Bhim Gurung

Bhim Gurung is a Bhutanese refugee entrepreneur and community leader based in Omaha, Nebraska. After spending nearly two decades in Khudunabari refugee camp in Jhapa, Nepal, Gurung resettled in the United States on February 4, 2009, and rapidly established himself as both a community organizer and a business owner. He founded the Bhutanese Community in Nebraska Inc. in 2009 and went on to build a portfolio of businesses including the Global Business Management & Investment Company (GMIC), multiple real estate properties, and other ventures.

Early Life and Displacement

Bhim Gurung was born in Bhutan into a Lhotshampa family. Like more than 100,000 other Lhotshampa, he was displaced during the Bhutanese refugee crisis of the early 1990s. Gurung spent nearly two decades in Khudunabari refugee camp in Jhapa District, Nepal — one of the seven UNHCR-administered camps that housed the displaced Bhutanese population during the protracted period of exile that lasted from the early 1990s until the third-country resettlement program began in 2007.

Resettlement and Community Building

Gurung arrived in Omaha, Nebraska, in February 2009 as part of the early wave of Bhutanese refugees resettled in the United States. Recognizing immediately that the arriving Bhutanese community would need organizational support, he founded the Bhutanese Community in Nebraska Inc. (BCN) in 2009 — the same year he arrived. The organization has served as the primary community institution for Bhutanese refugees in the Omaha area, providing cultural programming, mutual aid, and advocacy.^[1]

Gurung also worked at Omaha Public Schools, contributing to the educational integration of newly arrived refugee children and families.

Entrepreneurship

Gurung's entrepreneurial career has encompassed multiple ventures. He serves as CEO of the Global Business Management & Investment Company (GMIC) and has established businesses including Gurung Brothers LLC and PANCHAJUG, along with real estate investments. His business portfolio reflects a diversified approach to entrepreneurship that has been characteristic of the most successful Bhutanese refugee business owners in the United States.

Gurung has been profiled by UNHCR and other organizations as an example of refugee entrepreneurship, demonstrating how individuals who spent decades in camps with no economic agency can, when given the opportunity, build businesses that create employment and generate economic activity in their new communities.^[2]

Significance

Bhim Gurung's combination of community organizing and entrepreneurship represents a model that has been replicated across the Bhutanese diaspora. His decision to found a community organization within months of his own arrival — while still navigating the challenges of resettlement himself — reflects the strong culture of collective mutual aid that developed in the refugee camps and was carried into the diaspora. His subsequent business success demonstrates the economic contributions that refugees make when they are given the opportunity to participate fully in their new societies.

References

1. Bhutanese Community in Nebraska. "About." https://www.bcnebraska.org/about.html
2. USA for UNHCR. "Meet an Entrepreneur and Former Refugee Who Is Connecting His Community Through Civil Service." https://www.unrefugees.org/news/meet-an-entrepreneur-and-former-refugee-who-is-connecting-his-community-through-civil-service/
3. The DMN News. "The Man Who Was Exiled from His Home Country and Became a Refugee in Nepal Is Now a Leading Entrepreneur in the United States." https://thedmnnews.com/the-man-who-was-exiled-from-his-home-country-and-became-a-refugee-in-nepal-is-now-a-leading-entrepreneur-in-the-united-states/