Migration has always been a part of human history and nature – from the first humans migrating to different parts of the world from Africa till today when, as of 2020, there were around 281 million international migrants in the world. For some countries, migration is more of a part of their national fabric than others. Nepal is one such country. International migration has always existed in Nepal – it is only that it has come in waves. The wave of migration present today, and discussed in this paper, started after 1990 when liberalization in policies took place after democracy entered Nepal with the multiparty People’s Movement (Jana Andolan) which brought an end to absolute monarchy and the beginning of constitutional monarchy. This has led to a situation where, as per the preliminary report of the 2021 census, 2.1 million Nepalis are abroad in an estimated 172 countries. While the majority of these migrants are mainly concentrated around Gulf nations and Malaysia, many are also in countries such as India, Malta, the United States, Australia, and more. The effects of this modern migration on Nepal and Nepalis – economically, socially, and politically – has been immense. 

One such effect of migration that much of the present literature has not focused on is migration’s effect on the national identity of people of the origin country – in this case, Nepal. And that is exactly what this paper focuses on. In particular, this paper investigates the question of ‘How has voluntary migration from Nepal affected Nepali national identity?’ using a multimodal approach of a discourse analysis of popular media and open-ended survey interviews. Within this, the research attempts to understand two things. The first is the evolution of the Nepali national identity as portrayed by Nepalis in their popular media and whether migration has had a role to play in it. The second is more to do with the discourse on the nuances of national identity. Within this, the paper essentially investigates the sub-question of ‘Whose national identity is it anyway that is portrayed in popular media?’. This is where the interviews play a large role whereby Nepalis from different groups have been interviewed in order to shed light on the question. Thus, it is an attempt to understand how national identity making is a complex phenomenon and to see whether results obtained from the discourse analysis are reflected in people’s imaginations as well. 

Largely, what is apparent through the research is that migration has had a significant impact on Nepali national identity in two ways. The first is that migration has become so ubiquitous that it has become a unifying description of Nepali national identity. The second is that in its very formulation, national identity portrayed in general is that of Nepali labor migrants more than any other group of Nepalis.