Leveraging Rural-Urban Migration for a Translocal Community Economy: Lessons from an Enterprise in Shingkhar

Abstract

Bhutan faces accelerating rural-urban migration, driven by disparities in employment quality and productivity, as noted in official government documents. While orthodox migration models emphasize a dichotomy between sending and receiving areas, this study examines the migration-development nexus through the lens of a translocal community economy approach. Such a perspective illustrates how migrants and non- migrants, bound by enduring attachments to their ancestral homes, co- construct livelihoods through both material and symbolic exchanges. To explore how these translocal dynamics unfold in context, this study presents a case study of Bhutan Healthy Tea, a herbal and mushroom-based tea manufacturer in Shingkhar village, Bumthang. Founded by a migrant, the enterprise integrates commercial viability with community well-being by retaining value-added production within the village, generating local employment, and reinvesting profits in community welfare initiatives. Its success can be attributed to the enabling role of Shingkhar Dechenling Phendey Tshogpa, a migrant-founded association that nurtures networks of reciprocal care and collective responsibility between migrants and non- migrants. This relational infrastructure underpins the enterprise’s capacity to move beyond an exclusive focus on profit, while drawing on the proprietor’s sense of fraternity with his home village. While the findings are context- specific, the case shows how Bhutan’s Tshogpa culture—informal associational practices linking migrants with their home communities—can inform broader reflections on policy and practice. Reframing migration as a resource rather than a rupture aligns with Bhutan’s GNH vision of a just and harmonious society, and highlights the potential of translocal practices to foster inclusive, participatory, and place-based development.