GENDER AND RETURN MIGRATION: AN ETHNOGRAPHIC STUDY OF THE EDUCATED RETURNEE WOMEN IN NEPAL

Abstract

The principal aim of this study is to explore women’s access to mobility in the Nepali society associated with international educational migration and return. The study is located at the nexus of gender and mobility scholarship adopting gendered geographies of power as a foundational framework. This study has discussed the trajectories of the female returnee migrants basically focusing on the return phase of migration. It has illuminated the post-return experiences of women while readjusting in the Nepali society. Taking account of gender approach in the return migration, it reflects women’s migration, return decision and readjustment in the Nepali society. ii This study is conducted in the Kathmandu valley. It has adopted the qualitative methodology with feminist ethnographic approach. Data collection methods for the study were observation, in-depth interviews and key informant interviews. The women who had been abroad for their education and returned to Nepal after completion of their study were interviewed. Also, the researcher tries to understand the returnees’ negotiation in the process of return and reintegration in the society and family through observations. The interpretive paradigm is applied while revealing the changing gender structure among the educated women in the Nepali society. Among the four empirical chapters, the first chapter discusses on the women’s decision of migration and return to home. The family decision and personal aspiration were the major factors in their decision of migration. While their personal and professional career choices were predominant in their decision to return. The second chapter discusses the individual’s social and academic skills and knowledge achieved during abroad study. The third chapter discusses the returnee women’s challenges while implementing their knowledge and skills as part of their readjustment in the Nepali society. The final chapter explores how women renegotiate for transforming gender roles in the Nepali society. Education and access of mobility are the major capitals of the women from which they aspire to change the society and family. The notion of contribution after the abroad education was predominantly raised by these women. In recent years, there has been the increased number of women migration for work and study across the globe. It is applicable in the Nepali context as well. The burgeoning literatures have reflected the trend of labor migration and economic remittance in Nepal. However, migration studies in the Nepali context have excluded the issues of education migration bringing gender perspective into discussion. This research is expected to contribute the growing body of scholarship on gender geography and mobility. It has revealed the subjective knowledge regarding international education, migration and gender roles in the Nepali society. The study has brought the interdisciplinary approach in migration research through the discussion of gender, education and return migration. The analysis of the study has not incorporated the traditional approach of the migration study, where the push and pull factors are considered to be determinant. This study has dealt with the social, psychological and anthropological aspects of migration. The study found that iii women are facing challenges regarding the renegotiation of their gender performance. Furthermore, it also found that Nepali women’s decision of return and the subsequent act of returning to home constitute a temporal phenomenon. This depicts that their return is neither a final decision, nor do they have a final destination. The women show their profound affection to the cosmopolitan life where they could navigate towards a new destination and where there would be the absence of surveillance from the family and society. This will bring changes in the gender role in the Nepali society.