Lived Experiences of Nepali Mothers Concerning Educational Support to Children in Migrant Families

Abstract

Nepali labour migrants have serious concerns about their children’s education due to their global exposure. Mostly, migrant men are abroad, and their stay-home wives care for their children and their education. The purpose of the research is to draw the essence of the lived experience of the Nepali labour migrants’ wives towards their educational support to their children. This paper addresses the research question “How do the migrants’ wives describe their lived experiences of educational support to their children?” using phenomenological research design. I used role theory and the theory of ethics of care to analyze the lived experiences of migrants’ wives. Due to the difficult situation created by the COVID-19 pandemic, in-depth telephone interviews were conducted, deploying open-ended questions to seven purposefully selected migrants’ wives in rural areas of Nepal. The research finds that despite different levels of educational attainment, all seven women participants seem very concerned about their children’s education and provide different types of educational support to their children. Interestingly, the fathers of the children working abroad are more conscious about their children’s education. The mothers living in joint families receive more support from their in-laws than those living in nuclear families for their children’s education. Finally, the research can be useful to the policymakers at local levels to implement programs to support the children’s education of migrant families.