Abstract
Keywords: Diaspora, Immigration, Integration. Nepalese, USAImmigration and integration of the Nepalese Diasporas in the United States has attracted scholarship in the recent years. It is primarily because of the demographic volume of the Nepalese in the US and their engagement in the socio-political and economic aspects of the US community. This paper aims to learn about the factors attributable to the process of immigration and integration. Upon investigation this paper finds that the issue in question is getting serious from various perspectives.
Keywords: Diaspora, Immigration, Integration. Nepalese, USAImmigration and integration of the Nepalese Diasporas in the United States has attracted scholarship in the recent years. It is primarily because of the demographic volume of the Nepalese in the US and their engagement in the socio-political and economic aspects of the US community. This paper aims to learn about the factors attributable to the process of immigration and integration. Upon investigation this paper finds that the issue in question is getting serious from various perspectives.
The trend of migration to the US is shifting. For example, in 1960 immigrants were largely from Europe. The contemporary trend is dominated by countries like Mexico, India, China, the Philippines, El Salvador, Vietnam, Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Korea, and Guatemala. According to the Migration Policy Institute these top ten countries represented 58 percent of the US immigrant population in 2015 (Zong&Batalova, 2017). Though there is not adequate data available about the migration of the Nepalese into the US. However, Gautam (2008) notes that the trend of the Nepalese migration to United States intensified specifically after 1990.
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| Kapil Karki |
Easily accessible passport and travel documents to the Nepalese after 1990 also intensified migration to the US. It was primarily because of the change in the Nepalese political system that encouraged migration for remittance. The fall of the Berlin Wall inspired opportunities to emigrate in Nepal as elsewhere. Passport was made easy for all in the new political system. Before 1990 an applicant had to get recommendation from two Gazetted Officers to get a passport. After the political change, passport was made easily available to all prospective travellers. The poor Nepalese passport holders migrated to the Middle East to work, whereas, the rich sought western countries, including the US.
Culture is another factor that inspired mass migration after 1990. Nepal inherits and glorifies a tradition of Laure and Muglanehistorically. Laure is the person who used to work for the kingdom of Ranjit Singh of the present day Lahore, Pakistan. Muglane used to serve the Mughal Empire of India. They were venerated, respected in the communities in Nepal. This trend is still continuing in various forms. Before 1990, majority of the migrant workers used to go to India to work, but the scenario changed after 1990. With the scope of development in Asian countries, government's desire for remittance and easily available passport, young men and women were inspired as well as forced to work in the foreign lands like the Middle East, Malaysia and Korea. The elite preferred relatively developed countries like the Europe, Australia, and the United States. This is another explanation of the increase of the Nepalese immigrants in the US after 1990.
KapilKarki is a Lecturer at Adarsha Multiple Campus, Sanothimi, Bhkatapur. He is interested in peacebuilding and conflict resolution in diverse socio-political and economic environments.
KapilKarki is a Lecturer at Adarsha Multiple Campus, Sanothimi, Bhkatapur. He is interested in peacebuilding and conflict resolution in diverse socio-political and economic environments
The cultural attitude towards manual works in Nepal is also attributable to the escalation of the migrant worker. Labor is considered as a punishment of the sin of the previous birth in Nepal. Laborers are often identified as cursed or ill-fated (abhagi), who will not be eligible to have a family and social dignity. On top of this cultural taboo, caste system based on Hinduism prohibits some castes to work, whereas enforces others castes to manual work. Such discrimination in the community forced many Nepalese to flee for livelihood. This is one of the cultural components that fueled migration after 1990. Where to go was another question. The poor to India and the Middle East, the elites from Nepal preferred the US for various reasons.
Globalization is another factor that forces people to the migrant stream (Bacon, 2008). Development in the travel and communication technology has enabled people to communicate and travel at relatively affordable cost. Moreover, the need of cheap labor in the developed gated communities has attracted many Nepalese to emigrate. The US is one of them.
Crop collapse is another important factor attributable to the mass migration in Nepal. Nepal is a dominantly agriculture based economy. About 80 percent of the Nepalese depend on agriculture for living. However, there has not been an effective and sustainable agriculture policy that would boost the economy. Nepal does not have a reliable irrigation system and energy, despite the fact that Nepal is rich in in-land water resource. On top of this, farmers do not get fertilizers on time. Local landlords who used to produce in the past find it profitable to import from India and sell to the populace. For this and many other reasons, Nepalese land has remained uncultivated particularly in the hilly regions. In this situation, as in the case of the Irish Potato Famine (1845-1852), migration is the last option for survival for the poor in Nepal (Lokshin, Bontch-Osmolovski, &Glinskaya, 2010).
But, where do they migrate is another issue to think upon. They normally migrate to India because of the easy access and open border. They cannot migrate to countries like the US. Many scholars agree that the poor cannot migrate to a better place, migration is costly and they cannot afford (Kothari, 2004; Skeldon, 2002;Stark, 1991). Nepalese immigrants in the US are not necessarily poor; hence what drives them to migrate is an issue worth investigate.
Uncertainty fuels emigration. Political and social instability, inequality, poverty, insurgency, fear of persecution, communal and political violence are other push factors of emigration. Particularly after 1990, Nepal experienced a series of violent endeavor, together with the Maoist insurgency (1996-2006), that ultimately pushed many Nepalese to different parts of the world for survival. However, a point to understand is that people flee during conflict is incomplete without also understanding the behavior of people who do not flee.
The US is attracting many Nepalese in the recent years. Nepalese immigration to the United States escalated particularly after the introduction of the Diversity Visa Lottery (DV Lottery) program according to the Immigration Act of 1990. Under this program 55,000 DV lotteries were allocated (later this number reduced to 50, 000 due to the Nicaraguan Adjustment and Central American Relief Act or NACARA). Nepalese were one of the beneficiaries of this program. The DV Lottery winner comes to the
US with family and later brings his/her relatives as well. This endeavor ultimately swelled the Nepalese Diaspora community in the US.
Nepalese come to the US in many ways. They come to the US as tourists, students or relatives of the US citizen or legal permanent residents and most of them never go back. Dhungel (1999) observes that there is no evidence that the first generation of the Nepalese American had circular or returning immigration tendency; instead, as he notes, “Second generation Nepalese Americans , pursuing higher education or are in the beginning stage of their professional fields do not in general consider returning to their ancestral home land (p. 122).” Some others migrate through marriage with US national or resident. Illegally, Nepalese have been found to have used human smuggling route from the Central or the South America en route to the US via Mexico (Kumar, 2012; The Stabile Center for Investigative Journalism, 2012; Bangladeshi, 2013; International Organization for Migration, n.d.). Once they get to the US, they normally apply for asylum and many others stay in the US undocumented. The diversities of the circumstances of their migration influence to the making of their status in the host country. Thus, a diverse Nepalese diaspora community in the US is expanding.
However, the integration of the Nepalese Diaspora in the US community is still questionable. Aviva Chomsky (2014) argues that integration is not easy for all in the US. Integration involves socio-economic and cultural identifiers like language, economic status, residential, political and social aspects to be effective (Jimmenez, 2011). Most of the Nepalese do not possess language skill, technical skill, and other professional skills required to be integrated into the mainstream US communities. Those who get to the US on DV Lottery or through human smuggling via Mexico generally work in the Indian stores, malls, restaurants, baby-sitting, and other types of blue-collar jobs. It is primarily due to their Hindi language competency and lack of professional skills. However, those with language skill and professional educational background tend to get integrated easily. Those without skills tend to form a network based on ethnicity, nationalism, religion, location specific network (Lyons, 2004). However, Diasporas are found to have employed both tactics: preserve ethnic identity and assimilate with the culture of the host country (Tambia, 2000). Therefore; integration is easy for a group than the others.
Another point is that integration does not necessarily depend upon the immigrants, but also to the natives (Constant, Kahanec& Zimmermann, 2008). If the natives are friendly to the immigrant communities, integration is relatively easy and smooth, but the native’s general negative attitude, discrimination in the host country, cultural difference, and educational-divide and self-confidence of the immigrants impact integration adversely. There has not been any specific study about the integration of the Nepalese Diaspora into the US.
There are numbers of Nepalese organizations in the US working towards integration and community building. Most of these organizations are found to be identity centric. Therefore, their role in the integration of the Nepalese Diaspora is yet to investigate. Nongovernmental organizations that claim to represent a region, in this case Asia or South Asia, are also found in different parts of the US with an objective of social justice and integration.
Immigration is a core part of the US community. However, integration is a contentious issue that involves integration through language, socio-economy, residential, political and social components. Jiménez (2011) argues that integration is facilitated in the US by a strong labor market and high-quality public education. However, he points to the fact that a satisfactory level of integration of the immigrants into the US economy and society normally takes more than one generation. From this perspective, the integration of the Nepalese diaspora into the US community appeals a serious scholarly analysis.
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