Second-Generation Bhutanese-American Identity

The second generation of Bhutanese Americans — young people born in the United States or who arrived as young children from refugee camps in Nepal — represents a pivotal cohort in the history of the Lhotshampa diaspora. They are the first generation to have grown up entirely within American institutions: attending American schools, forming friendships across ethnic lines, consuming American popular culture, and expecting a range of freedoms and opportunities that their parents experienced as refugees in camps could never have anticipated. They are also the first generation for whom the refugee camp is a matter of family memory rather than lived experience — a distinction that shapes identity in profound ways.

American Community Survey data, which substantially undercounts the Bhutanese-origin population because many Lhotshampa identify as Nepali on census forms, suggests approximately 14,000–20,000 individuals self-identifying as Bhutanese in the United States, but the total population of Bhutanese origin — counting cumulative arrivals and their US-born children — is almost certainly well over 100,000. Within this community, the second generation numbers in the tens of thousands and is now entering universities, professional careers, and civic life in growing numbers.

Identity Complexity

Research on second-generation identity within the Bhutanese diaspora consistently finds a landscape of complexity rather than simple assimilation. A 2024 study in Asian Ethnicity (Taylor & Francis), which analysed multigenerational identity shifts using Radio Pahichan diaspora interviews, found that identities among diaspora members have "aligned and shifted" in response to resettlement conditions, with younger members emphasising American or host-country identity alongside, rather than instead of, Bhutanese-Nepali identity.

Pew Research Center focus groups with Asian Americans conducted in 2023 documented the particular complexity of Bhutanese American identity: some older community members who retain vivid memories of life in Bhutan identify primarily as "Bhutanese American," while others prefer "Nepali American" because their ethnic, linguistic, and cultural identity is fundamentally Nepali rather than Drukpa-Bhutanese. Second-generation members navigate this ambiguity in their own ways, sometimes emphasising one identity in one context and another in a different context — a form of situational identity that is common among children of immigrants but takes distinctive form given the community's particular history.

Language and Cultural Continuity

One of the most pressing concerns for the community is language loss. Most second-generation Bhutanese Americans speak English as their primary language, with varying fluency in Nepali. Community organisations have established weekend Nepali schools, and social media content in Nepali provides informal exposure, but maintaining Nepali fluency in English-dominant environments is genuinely difficult. The loss of Nepali fluency has cascading effects: it limits communication with monolingual grandparents, reduces access to Bhutanese-Nepali cultural production, and can create a sense of cultural inauthenticity — a feeling of being insufficiently "Bhutanese" — that some second-generation community members describe as painful.

Cultural practices, by contrast, show more resilience. The celebration of Dashain and Tihar — the two most significant Nepali Hindu festivals — continues as a community-wide occasion even among families whose Nepali-language fluency has diminished. Food traditions are maintained, adapted, and celebrated; Bhutanese-American cooks produce both traditional momo and fusion dishes that reflect the community's creative engagement with American food culture.

Achievement and Aspiration

The second generation has achieved remarkable educational and professional success relative to the starting point of refugee resettlement. Young Bhutanese Americans are attending universities, entering healthcare, technology, education, and social work, starting businesses, and — as the election of Suraj Budathoki to the New Hampshire state legislature in 2024 demonstrated — beginning to engage in formal politics. Campus student associations at universities across the United States and Australia have created networks that both support individual students and build community infrastructure for the next generation of leaders.

The aspiration of many second-generation Bhutanese Americans is not simply individual success but the translation of that success into community benefit — a pattern visible in the careers of Hari Dahal, who built community technology tools alongside his professional career, and others who have redirected professional expertise toward diaspora community needs.

References

1. Khanal, Bhawana, et al. "Aligned and shifting identities in distant diasporas: a multigenerational examination." Asian Ethnicity, Taylor & Francis, 2024. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/19438192.2024.2394372
2. "Homelessness and Uncertain Belonging of the Bhutanese Nepali Diaspora." Critical Humanities, Marshall University, vol. 3, no. 1. https://mds.marshall.edu/criticalhumanities/vol3/iss1/4/
3. Pew Research Center. "Diverse Cultures and Shared Experiences Shape Asian American Identities." May 2023. https://www.pewresearch.org/race-ethnicity/wp-content/uploads/sites/18/2023/05/RE_2023.05.08_Asian-American-Identity_Report.pdf
4. "Placemaking by and for Bhutanese Refugees in the Midwest." South Asian American Digital Archive (SAADA). https://www.saada.org/exhibit/acfp/echoes-of-home
5. "Being Nepali without Nepal: The imaginative process of ethnicity among the Nepali diaspora in Lancaster, Pa." Academia.edu. https://www.academia.edu/20204840/Being_Nepali_without_Nepal_The_imaginative_process_of_ethnicity_among_the_Nepali_diaspora_in_Lancaster_Pa