Bhutanese Refugee Resettlement in the United States
Is This My Shangri-La?
Bhutanese Refugee Resettlement in the United States
Is This My Shangri-La?
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Description
A definitive account of one of the twenty-first century's most consequential yet frequently overlooked humanitarian stories.
Drawing on a decade of oral histories, archival research, and community immersion, Dr. Lopita Nath examines the complex process of “Third Country Resettlement” for Bhutanese refugees. She moves beyond statistics to reveal the lived realities of migration-the distinct challenges faced by different refugee groups and the persistent, deeply human question of what it means to search for a “Shangri-La” in the American heartland.
Nath argues that refugee resettlement is far more than a bureaucratic endpoint. Instead, it is a continuous, multi-generational journey shaped by what she calls “emotional geographies.” While the resettlement of more than 113,000 refugees worldwide-96,000 of them in the United States-stands as one of the most statistically successful efforts in history, she contends that the so-called “durable solution” remains incomplete on a human level. The transition from refugee camps to American cities requires a delicate negotiation between structural assimilation and cultural preservation.
Through this lens, Nath shows that “Shangri-La” is neither a lost homeland in Bhutan nor an assured reality in the West. Rather, it is a shifting identity forged through resilience. For Bhutanese-Nepali refugees, the meaning of homeland has evolved-from a fractured memory of a betrayed Himalayan paradise to a transnational emotional geography that spans continents. In time, the United States has become not simply a place of exile, but a negotiated, permanent home.
This work stands as both an important scholarly contribution to migration studies and a tribute to the remarkable strength of the human spirit.
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Table of Contents
Map
Chapter One: Introduction: How Do We Study the Bhutanese Nepali Refugee Crisis?
Chapter Two: “We Left in Open Trucks”: The Forced Eviction from Bhutan
Chapter Three: Life in the Refugee Camps
Chapter Four: I Am Going to America
Chapter Five: Living in the U.S.A.: Challenges and Successes
Chapter Six: Remembering Those Left Behind
Chapter Seven: A New Diaspora In The Making?
Chapter Eight: Where Is My Shangri-La?: The Idea of a Homeland in the Bhutanese Refugee Experience
Chapter Nine: Epilogue: An Unfinished Journey: The Continuing Quest for Shangri-La
Bibliography
Index
About the Author
Product details
| Published | 12 Nov 2026 |
|---|---|
| Format | Ebook (Epub & Mobi) |
| Edition | 1st |
| Pages | 232 |
| ISBN | 9781978766365 |
| Imprint | Bloomsbury Academic |
| Illustrations | 1 Map |
| Publisher | Bloomsbury Publishing |
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