rural poor, or the wealthy, and households from across the socio-economic spectrum have left for work overseas in recent years. This paper explores the diverse migration employment trajectories and long term migration outcomes amongst farmers who are situated differently in the agrarian structure. It shows that while there are well publicised migration 'success stories', these are restricted largely to those who already had wealth and assets prior to working abroad. For a majority, migration meets part of the households simple reproduction needs, with limited scope for accumulation, and for some of the poorest households, it actually drives them further into poverty. These relationships are largely due to the migration infrastructure whereby those with the ability to pay, can secure more coveted migration opportunities with greater scope for upward mobility. At the same time an exploitative network of intermediaries, mean that a subset of migrants from marginalised socio-economic backgrounds are vulnerable to deception by employers and exploitation - conditions which often result in return migration under distress and debt. Set against this context, we show that rural out-migration is contributing to a reproduction of the existing rural agrarian structure.