Research Overview

My project is on how Nepalese migrant and diaspora communities take shape in the Gulf, focusing on Doha and Dubai. I look at how caste, ethnicity, gender, and class from Nepal travel with people and get reshaped in these cities. Using long-term ethnographic fieldwork, I’m interested in how migrants build networks, find a sense of belonging, and make life work under the constraints of kafala and non-citizen status. This ESRC-funded project develops the idea of “networked agency” to describe these collective strategies and everyday negotiations.