Ayushman Bhagat

Screenshot of a paper abstract in Area by Ayushman Bhagat (2026) entitled: 'Internal Deportation'. This article introduces the concept of internal deportation as a form of intra-state expulsion of citizens to their ‘spaces of origin’. Drawing on nine years of multi-sited, participatory, ethnographic, and feminist research in Nepal, I examine how multiple state and non-state organisations forcibly return women migrating for sex and domestic work to their spaces of origin, which are often structured by the hierarchies of gender, class, caste, and indigeneity. I demonstrate how internal deportation seeks to immobilise Nepali citizens within the existing hierarchies that they have sought to escape through their migration projects. The article contributes to deportation studies by demonstrating that deportability is a condition which operates within the spaces of origin for some citizens, continues in the host countries where they become 'immigrants', and persists upon their return to their spaces of origin after deportation.

New in Area:

'Internal Deportation' by @ayushmanbhagat.bsky.social

This article draws on research undertaken in Nepal to introduce the concept of internal deportation as a form of intra-state expulsion of citizens to their 'spaces of origin'.

doi.org/10.1111/area...

Incredibly excited to share my open-access article, Internal Deportation, published in AREA bsky.app/profile/area...

It introduces the concept of internal deportation as a form of intra-state expulsion of citizens to their ‘spaces of origin’.

Link: rgs-ibg.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

Climate change and modern slavery discourse mongers have a forgetful history of culpability, guilt, and absolution—among other things, it allows them to treat the global majority like the perpetual new kid on the block.

Because, and I quote, “while Western corporations, governments and even…

onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

Publication Alert:

In our new @antipodeonline.bsky.social article, Anneleen Kenis and I argue that the recent framing of the "modern slavery–climate change" nexus resurrects environmental determinism in its modern form.

Read our open access article here: onlinelibrary.wiley.com/share/DHX2JU...

In this piece, we question the exclusion/erasure of caste-related data in the latest labour migration report of Nepal and wonder whether it establishes the validity of so-called upper-caste knowledge in producing casteless labour migration in Nepal.
kathmandupost.com/columns/2025...

Opinion | Caste and labour migration Nepal Labour Migration Report 2024’s silence on caste reinforces the myth that migration is casteless.

Whilst the Nepal Labour Migration Report 2024 is a comprehensive and valuable resource, its silence on caste perpetuates the myth that migration in Nepal is casteless.

Article/w @ayushmanbhagat.bsky.social

Read: Caste and Labour Migration kathmandupost.com/columns/2025...

The autonomy of migration as travelling theory: Situated principles from Nepal - Ayushman Bhagat, 2025 The autonomy of migration (AOM) theory views mobility as a fundamental force that shapes our world. This theory of migration challenges the state-centric view o...

AOM theory recognizes migrant individuality—but within limits. This paper argues why and how the theory must, as individuals do, fundamentally move—evolve.
The autonomy of migration as travelling theory: Situated principles from Nepal - Ayushman Bhagat, 2025 journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...

Sharing this report fills me with great joy and sorrow. Joy because the most poignant voices of female migrant workers seep through this report. Sorrow because these individuals need us to speak.

Dr Ayushman Bhagat and WOREC spell out for us why both urgently matter: doi.org/10.17633/rd....

Happy to share that my article, “Autonomy of Migration as Travelling Theory: Situated Principles from Nepal,” has now been published as an open-access piece in @societyandspace.bsky.social

Read it here: journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...