Labour mobility between India and Nepal represents one of the oldest and most enduring forms of cross-border migration in South Asia, structured by an open-border regime established under the 1950 Indo–Nepal Treaty of Peace and Friendship. This paper examines India–Nepal migration through the lens of labour mobility, precarity, and informality, highlighting how historical ties, economic asymmetries, and neoliberal labour markets shape contemporary migration experiences. Despite the absence of legal barriers to movement, Nepali migrant workers in India often encounter exploitative working conditions, social insecurity, and limited access to labour protections.
The study is grounded in a theoretical framework combining neo-classical migration theory, the new economics of labour migration (NELM), and precarity theory. Neo-classical theory explains migration as a response to wage differentials and employment scarcity in Nepal, while NELM emphasizes household strategies of risk diversification through migration. Precarity theory, drawing from Guy Standing, is used to analyze the unstable, informal, and insecure nature of migrant labour, particularly in the absence of citizenship-based social rights.
Together, these frameworks allow for a nuanced understanding of how “free mobility” does not necessarily translate into “secure labour.”
The paper incorporates a case study of Nepali migrant workers in India’s security services and construction sector, particularly in metropolitan cities such as Delhi and Mumbai. Nepali migrants are disproportionately employed as private security guards, construction labourers, and domestic workers—sectors characterized by informality, long working hours, and weak regulatory oversight. The open-border arrangement paradoxically exacerbates vulnerability, as the absence of formal registration obscures migrants from labour statistics and welfare frameworks. The paper concludes by emphasizing the need for bilateral labour frameworks, portability of social security benefits, and recognition of migrant workers within national labour codes. By situating India–Nepal migration within broader debates on labour mobility and social justice, the study contributes to migration scholarship in South Asia and underscores the limits of open borders in ensuring dignified work.
