ABSTRACT
This chapter argues that the effective formulation and implementation of development policies in an agrarian society like Nepal requires a clear understanding of its demographic structure in general and the geographical mobility of population in particular. Migration involves not only a shift of population from one geographical setting to another, but also a transfer of labor and hence potential economic surplus. The chapter provides an analysis of frontier migration and its effects on hill migrants in the agrarian economy of Nepal. In order to portray a comprehensive picture of frontier migration, the analysis is conducted within a political economy framework, focusing on such pertinent issues as the politics of land, social and economic origins of land colonization, and landlessness and spontaneous settlement at the frontier. Nepal has many ethnic groups which are concentrated in separate geographical pockets.
