Empirical studies of migration social capital or network theories of migration have thus far primarily focused on accumulated social capital within contexts, whereby the experience of past migrants is equally weighted with the experience of current migrants. While advances have been made in understanding the accessibility of this social capital and potential translation of this capital across translocal contexts, studies have largely not incorporated the recentness of migration experience in differentiating migration social capital. Using monthly, prospective household data from the Chitwan Valley Family Study (CVFS) in Nepal, this paper examines how exposure to international current and return (past) migration within households and (ethnic) communities within neighborhoods impacts individuals’ probabilities of out-migration to similar destinations. On the one hand, exposure to migration increases migration information within each context. On the other, current and return migrants represent tradeoffs in absence and presence of labor within households. Less commonly, will entire households out-migrate. Thus, acting upon such exposure may be conditional upon, or relational to, the actions of others within a group. As migration is a dynamic process, changing origins and destinations with its occurrence, distinguishing between migration social capital from the past and present helps advance understandings of how potential migrants in origin contexts react to more recent (and potentially more relevant) migration information, and extends theories on migration social capital and networks, especially the diffusion of migration within contexts through the recentness of information. This is particularly timely as conditions of information transfer have changed, allowing for quicker transfers of information over long distances, and technological developments have reduced the reliance on physical power to complete household labor. Does exposure to current or past migration experience matter more for future out-migration? Beyond comparing current and past migration, I also compare the role of more recent returnees and returnees who returned a longer time ago. 

This paper thus emphasizes the dynamic and relational nature of migration, and contributes to discussions of the interrelation of two widely used theories in migration studies, the New Economics of Labor Migration, and Social Capital Theories. Results are still preliminary (to be wrapped up by mid-January) and indicate that more recent returnees matter most. This suggests not only that their social capital is still relevant, but that their presence in the household allows other to be absent or migrate in turn.