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

Adrian A Khan

doi:10.3390/socsci10110439

Abstract

During certain crises, displacement of populations seeking safe refuge elsewhere can occur without the certainty of a return, if at all. Children and young people in such contexts often face the additional challenge of restrictions or disregard towards engaging their agency in migration decision-making processes. Through 60 in-depth interviews with 30 trans-Himalayan participants (ages of 16–23) and multi-sited ethnography throughout Nepal, this paper investigates multiple experiences of crises experienced by young people and the effects on their life course trajectories. From focusing on the Civil War in 1996–2006, the 2015 earthquake, and most recently the COVID-19 pandemic, this paper proposes that initial displacements from the Civil War, when connected with other crises later on in a participant’s life course, better prepared them to deal with crises and enabled them to create a landscape of resilience. Furthermore, a landscape of resilience that connects past and present life course experiences during crises prepared some participants for helping their larger communities alleviate certain crises-related tension. Overall, this paper extends analysis on an under-researched group of young migrants by connecting crises that shaped their (im)mobility and life trajectories, rather than approaching crises as singular, isolated experiences.

Highlights

Crises caused by war and natural disasters can result in the forced movement of populations seeking safe refuge elsewhere, with the uncertainty of return
What the paper will elaborate on is, how Life Course Theory (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
For displaced young people in this study who were initially displaced from rural trans-Himalayan villages at early ages, this paper investigated ways they try to shape their own forms of mobility and paths of movement through expressing and connecting their emotions, lived experience with multiple crises, and using moments from their life course transitions to mobilize changes in societies affected by crises

Summary

Introduction

Crises caused by war and natural disasters can result in the forced movement of populations seeking safe refuge elsewhere, with the uncertainty of return. Rebuilding/reintegration back, if at all, into living accommodations, schools, neighbourhoods, heritage sites, government buildings, or in some instances even a rebuilding of a national identity itself during, or after crises, are complicated by conflicting factors that can further delay return movements of displaced populations. Some conflicts include inadequate coordination efforts among local, national, and international development projects (Kovács and Spens 2009); lack of transparency between public–private partnerships (Keers and Fenema 2018); uneven government assistance among those in dire need of services (van Barneveld et al 2020); and inadequate access to land rights for (displaced) migrants (Obeng-Odoom 2017). Mobility-related uncertainties for displaced populations is often captured as a singular experience rather than considering how a (young) displaced migrant may experience multiple moments of crises and (im)mobilities throughout their life, and how lived experiences from one crisis can shape—in some instances more positively than negatively—other moments of their lived experience during other crises

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