Badhyata and dukha : emotions, labour and migration across education migration to Australia and labour migration to Qatar from Nepal

‘A life path different from one of labour in the Gulf’: Ongoing mobility among Nepali labour migrants in Qatar and their families

“…He would have wanted to work longer in Qatar had his family not struggled emotionally. As highlighted by other studies on Gulf migration and also discussed elsewhere (Limbu, 2021b), the low-skilled workers living in dormitory-style accommodations enjoyed more sociality and local connectedness than the professionals living independently (Chambers, 2018;Rodriguez & Scurry, 2013). Walsh (2018) reports a similar emotional toll on the wives of British professional migrants in Dubai, with women spending considerable time alone or feeling trapped at home.…”

“…The empirical findings discussed in this article are based on ethnographic fieldwork conducted among Nepalis living and working in Qatar, and their families in Nepal. This article draws on observations and 21 in-depth interviews conducted with migrants in Qatar and six interviews with families in Nepal, and is part of a larger project (Limbu, 2021b). To recruit participants, I initially drew on my personal and professional networks and later relied on snowballing to recruit other participants from within their network.…”