Paper short abstract:

This paper interrogates notions of (not-)belonging among Gurkha families. It looks at ex-Gurkhas who have retired from the Singapore Police Force and whose children were born and schooled in Singapore. I ask: (1) What is the character of belonging?; and (2) What are the politics of belonging?

Paper long abstract:

The Gurkhas, whose history of outmigration from Nepal to parts of Asia and elsewhere dates back to the British colonial period, have established themselves in former British colonies such as Singapore, Hong Kong, and India, including the U.K. In order to interrogate the migratory processes and the implications for Gurkha families, this paper deals with notions of belonging and not belonging. Specific attention is paid to retired Gurkhas of the Singapore Police Force and whose children were born and schooled in Singapore. Upon the retirement of their Gurkha fathers, the children would have to return to Nepal together, thereby truncating their education and stay. By exiting Singapore not based on one's choice, how do the children adapt to life in Nepal? What are the opportunities for education and employment amid various sociocultural adjustments and struggles to 'belong'? Two research queries guide my analyses: (1) What is the character of belonging?; and (2) What are the politics of belonging, and how do such politics shift over time, and across and within generations? The first problematic has to do with empirically realising what belonging (and by extension, not belonging) means to individual Gurkha family members. The second deals with the constraints and freedom that social actors operate within as they assess their own contexts of (not)-belonging. Such dynamics dovetail with claims or resistance involving inclusion and exclusion for retired Gurkhas and their families in Nepal, thereby elucidating the costs and fluidity of (not)-belonging after their protracted sojourn.