*Apologies for cross-posting
A report titled '
Structural Violence and Social Suffering among Marginal Nepali Migrants' is now out, and is available
at:
http://sites.tufts.edu/feinstein/2013/structural-violence-and-social-suffering-among-marginal-nepali-migrants
Structural Violence and Social Suffering among Marginal Nepali Migrants
By Antonio Donini, Jeevan Raj Sharma with Sanjaya Aryal
October 2013
Over the past decade, Nepal has witnessed a rapid process of social
transformation which has accelerated after the end of the “people’s
war”. In this report, the third in our series on change in Nepal, we
look at migration, both internal and external, and how it affects the
livelihoods of the poorer segments of the population. Mobility ranges
from commuting for day labor to nearby areas and seasonal mobility to
towns and cities or across the border to India, to organized migration
to the Gulf, Southeast Asia, and beyond. Migration has become a
significant and increasing part of the rural political economy. Our
research documents the social suffering among migrants and locates their
experiences in the wider context of social transformation in Nepal. It
is based on in-depth interviews with the subjects themselves in
different settings including cities like Kathmandu (brick kilns and the
service, manufacturing, and construction sectors), towns and rural areas
in Nepal (service and construction sectors), India (domestic work,
service sector, etc.), the Gulf States (construction, agriculture, and
domestic workers) and other sites where various forms of exploitative,
bonded labor and trafficking practices are widespread.
Building on our earlier research, we find that mobility of labor has not
necessarily meant more freedom for poorer migrants, although the idea
of freedom appears to be driving much of the out-migration from rural
Nepal. While migration has certainly opened up opportunities for cash
income, the nature of work and working conditions have often resulted in
social dislocation, humiliation, debt entrapment, social suffering, and
structural violence. This highlights an apparent contradiction:
migrants leave their villages because of their redundancy in the
rural-agrarian labor processes and because of the attraction that
modernity has to offer in the cities and towns, but they are constantly
driven back to their village because of the transient and time-bound
nature of their mobility. Thus, the identity of the migrant remains
attached to the village even if the working sites and sectors are
“modern” and urban.
Report available at: http://sites.tufts.edu/feinstein/2013/structural-violence-and-social-suffering-among-marginal-nepali-migrants
For our earlier work on social transformation and changing labor relations in rural Nepal, see:
http://sites.tufts.edu/feinstein/2012/from-subjects-to-citizens
http://sites.tufts.edu/feinstein/2010/towards-a-great-transformation
Readers may find the following recent articles useful:
http://www.ekantipur.com/np/2070/6/16/full-story/376773.html
Best Wishes,
Jeevan 
