Embodied circular migration: lived experiences of education and work of Nepalese children and youth

Connecting Crises: Young People in Nepal Reflecting on Life Course Transitions and Trajectories during Times of Uncertainty

“…However, when global lockdowns were implemented and thus in-person research was prevented from being conducted, online interviews were ethically approved to accommodate the 19 participants in 2020. Geographically, the regions where participants were born, known as the trans-Himalayas, consist of regions (Humla, Jumla, Mugu, Dolpa, Mustang, and Manang) that border and/or are near to Tibet in which Khan (2018) and Khan (2021a) can be referred to for more details on the geographical conditions factoring into displacement and/or other forms of migration marking the trans-Himalayas. For this study, participants were recruited through purposive sampling in which all the participants were known to the researcher since 2010 when I became introduced to displacement-related concerns of trans-Himalayan participants and communities when volunteering in a boarding school for trans-Himalayan students in the capital city of Nepal, Kathmandu.…”

“…This is important for children and young people who may not know their age due to factors such as identity documents being destroyed, lost, or never applied for during crises, as was the case for many of the participants in this study. For example, refer to Khan (2021b) for a discussion on how life course theory can better inform transitions of young people in global minority contexts when the social variable of age is problematized and approached from an interdisciplinary perspective and see (Khan 2021a;Khan and Chakraborty, forthcoming;Khan and Hyndman 2015) for examples of participants in displaced migration contexts without identity documents in Nepal. Furthermore, what the paper will elaborate on is, how LCT assists with navigating life course transitions and trajectories through young people's emotions, memories, and experiences with multiple crises, which allow them to create a landscape of resilience, which is explored in-depth by prioritizing the articulations of young Nepalese participants themselves in this study.…”

“…Nevertheless, from the start of the Civil War, there was, "plenty of violence in the form of mass strikes, riots, kidnappings, blockades, and terrorist bombings. Gradually, the Maoist insurgents dominated the rural regions of Nepal," (Pivovarova and Swee 2015, p. 209) in which a prime location for recruitment by the Maoist was the trans-Himalayan regions as they were geographically far away from centralized regions such as Kathmandu (Khan 2021a;Khan and Hyndman 2015).…”

“…From learning how to manage emotional experiences during the Civil War and gaining an appreciation for educational opportunities, as well as from the communication mobilization efforts during the earthquake, some participants focused on disseminating health and social justice concerns through return migration to the trans-Himalayas. Despite studies on migrants leaving some of the world's most remote villages in the Himalayas of Nepal for study/work (Childs and Choedup 2018;Khan 2021a;Khan 2018;Prasain 2018;Zharkevich 2020), there is very little engagement on how return migrants bridge communication and other social spheres to bring about life changes for such regions. During the pandemic, some youth participants in this study have been returning to the Himalayas During COVID-19 with public health and social justice messages in areas where Information Communication Technologies (ICTs) is limited and/or non-existing.…”

Advancing children’s geographies through ‘grey areas’ of age and childhood

“…However, such ‘ideal/normal transitions’ are not culturally sensitive towards Minority World experiences of life course transitions. For example, in parts of South Asia extended kinship often live in a single household to fulfill familial expectations and duties which may require some to maintain or create new forms of transnational relationships if pursuing higher‐education/work opportunities outside of their birthplaces (Khan, 2021). Nevertheless, an epistemological shift in the late 1990's to early 2010's towards a New Social Studies of Childhood (NSSC) did promote age as a grey area from emphasizing childhood as a social construct and globally diverse (Balagopalan, 2014; Christensen & James, 2008; Huijsmans, 2016, p. 1).…”