High-profile events such as the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar have made one thing abundantly
clear: Much of today's economic growth would be unthinkable without the low-wage employment of
migrant workers. But which cultural economic and political infrastructures in the »source«
countries make these types of migration possible in the first place? Based on multi-sensory
ethnographic research in Nepal Hannah Uprety retraces the practices of recruitment and
instruction that - step by step - transform Nepali labor into an internationally marketable
commodity. In doing so she uncovers a migration regime that effectively turns local men and
women into »migrant workers« before they even leave the country.
