ISSN: 2705-4853 | e-ISSN: 2705-4861
Social Inquiry: Journal of Social Science Research
2020, Vol. 2, No. 2, pp. 133-157 https://doi.org/10.3126/sijssr.v2i2.33058 Open Access
Article History: Received: 22 February 2020 | Revised: 14 September | Accepted: 23 September 2020
Original Article
My Unending Journey of Migration: An Autobiographical Inquiry
Lal Bahadur Pun School of Education, Kathmandu University, Lalitpur, Nepal Email: [email protected] https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5325-1482
© 2020 The Author(s). This open access article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike (CC-BY-NC-SA) International Public License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/), which permits non- commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium or format, provided the original work is properly cited and such creations are licensed under the identical terms.
134 | L. B. Pun Abstract
In the journey of my life, I am moving hither and thither, which helped me to devise and construct the life stories of migration. I have echoed my real- life experience of migration, which I have attained from my childhood to till date. Academically, there is a dearth of migration research that is carried out using the autobiographical inquiry. The purpose of writing this article is to craft my stories, which I have experienced in the journey of migration. For this, I have instilled autobiographical inquiry to knit the stories, as the field of autobiographical inquiry is to imply ‘self-study’. Using an avenue of non- positivistic paradigm, I have interacted with the contexts to draw the stories of migration. Pertinently, the stories of migration are a revelation of my subjective feelings. To interpret my personal stories, I used the structuration theory from which I have explored the dialectical relationship between the system (policies, rules, and norms) and agency, that is me. Genuinely, the government and social systems, and personal decision of migration induced me to shape the stories of migration. At this age of my life, I have visited short to long distances internally and externally and lived there for a few days to some years. On other days, I do not know, where I will go and settle, it may not be in my control because I will be dependent on children and their decisions. For me, migration is an unending journey. Keywords: Migrant; Story; Village; Autobiographical Inquiry; Migration
At the Beginning as a migrant in this academic article. And, as a doctoral researcher, I read I (Lal Bahadur Pun, male, 49) was born some theories, research articles, and and brought up in Baglung. After the books related to migration, which fed departure from my birthplace and me ideas about migration through this before the settlement in Kathmandu, I article. I literally have attempted to experienced many blisses and plights. share my true stories, which I At the moment, I am living in experienced till today. Kathmandu for more than one decade. Consequently, I have presented myself Social Inquiry: Journal of Social Science Research, Volume 2, Issue 2, 2020
My Unending Journey of Migration | 135 Nevertheless, the migrants are the ones, communities (Lee, 1966). In other who are on the move (Inchley, 2014). words, it is a process of changing the My understanding is also that the geographical location. In my migratory movement of every individual from one journey, geographically, the detachment place to another is a part of life. In a and attachment became a part of my study, Subedi (1996) articulated that life. migration is an inseparable part of cultural life because moving behaviour As time passes by, while I came to is an innate quality of mankind for the know myself as a migrant, I thought that betterment further. My movement in I would inscribe the stories of migration everyday living is not anything else because I was born in one place, but I more than a construct of moving culture was brought up in another place. At because my behaviours and practices present, I am living in quite a different guided me to move here and there to place other than the places, where I had fulfil the immediate needs, and to spent my childhood and teenage. In the enhance the better way of living. journey of my life, I moved from one Wherever I went, worked, and lived, the village to another village, town, and memory of the birthplace is laid in my city. More often, I would go back to the mind. To substantiate this view, Subedi home community. Based on age (1993) used the term ‘ghumphir’ to variable, location of stay, and derive the meanings that, even going professional engagement, I came across out from the origin community, the different stages such as child, migrants memorize the origin student/educational, circular, and community and cultural practices. In the professional migrants. Since my local overtone, leaving the old place is childhood, I have visited many places taken as a relocation from the birthplace within and outside the country and (Hutt, 1998). Based on my experiences became familiar with the new contexts. of moving from one place to another, I All these features were incurred as the have attempted to knit my personal sources of stories of my migration from stories of migration. To me, migration is which I weaved my personal stories. a process of being familiar with the new Hence, this is a retrospection of my own context. It is a notion of being experiences of migration, which I have acquainted with the spatial difference surpassed over time. As Bullough and such as sending and recipient Pinnegar (2001) also viewed that the Social Inquiry: Journal of Social Science Research, Volume 2, Issue 2, 2020
136 | L. B. Pun truth of a well-rendered autobiography a theory (structuration theory-structure is deeper than life itself. I have tried to and agency). At the end of this article, I reveal real-life experiences. It is also have presented personal insights. retrieval into self (Jayaannapurna, Setting the introductory scene in this 2017). For me, self-reflection is an section, I have discussed the avenue of revelations. The platform of methodological genre in the subsequent self-reflection is about what it means to section. do (Petersen, 2013). So forth, this text echoes my self-reflection inscribing the Methodological Genre: migratory stories in which I have carved An Autobiographical the joyful and painful moments as a Inquiry migrant. Constructing the introductory scene in Assertively, I have depicted child the previous section, under the migration, which was my new pathway interpretative paradigm, I have created to life. After that, I have produced the my positionality on a qualitative stories of educational migration in research approach in this section in which I also have discussed the which I have used an autobiographical secondary and campus-level studies. At inquiry to inscribe my experiences of times, I have also become a labourer migration because autobiographical and circular migrant in my life. In accounts are a rich reservoir of addition to this, I have presented myself qualitative data and provide a valuable as a professional migrant, as I had source of experience (Power et al. worked in some professional 2012). The flow of my stories of organizations and, at the same time, I migration is described in an also have joined the university for autobiographical way. Being a narrator, postgraduate degrees. I also have I have translated migrational stories into echoed a short reflection on migration, this text. Understandably, I am the what it means to me. The purpose of story-builder based on my life this article is to craft the journey of my experiences of migration. Hence, self- migratory stories, which I experienced study is a tool to devise stories. in my lifetime. Thus, this article is a barn of my stories of migration, a The autobiographical method has method (autobiographical inquiry), and revealed its power in giving great
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My Unending Journey of Migration | 137 importance to the narrator, who is (Petersen, 2013) and ‘personal considered not only an actor of the life experiences’ (Taylor et al., 2012), and story but also an author of narration to ‘autobiographical story’ (Rubin, 1986). shape the life and the story (Domecka et As autobiographic reflections provided al., 2012). I am submitting myself as a me with "a valuable resource for builder of stories of migration. From exploring, presenting, and representing this research, I have attempted to the self" (Haynes, 2011). Herewith, this establish autobiographical inquiry as a is my self-exploration of migratory research method in the academic field, stories. According to Jayaannapurna as ‘autobiographical research is (2017), accounting and self-reflection concerned with studying one’s own are touchstones of auto/biography. (auto) life-story (biography)’ (Domecka Through this text, I have revealed et al., 2012; Taylor & Settelmaier, ‘subjective reality’ (Lincoln et al., 2003). From the position of an 2011) in which I amplified conscious autobiographical researcher, I have awareness about the migration process. written my own stories from the first- According to Jayaannapurna (2017), person narrative point of view. autobiographical works are by nature Memorizing and recalling the past subjective. Remarkably, I have echoed stories, I have attempted to draw the my feelings with the contexts that I contextual meanings of migration based engaged myself consciously. Thus, a on my life course of migration. life narration is an autobiography, Methodologically, I have coined the which includes particular attitudes. stories from the self-reflective process. Hence, interpreting autobiographical According to Hipchen and Chansky testimonies entails understanding a (2017), an author becomes self- consciousness. To substantiate this reflective in their writing, hoping to statement, Jayaannapurna (2017) hear personal voices that would form articulated that autobiographies give a parts of a conversation. This is a text in novel approach and insight into the way which I have echoed my personal how individuals define themselves and stories of migration. understand their own experiences. Having said this, I have decided to use In addition to this, the writing style is of an autobiographical inquiry as a autobiographic type in which I have methodological genre, which deals with presented own ‘self-reflections’ ‘a broad framework whose key Social Inquiry: Journal of Social Science Research, Volume 2, Issue 2, 2020
138 | L. B. Pun contribution is to force research to the systems usually dictate people to consider the timing of when events move, and in the same way, individuals occur in individual’s lives and the also influence systems, as individuals consequences are for variations in this create their spaces within the systemic timing over change’ (Yabiku & Glick, premises. As Bourdieu (1986) remarked 2013). In addition to this, a life course, that an individual reflects the limited which I have been surpassing, is a but real ability of social groups to make subject of discussion. After presenting independent choices. Thus, individuals the methodological genre, I have also influence systems. In my journey discussed the theoretical positionality to of migration, I became a part of the interpret this text. system.
Making the Theoretical Preferably, I have used the ‘system’ and Pathway: Structuration ‘individual’ in this text. From the Theory structuration theory, I have drawn ideas about how the system forces an In the previous section, I have presented individual to migrate from the current the ideas about the methodological communities. Within the system, how genre. I have discussed the theoretical migrants decide to move away for the positionality in this section, as I have betterment. Based on my past flashback, used the structuration theory of migration is induced by the system, Anthony Giddens (1986) to interpret the which is associated with individual structure and agency, which deals with responses because the system influences a dialectical relationship. So, they have individuals or vice versa. Behind the both enabling and constraining journey of my migration, I did not stand relationships to each other. alone, as I was influenced by the Furthermore, the structuration theory societal influence. refers to the interaction of collectivities and individuals and their response to In the journey of migration, the system physical and social environments. sometimes dictated me to move and not Deriving the ideas from this theory, I to move and, many times, it did not understood that migration happens work on me because I had decided to because of both collective and leave one place and go to another. As I individual responses and efforts because was guided by the system, which, on
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My Unending Journey of Migration | 139 and off, created challenges to me. In issues, the past, and the current ones. At childhood, my family took me to that that time, my mother began to share place, where they went and settled when, why, and how we had migrated because I was a part of the family from a village named Kaule to the system, which was a collective effort of current village, Sagdi of Baglung migration. After I had grown up, I made District, which lies in the Province 4 or decisions to go to new places and the Gandaki Province of Nepal. During contexts, which were my individual the conversation, my mother told me decision but I was dictated by the about the place, where I was born. Till system. Sometimes, family, working that day, I was unknown about my agency, and government systems forced birthplace. Then after, I came to know me to move from one place to another, about it. Before that day, I thought I and many times, I had decided to move might have been born in Sagdi, where I around but I was an inseparable part of had been living at that time. I also knew the existing systems, values, and norms. that my parents had brought me to the This text is full of personal stories, current place from the other ones. From which I have echoed verisimilitudes of this, it was the foremost evidence that I my experiences. Having set the was a child migrant. The nature of a theoretical positionality in this section, I child migrant is dependent particularly have discussed child migration, which I upon parents. In most cases, parents experienced in the new pathway of life. make almost all decisions on behalf of a child. Emotionally and socially, they are Child Migration: My New the sole responsibility-holders of Pathway of Life children. For my migration, parents had made all the decisions and arrangements In the previous section, I discussed the because, at that age, I was fully theoretical positionality i.e. the dependent upon them. My parents structuration theory. In this section, I decided to migrate from the Kaule have echoed my memory as a child village to Sagdi while I was a child. migrant, which was the new pathway. Since I was inseparable from them, my Even today, I remember a day in around migration was obligatory. At this stage, December 1986. In an evening, we, all I became a part of the family system, in the family members, were at the dinner which I did not have any role in the time. We had a chit chat about various decision-making process because I was Social Inquiry: Journal of Social Science Research, Volume 2, Issue 2, 2020
140 | L. B. Pun too young to make a decision. The also has substantiated this story, which family structure became influential in talks about the notion of my migration because it is a collectivity knowledgeability and capability of an of family members in which I became individual. Along with my growth, I an inseparable part. acquired the new knowledge and skills as a child migrant. From the migrational point of view, Kaule was the origin community, where Even today, a blurred memory comes I stepped onto this earth; whereas Sagdi into my mind about the arrival date in is the receiving community, where I the recipient community. The next day, grew up as long as I turned into an after I arrived in the new village, one of adolescent. Thus, migration from Kaule my cousins came to play with me in the to Sagdi was the first internal migration morning. It was a welcoming gesture in in my life. As a child migrant, my the new home. To substantiate this rearing, caring, and socialization began view, Pun (2018) opined that, in the in the recipient community but my initial days, the newcomers are ancestral root goes the origin welcomed in the receiving community. community. In addition to this, my After that, the journey of everyday physical, emotional, spiritual, and living began in Sagdi. I began to be mental growth was developed in the familiar with the local customs such as new village. Today, my identity is very cultures, social systems, values, and much concerned with Sagdi rather than norms of the new village. I got to my birthplace because I was brought accustomed and engaged myself in up there. My memory and sense of ritual practices such as birth and attachment go to later home, Sagdi. In a wedding ceremonies, and funeral study, Subedi (2017) unfolded that the procession. Not only this but also, I sense of nostalgia remains in migrants, learned to worship the ancestral deities where they are brought up. Hence, the from my elders. It was the place, where new places, where I visited, fed me I broadened my horizon of capabilities. local knowledge and skills. The amount In addition to this, I got accustomed to of time that I had spent to acquire relatives, neighbours, acquaintances, knowledge and skills in Sagdi was the and villagers. It was a social process in time spent by a migrant. The which I became familiar with the socio- structuration theory of Giddens (1986) cultural heritage and natural
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My Unending Journey of Migration | 141 endowments of the new village. It was a culture has become a part of Magar prerequisite for me to be accustomed to tradition over hundreds of years. places or locations, natural resources, Officially, many able-bodied youths of water sources, animals, people, etc. In Nepal join British and Indian other words, a precondition of a migrant Contingents after Sugauli Treaty of is to be familiar with the local context. I 1816. Professionally and culturally, the was groomed with the direct care of culture of the village is to be laure parents, and indirect care of relatives (Kansakar, 1974). The motivation of my and neighbours. The new migrants must family and community was to make a familiarize themselves with local mercenary in the foreign armies, which institutions, and must often immerse is a source of lucrative earning. I was an into a new culture (Carrington et al., inseparable part of that tradition but the 1996). One of the main capabilities of a course of life story turns towards migrant is to be ready to settle in the another direction because the laure new context because I experienced that culture is a system from which I was the new system of the new context influenced and my way of living was influences an individual to make shaped. Thus, the system is conditioned adjustments. This feature is by the structure (Giddens, 1986). Along substantiated by the theoretical tenet of with the change of locations, I got Giddens (1986). As a migrant, I made opportunities to devise different stories myself adjustable in the new context. because the new context fed me new experiences. As a child migrant, my In the new home, my schooling began at new pathway of life began in the the age of nine, which I remember even recipient community, Sagdi. After today. Beginning from the pre-school discussing child migration in this stage, I completed primary and lower section, I have presented educational secondary school education from the migration in the subsequent section, new village. As a child of a Magar which helped me to acquire the new family, parents’ interest was to prepare knowledge and skills in the new place. me to join either in the British Contingent or in the Indian Contingent. My schooling began to serve for that purpose. In the Magar community, it is not a new practice because the Laure
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142 | L. B. Pun Educational Migration: were different and they were new to me. Experiencing the Urban In the beginning, I did not have any Life relatives and acquaintances except the formal relationship with teachers. After the completion of the primary and Likewise, it became eye-opening for me lower secondary level education in the in the area of educational attainment village, the journey of my educational because some of my teachers showed migration began. To attain the me the new pathway to move and grow secondary level education, I went to further. Shantipur and Bharse of Gulmi District, which was the second internal In addition to this, the journey of my migration. In the initial days, I had to educational migration continued. In walk on foot every day from the village, 1988, I went to Bharse for the tenth Sagdi to the small town, Shantipur. On grade. Along with the formal learning in an average, I had to walk on foot for the school, living in the new context, about four hours up and down. Except gave me a new insight into the new for walking on foot, I did not have any cultural performances, practices, other alternatives. As time passes by, I behaviours of local people and their managed to live in the hostel as a ways of living. Likewise, I also knew student migrant. From this place, I more about the geographical, cultural, completed the eighth and ninth grades. economic, and educational contexts of In this place, I had an opportunity to be Bharse. It was quite easy for me to acquainted with new friends, teachers, adjust there because so many of my and local people. Also, I knew the new relatives helped me to settle there. And, cultural contexts and the ways of family kinship ties also made me easier people’s living. For the first time, in to adjust there. I was from a Magar Shantipur, I had an opportunity to be village and so was Bharse. There were mixed up with the diverse groups of marital as well as hereditary people and cultures other than in my relationships between these two village. As a newcomer, I faced some villages. In the beginning, my schooling challenges of adaptation in Shantipur, in began living in a relative’s house. The the initial days, because it was a small movement to Bharse was the third town with the intersection of some internal migration in the journey of my villages. And, the context and people life. From Bharse, I appeared in the Social Inquiry: Journal of Social Science Research, Volume 2, Issue 2, 2020
My Unending Journey of Migration | 143 examination of the school level education to be opted for because I had certificate. And, I completed high multiple choices. For a while, I school graduation i.e. school leaving remained in dilemmas but in the end, I certificate. After this, I went back home. decided to study intermediate of arts Simply saying, going back home is a under the discipline of humanities and normal process of a student migrant of social sciences. Sometimes, the system secondary school. The nature of student creates confusion in individuals migration becomes temporary as well as (Giddens, 1986), which had happened circular migration. to me too. Despite the fact, I got admission in Ratna Rajya Laxmi While I was in New Delhi, India, I Campus at Pardarshani Marg. I studied received a letter from home that there up to the bachelor’s level as an informed me that I had passed the educational migrant. In this tenure, I school leaving certificate board was delving into the new educational examinations which is considered to be and cultural contexts. Academically, it the iron gate in the Nepali context. The was a leap forward to boost up my result of the school leaving certificate academic career. The campus life of was published in June 1989. In such a Kathmandu helped me make a network jovial situation, I requested my parents with new friends and local people to send me to Kathmandu for higher further. To support this story, I have studies. My parents accepted my added a statement of Tilly (2007), as he proposal. After parents’ consent, I went articulated that migration is a process of to Kathmandu to enrol in the making the new network. As an intermediate level as a student migrant, educational migrant, I left no stone which was the fourth internal migration. unturned for making a new network. To Going to Kathmandu and living there make a new life successful, I delved became possible because of the network into the new cultural context of with relatives. One of my relatives, who Kathmandu. It became possible through was familiar with Kathmandu, escorted the network with the new groups of me up to there. From the network, I people. took the basic information about the localities and cultural contexts of In Kathmandu, I experienced that the Kathmandu. At this point, I faced the lifestyle of people was new to me. challenges about which stream of Instead of walking on foot, I began to
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144 | L. B. Pun use vehicles such as cycles, tempos, and experiences of the origin/sending public buses. Without changing my community, and the new community fed behaviours and lifestyles, it was me the new ways of living. Simply, difficult for me to adapt to the new migrants experience buffer states of context of Kathmandu. Eventually, I dual behaviours after they arrive in the began to change my behaviours to adapt new community (Samchez, 2009). As to Kathmandu. As Hedberg and Kepsu an educational migrant, I not only (2003) shared their views that the achieved educational outcome but also, cultural migration has multi- I became familiar with the cultural dimensional cause for adaptation. contexts and systems of the urban Particularly, the pattern of migration setting. On the contrary, as a student, I was rural-to-urban, so it was futile to usually faced a crisis of money because expect similar types of system and I used to be fully dependent on parents’ practice of the village in Kathmandu resources, as I had to buy everything because as much as the distance from the market. After presenting the increases, divergent cultural practices stories about educational migration, I are found. The close ties are better in have discussed the stories of labour and the short distance than in the long circular migration in which I held (Ravenstein, 1889). At that time, going multiple occupations at this stage of from Baglung to Kathmandu was a life. distant location. Crossing the distance means to engage in the new contexts. Labour Migration and Returnee Migrant: At this stage, abandoning the rural Acquiring Occupational context, traditional or agrarian systems, Experiences I entered into the of inferiority complex embedded into my mind, on the one In the previous section, I discussed hand, but on the other hand, I had an educational migration. In this section, I opportunity of taking double benefits have discussed labour and circular such as knowledge of both migration. In March 1988, the fragile origin/sending and receiving urban life politics of the country forced me to of Kathmandu. I delved into modern leave the village or the country itself systems and global touch. As a because, from the student life, I used to newcomer, I had come up with the old voice out against the absolute monarchy
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My Unending Journey of Migration | 145 and the panchayat system. The language of India, Hindi nor was panchayat system had banned the familiar with the local systems. I was democratic or multiparty system there with a blank mind and blind eyes. imposing its one-party system. The situation was not favourable to me According to Giddens (1986), an there. As Svasek and Domecka (2013) individual becomes a victim of the articulated that crossing the borders, one system. Nonetheless, those people, who still carries along all the unsolved used to oppose the system, did not have problems, which sooner or later have to a favourable situation. They either had be addressed. In Delhi, the other to live cautiously or leave the country Nepalese fellows, who had migrated because they could be detained. In such there before, supported me to settle a condition, my parents forced me to there. leave the village for safe living. Because of this, I went to Delhi, India With the help of a villager, I began to where I spent about four months as an make a network with other villagers, international migrant. In this journey, who had already gone to Delhi. I met for the first time in my life, I saw a them and requested to look for a job for tractor and travelled in this vehicle. It me. Finally, I got a job in an office. I also was the first time; I crossed the worked as an office boy as well as a border of Nepal. This was my first dishwasher. Sometimes, I was assigned international migration. For this, I was to fetch water from the pump in the escorted by a villager up to New Delhi. bucket from the ground floor to the top And, one of my villagers received me in of the house. I had to do manual work Delhi, who had already settled there. there. In a sense, I made the status of a After that, I began to spend days in labour migrant. For the first time in my Delhi. I did not have any ideas about life, I was engaged in such a work being what to do and what not to do, what to away from the home. Even, my eat, and where to live there. The first educational qualifications, knowledge, and foremost condition was that I skills, and experiences, that I possessed should find a place to live in and look in Nepal, did not work in the new place, for the work in the new place. It was India. From this, I understood that, totally a new place for me. People were though I spent a short time in Delhi, but new and the cultural context was it gave me tremendous learning. At the different. I neither knew the local moment, I can imagine, how labour Social Inquiry: Journal of Social Science Research, Volume 2, Issue 2, 2020
146 | L. B. Pun migrants face such challenges in the and tilling the fields and farms, and new context. fetching water from the stream in the pitcher. Besides this, I used to go to Even today, I can still remember those work in the fields throughout the day. days that I spent in Delhi. I faced Usually, I used to get up early in the challenges in the job because of the morning and work till the late evening. language barrier. I neither could speak Mostly, I used to store food items in the the local language nor could the staff in barns and baskets, which were collected the office speak and understand my from the fields and farms. In a study, language. I was not given any Rubin (1986) articulated that a complete orientations about the official systems understanding of autobiographical and the work to be performed. From day memory would require knowledge of one, I was deployed at work without basic memory processes in the any orientations. The other way around, individual as well as of influences of the the snobbery of local people is a society in which individual lives (p. 1). challenge for migrants. The local people My everyday life was ‘closely linked pretend to be knowledgeable and with the agricultural activities; whereas superior in front of newcomers. other activities were scheduled after the Sometimes, they showed their bossy farm-related activities’ (Parajuli, 2002). attitudes. It was not easy for me to There were very few options for adjust there. I was excluded from the agriculture in the village. local people and their behaviours. As Inchley (2014) remarked that migrants Even today, I remember, I had enough are often victims of exclusion by the knowledge about trees, herbs, and recipient community. I was passing the shrubs, types of stones and mud, local time there. After the fourth month of insects, birds, and animals, where I was stay in Delhi, I decided to come home. grown up. And, I knew the usage of these things in everyday living. I also Returning home, I engaged myself in had knowledge and skills of using the farm-related activities such as collecting tools and implements such as sickle, grasses, fodders, and firewood from spade, plough, and other tools. In the forests and grasslands; taking domestic village, I was engaging in the animals for grazing to pasture lands; occupational system, which was a planting and harvesting crops; digging continuation of the forefather’s turn.
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My Unending Journey of Migration | 147 Even after, returning home, I followed migration elicited me to make a new the same occupation, which I used to identity in the village. I began to live up practice before migration. In addition to in the old village with a new identity. this, I became familiar with ritual Besides, educational migration had functions i.e. birth celebrations, helped me to cultivate the new marriage ceremonies, and death knowledge and skills, which I used in processions. Proactively, I engaged the village. The formal education, myself to celebrate local festivals such knowledge, and skills, that I acquired, as Dashain, Tihar, Maghesakranti, New became useful, particularly in the Year, Sawane Sakranti, Teej, and many teaching profession. Imperatively, I not small festivals in an original way. I only used the knowledge and skills but learned these practices from my elders also my horizon of thinking became through informal learning, on the one wider after living in the new places hand, and, on the other hand, the formal within and outside the country. education of schools and campus, and Anyway, migration ingrains additional exposures of the new places opened my knowledge and skills in me. I discussed eyes to oversee the same pattern of labour migration and returnee migrant work differently. At the time of in the current section, and in the returning home, I brought the new subsequent section, I have presented knowledge and skills to my home professional migration and postgraduate village. Besides this, I broadened the studies. horizon of thinking. Professional Migration In the village, there were not many and Postgraduate options for agro-farming activities. At a Studies: Building a New time, there was a vacancy Identity announcement published for a teacher in a school. I applied for that position. I In the previous section, I discussed was fortunate to be selected as a teacher labour migration and returnee migrant. there. I taught there for two years. After In the current section, I have discussed joining that school, my social and professional migration and postgraduate professional status enriched. Hence, studies. In my lifetime, as a professional students and local people began to worker, I visited different parts of the address me as ‘Sir’. Educational country, Nepal, and spent many years,
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148 | L. B. Pun where I got opportunities to observe respectively. From that organization, I people’s behaviours, living styles, got opportunities to visit many places cultures, and activities. In addition to from the east to west and, from the this, I saw many people, who have been north to south. I spent a huge chunk of moving here and there in search of a time in Lamjung, Butwal, and better livelihood, happiness, and Bhaktapur respectively. I became prosperity. Many of them used to go to familiar with the diverse natural, socio- nearby locations and some of them have cultural, professional, and economic crossed long distances to maintain the contexts of these places. From there, I means of survival. In 1999, I spent two also learned a new way of living there. I years in the district headquarters of understood that the cultural and Baglung. Living there, I worked with environmental contexts of Lampung government offices every day. One of were not similar to that of Butwal my tasks was to make a network or a whereas the cultural and environmental sound relationship with different contexts of Butwal were dissimilar to governmental authorities and the the context of Bhaktapur. As a people. I believe; the job of the migrant professional migrant, it was my is to make a broader network and obligation to familiarize myself with relationship with the new groups of these circumstances. As Massey (1999) people (Coleman, 1988; Putnam, 2000). claimed that individual obligations Essentially, I experienced that building enforce migration. In the journey of my a network is a precondition for a professional life, I had to move towards migrant. the new places.
In the journey of my life, in October of Likewise, I got opportunities to visit 2001, I joined a non-governmental different countries such as Thailand, the organization in Kathmandu after the USA, the Philippines, Cambodia, and completion of my Master’s Degree. It India. In some countries, I have spent was totally a new experience for me. some months and, in many countries, I After spending about six months in have spent a few weeks. In the initial Kathmandu, the organization transferred days of visits, I found difficulties in the me out of the valley for professional customs of some countries because I work but I did not go to my village. I was not familiar with the systems. So, went to Lamjung and Butwal for work the system usually becomes a constraint
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My Unending Journey of Migration | 149 for settlement, which is substantiated by migration, I did not have personal Giddens (1986). The culture, language, choice, as I was dictated by the and customary practices of the countries organizational system. where I visited were new to me. In such a state, I understood that a migrant In around 2008, the organization should be familiar with locations, decided to transfer from Butwal to cultures, systems, behaviours, and Kathmandu. This transfer gave me a habits of the people of the new golden opportunity for academic community because knowing other growth. Another level of educational people and diverse contexts makes a migration began at this stage. In migrant easier to settle. While I delved Kathmandu, along with engagement in into the professional field, I made the professional sector, I advanced my networks with different cultural groups academic career further. I joined the and professionals. I took a lot of university for a Master of Philosophy insights from them because I worked leading to Doctor of Philosophy. In the with both junior and senior-level staff. later part of my doctoral studies, I Not only this but also, I worked with the dropped the job and have been people of poor strata. The other way continuing Doctoral Studies. around, I met high-level dignitaries of As an educational migrant, I went to the country. In the journey of different places of Nepal for secondary, professional work, I became away from campus, and university education. both old and new homes. From this, I These levels of education helped me to realized that, in my professional life, a develop new knowledge and skills. In profession pushes someone to different addition to this, I got exposures to places because a person becomes a different places, cultural practices, and slave of the system and a servant of an social systems within and outside the institution. In front of the organizational country. These exposures helped me to system, the personal choice does not generate new ideas and to broaden the work. The organizational decision horizon of thoughts. Likewise, the supersedes the individual interests. knowledge, skills, and exposures helped According to Giddens (1986), the me to engage in the chosen professional structure consists of professional norms field. The remuneration, I received from in which an individual demonstrates the organization, was used in everyday his/her roles. In my professional Social Inquiry: Journal of Social Science Research, Volume 2, Issue 2, 2020
150 | L. B. Pun living. I began to save some amounts computer, using mobile phones, and because of which I bought a house in watching television. I usually use the Kathmandu. Pertinently, the internet to surf Facebook, Messenger, professional migration helped me to Viber, Skype, and emails. In such a improve the economic conditions. state, I see less application of informal knowledge and skills of the village in Assertively, I began to settle in the cities, where I have been living Kathmandu because of three reasons; today because the cultural context of the first reason was that my job Kathmandu significantly varies. I have placement was in Kathmandu; the been engaging in non-farming activities second reason was that I joined the in the new community. The life, I have university for postgraduate studies; and been living in Kathmandu, varies. the family interest also signified to However, the stamina, I developed in settle in Kathmandu. After this, my life the old village, has helped me to live in took a turn. And, the personal and the city, Kathmandu. family obligation was to be familiar with the local cultural contexts and In Kathmandu, as a migrant, I have people and, to accept them in everyday made a new identity i.e. ‘Baglunge’. I living. Now, my life in Kathmandu have made is distinct in the new began to be mind-blowing. I started to community, Kathmandu. For locals, I engage in the local customary practices. am an alien. The locals are also new to Besides this, I began to be away from me. I have been living a blended life, as the customs of my village and forgot the duality is a feature of migrants things, which I used to do in the village (Giddens, 1986). The life, I have been because I did not have to do the same living, is a hybrid. The hybridism is a thing in Kathmandu. The living pattern characteristic of migrants (Hickman, is different in Kathmandu because I 2005), what I feel. I neither left the old have to use the new recipe. In the habits nor adopted the new systems and morning, I take breakfast items, which practices. Thus, I have been living a are different from the items that I used dual life. This is a space that I made as a to have in the village. In addition to this, professional migrant. In this section, I leaving agriculture-related activities, I discussed professional migration and have been engaging in the digital-based postgraduate studies. I have presented activities such as working on the
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My Unending Journey of Migration | 151 my experiences as a migration in the addition to this, wherever I went, I subsequent section. made social relations with individuals, different groups of people, and Migration: What Does It institutions there to maintain Mean to Me? professional as well as personal matters. The professional business, as usual, In the previous section, I discussed helped me to create individuals as well professional migration and postgraduate as institutional connections. As Faist studies, which helped me to make a new (2019) articulated that migration needs position in the new community. In this to be placed for social transformations. section, I have discussed migration- Because of migration, I made what does it mean to me as a migrant? significant positive changes in my life. In my lifetime, migration became an From this, I understood that migration is instrument to connect between/among a connector, which ties people. Thus, different places. It facilitated me to migration facilitated me to build a connect the origin community from the relationship with the different groups of recipient community. Besides this, I people. knew that my mother’s maternal home was in Sagdi, where she was brought Because of migration, I took exposures up. After the marriage with my father, to national and international she had gone to Kaule, which means, communities from which I became my parents had a kinship relationship in familiar with the new cultural practices Sagdi. As time passes by, from Sagdi, and behaviours of people. I somehow my parents and I extended forward (new shared culture with the new groups of place) networks with relatives and people. As Giddens et al. (2018) acquaintances of other places. From the claimed that migration is a process of current places, I also made backward promoting the culture. Likewise, (native place) networks with the educational migration became a origin/sending communities. As a supportive tool for me to obtain migrant, I made both forward and knowledge and skills as well as backward networks. In the words of analytical capabilities. In addition to Coleman (1988) and Putnam (2000), it this, labour and circular migration is a social capital because it signifies a cultivated a sense in me on how I social network, which is a resource. In should pour my toils to shape life. So
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152 | L. B. Pun far, professional migration cultivated villagers because all of them speak in a professionalism in me from which I similar way, which I do. Seemingly, the made better earnings. This also helped integration of migrants is a challenge me to make better economic because the newcomers come up with arrangements. I realized, migration different habits and behaviours (Haines created an avenue for me to create et al., 2007; Levin, 2013). After better educational and professional migration, I missed the nativity of the opportunities. It became possible after origin community, which I used to my migration. Thus, migration became perform and practice. Migration made bliss to me. me difficult to cope with the new setting. I have experienced multiple On the contrary, after migration, I faced challenges of integration in the new some challenges in the new places. In another end, migration communities. One of the main became a plight to me. Thus, I am living difficulties, which I faced in the new a blended life of bliss and plight in the communities, was the new behaviours recipient communities even today. of people. And, the local people did not feel sound about me. In this connection, In the End as a testimony, I want to add my personal experience. Undoubtedly, my Today, where I am living is the result of verbal expression was shaped by the migration because I am away from the local dialect, which I learned from my birthplace followed by the workplaces. predecessors, neighbours, and villagers In the journey of migration, I came but the way, I speak, does not suit for through multiple stages such as a child the people of the new communities, migrant, an educational migrant, a which I faced at the workplace, college, labour migrant, a circular migrant, and a university, and in the new community. professional migrant. Since my Sometimes, I felt insulted by some childhood, I have been perpetually people in the new places. Some new moving from one place to another. As people took me as a person, who cannot Subedi (1988) also unfolded that pronounce the words and speak migration has an incessant feature for properly. The way, I used to speak in better living. It will continue on other the origin community, sounds good to days. It also creates both joyful and all my family members, neighbours, and painful moments. In other words, I can Social Inquiry: Journal of Social Science Research, Volume 2, Issue 2, 2020
My Unending Journey of Migration | 153 say, migration is a combined form of organizations in which I engaged, made bliss and plight. the decisions for migration. For future migration, I cannot predict, where I will In my case, migration did not happen go and live till the end of my life, not because of my own decisions only because at an elderly age, my decision but now and then, it had happened does not work, as I will be dependent on because of systematic as well as societal my children. In the childhood age, I was constructions, which have been dependent, whereas, at an active age, I authenticated by the structuration theory became independent, and at an elderly of Giddens (1986) because, for me, age, again, I am going to be dependent migration is no more a single decision on children. In the end, the journey of only, as I was dictated by the systems. my migration may continue in the The contemporary social and economic future, which can be an unending conditions can push me further on other mission till the end of my life. days. At the cost of structure, an individual becomes weak. According to Acknowledgments Subedi (1993), migration is a part of everyday living. The existing situation I am indebted to Dr. Indra Yamphu becomes powerful in migration. I agree (Rai), Rebat Kumar Dhakal, Durga with the view that ‘migration is not one- Rana, Hem Lal Pun, Lal Kumari Roka, stop-shop’ (Benton et al., 2015), Madan Rana, Madhav Khapangi, Ram because a migrant does not stick in one Kumar Thapa, and Sanjay Kumar Pun, place. In the journey of my life, I spent who showed their generosities to some years in one place and other years provide necessary comments on the in other places. Thus, I came to the article. They also checked and edited conclusion that after birth, every person the language to enrich this article. moves from their birthplace to other places but the duration and locations of Disclosure Statement movement vary. In childhood, my decision did not work for in the journey The author declares that no potential of migration because I was dependent conflict of interest exists. on parents. At the active or youth age, I became independent to make migration decisions. Likewise, the professional
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My Unending Journey of Migration | 157 Author Biosketch
Lal Bahadur Pun is pursuing PhD from Kathmandu University, School of Education. His research area is migration. He has earned expertise in migration, development, and cultural studies. He also has long experiences in the field of development. Currently, he is also engaged in some social organizations whereby he contributes to devising social policies in the country.
To cite this article: Pun, L. B. (2020). My unending journey of migration: An autobiographical inquiry. Social Inquiry: Journal of Social Science Research, 2(2), 133-157. https://doi.org/10.3126/sijssr.v2i2.33058
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Social Inquiry: Journal of Social Science Research, Volume 2, Issue 2, 2020