Nepaliness as Assemblage: Diasporic Belonging, Colorism, and Caste in the Associational Life of Nepali Migrants in Florida

Author

Shuvechha Ghimire Sharma, University of South Florida

Graduation Year

2025

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree

Ph.D.

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.)

Degree Granting Department

Sociology

Major Professor

S. L. Crawley, Ph.D.

Committee Member

Margarethe Kusenbach, Ph.D.

Committee Member

Vrinda Marwah, Ph.D.

Committee Member

Vrushali Patil, Ph.D.

Keywords

Caste Color and Gender, Community, Ethnography, Identities, Nepali Diaspora, Transnational Migration

Abstract

The research fundamentally challenges romanticized ideas of migration—shedding older inequalities, idealizing “leveling up,” and being a part of “unified diasporic communities”—and unmasks a rather uneasy, far more intricate reality: the preexisting sociocultural and political structures and identities are not shed, rather actively reproduced and rigorously, often consciously, reconfigured within the transnational diasporic spaces. As such, the research reveals that Nepali diasporic associations in Florida play a vital role in perpetuating and reshaping social inequalities and contested national identities, significantly impacting transnational dynamics. The work contends that caste hierarchies persist in structuring associational life, influencing participation and resource distribution. Concurrently, colorism complicates and “tints” the transnational experience, shaping new forms of stratification that affect belonging and identity. “Nepaliness” evolves as a dynamic identity, negotiated through power struggles and gatekeeper interactions, often in sentiments of home as a transnational and political idea. Through ethnographic fieldwork, the study uncovers the social dynamics and practices where these processes occur, showing how transnational associational spaces become sites for contesting and redefining social inequality and collective identity. Lastly, the research provides critical insights into the lasting influence of social structures in global contexts, complicating existing theories of transnationalism, identity, and community formations, underscoring the often-unequal social topographies of diasporic associational lives.

Scholar Commons Citation

Sharma, Shuvechha Ghimire, "Nepaliness as Assemblage: Diasporic Belonging, Colorism, and Caste in the Associational Life of Nepali Migrants in Florida" (2025). USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations.
https://digitalcommons.usf.edu/etd/10864