Paper short abstract:

This paper examines Nepali migration experiences by drawing on meanings and imaginative aspects of migration and development among Nepalis, which are continually (re)shaped through everyday commitments, and pursuits within (re)imagined spaces of the rural, urban, and bidesh (abroad or elsewhere).

Paper long abstract:

This paper examines Nepali migration by analysing notions of space and bikas (development) to understand how it shapes the everyday experience of migration among Nepali migrants and their families within (re)imagined spaces of the rural, urban, and bidesh (abroad or elsewhere). It discusses localised meanings and understandings of bikas that extend on migrant experiences and aspirations, and examines how it underlines migratory undertakings and intersect within spaces of rural, urban and bidesh. While space is a difficult concept to grasp– often full of abstractions (Creswell, 2008) and increasingly understood in conjunction with power and knowledge (Lefebvre, 1991), investigating complex meanings of difference and interconnectedness of multiple spaces within migration experiences offer a useful lens for analysing migration and development in Nepal. Migration as a social phenomenon sets distant places in closer relation to each other, thus creating specific relational spaces, which unfold at the crossroads between individual agency, collective imagination, and global migration (Bruslé and Varrel, 2012). Hence, this paper also extends on social imaginaries and imaginative future(s) related to migration and spaces to ascertain complex meaning making processes to glean understandings of development. By espousing migration as a collection of experiences in diverse spaces, this paper highlights how localised ideas of development are interwoven within migratory aspirations and undertakings in Nepal, and how movements between these spaces ongoingly shape and reshape one another.