Paper short abstract:

In this paper we analyze the "home" discourse and return practice among educational migrants from Eastern Nepal. Through analysis of multilocal migrants' connections and orientation towards various "homes" we discuss what "home" means for the migrants, and how their return affect local development.

Paper long abstract:

Studies of migration have benefited greatly from the theorization on transnational migration and other border crossing activities and empirical studies of transnational everyday practices. However, what seems to be less articulated in these theorizations and empirical analyses is how migration within national borders influences rural-urban linkages not least in relation to the demographic transition and transformation in both urban and rural areas.

The empirical analysis draws on a qualitative and multi-sited case study organized around a particular village community in (rural) Eastern Nepal, combined with interviews with educational migrants in various locations. Through this study of educational migrants we analyze how the perceived importance of "home" and the discourse about "returning" among migrants supports their visions for permanent return to home-communities or to nearby urban centers.

The paper examines migrants' perception of "home" and their orientation towards various "homes" and analysis how students from rural areas experience the dilemma of not fitting in at their home-communities, after living several years in a different environment. Emotional ties as well as obligations and responsibility towards family are included in the analysis of migrants' decision-making, as are their aspirations to return to their home-community. Furthermore, migrants' participation in community-activities when they return as well as from a distance is used as an indication for their orientation towards home. The paper explores the educational migrants' multilocal everyday practices and their multilocal habitus and scrutinizes the continued connections, potential return and return of social remittances, which are all important for local development in Nepal.