Preparing for the Future

Chapter Two situates the lives of Nepalis born in the 1980s within the history of the modern Nepali state and its ties to regional and global developments. Drawing on existing literature, it is argued that Nepal’s educated younger generation was seen to be particularly well prepared to take advantage of a range of new opportunities associated with educational expansion, a changing labour market, and international migration. Yet, these large-scale structural changes also caused much uncertainty, since long-established life paths were increasingly obscured. Educated young Nepalis, therefore, often struggled to reconcile pervasive discourses about a better future with the realities of their present-day lives in Kathmandu. The analysis presented in this chapter makes evident that the relevant debate about young people’s agency continues to revolve around dualistic categorizations, not least because it remains focused on specific subgroups of youth.