Nepali Migrant Women

In this pathbreaking and timely work, Hamal Gurung gives voice to the growingnumber of Nepali women who migrate to the United States to work in the informaleconomy. Highlighting the experiences of thirty-five women, mostly collegeeducated and middle class, who take on domestic service and unskilled laborjobs, Hamal Gurung challenges conventional portraits of Third World womenas victims forced into low-wage employment. Instead, she sheds light on Nepaliwomen's strategic decisions to accept downwardly mobile positions in order toearn more income, thereby achieving greater agency in their home countries aswell as in their diasporic communities in the United States. These women are notonly investing in themselves and their families-they are building transnationalcommunities through formal participation in NGOs and informal networks ofmigrant workers. In great detail, Hamal Gurung documents Nepali migrantwomen's lives, making visible the profound and far-reaching effects of theircivic, economic, and political engagement.