Psychological Distress and Stressor: A Community Based Study of Nepali Migrant Returnees

Abstract The massive outflow of Nepali people as a part of their living strategy is a quite recent phenomenon; scholars have often associated such migration either with the internal conflict that started in 1996 or global economic liberalization towards the end of the century. It was in this decade the six countries of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) and Malaysia became major destinations for migrant workers. Given the nature of acute adversities that Nepali migrant workers like those moving out from developing countries to the developed ones face in these countries, they are often reported to experience distress. This study, through sequential explanatory mixed method, examined the psychological distress of Nepali migrant returnees from nine destinations, namely Malaysia, Qatar, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Oman, Bahrain, Israel and Jordan. Mental health issue was found to prevail among 28.3% returnees. Work related factors – type of visa used to go abroad, income from work, and the nature of return – was observed to have significant association (p < 0.05) with bad mental health status. From the analysis of qualitative data, the themes related to pre-departure, during work, and after the return stressors were identified.