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British Bhutanese are people of Bhutanese ancestry who are citizens of the United Kingdom or resident in the country. This includes people born in the UK who are of Bhutanese descent, and Bhutan-born people who have migrated to the UK.
According to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, around 350 Bhutanese refugees settled in the United Kingdom in 2007.[1] The resettlement was carried out under the Gateway Protection Programme.[2]
The European Resettlement Network, which is co-coordinated between the International Organization for Migration, the UNHCR, and International Catholic Migration Commission, has produced data which suggests this has mainly been from asylum centers in Nepal.[3] Countries such as the United States and Canada have also welcomed many Bhutanese immigrants, alongside the UK.[4][5]
In August 2010, the first known Bhutanese people to emigrate to the United Kingdom arrived in the country. The resettlement came after the UK Border Agency sent an interviewing team to the refugee centres of Nepal, including the Beldangi, Goldhap, Khudunabari, Sanischare and Timai camps.[6] In May 2013, a group of Bhutanese British residents, who had successfully settled in the UK, presented a talk at SOAS University of London, detailing the experiences of acclimatising to life in the country.[7]
In April 2016, Prince William and the Duchess of Cambridge met with a group of Bhutanese Britons, who worked and studied in the United Kingdom, at their Kensington Palace home.[8] The meeting was aimed at speaking with Chevening Scholarship-Bhutanese students,[9] who wore traditional gho and Kira-dress, ahead of a royal visit to Bhutan.[10] Notable Bhutanese people to have studied in Britain include filmmaker and lama Khyentse Norbu, who attended SOAS University of London, the School of Oriental and African Studies, in the early 1990s.[11]
In a study conducted for the European Bulletin of Himalayan Research in 2013, Dr Nicole Hoellerer examined integration difficulties for Bhutanese people, including unemployment, cultural adjustment, language barriers, and mental health, particularly for those living in the Greater Manchester area.[12] Springer's Journal of International Migration and Integration, in 2020 published research into Bhutanese Britons and Bhutanese Americans, and their integration in the respective nations.[13]
A core group of eight countries came together in 2007 to create this opportunity for Bhutanese refugees to begin new lives: Australia (5,554), Canada (6,500), Denmark (874), New Zealand (1002), the Netherlands (327), Norway (566), the United Kingdom (358) and the United States of America (84,819).
About 350 Bhutanese refugees have been resettled through the UK's Gateway Protection Programme since 2010.
Since 2007, 8 resettlement countries – Australia (3,837), Canada (5,296), Denmark (724), the Netherlands (326), New Zealand (710), Norway (546), the United Kingdom (257) and the United States (63,400) – have together resettled over 75,000 Bhutanese refugees from the camps in Nepal.
The other countries offering resettlement for Bhutanese refugees are Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Denmark, Norway, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom.
To mark these milestones, the governments that have generously welcomed Bhutanese refugees and offered them citizenship - the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Norway, Denmark, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom, hopefully joined by India and other regional players - should now press Bhutan at least to allow elderly refugees to spend their remaining days in their homeland.
On the first day of the workshop, a group of resettled Bhutanese refugees reflected on their own migration trajectories in the UK. Their accounts covered expectations and triumphs as well as struggles and disappointments.
She seemed to have made quite a 'diplomatically' impressive decision when she chose to wear an India-born designer's creation when she had to welcome Indian and Bhutanese expats who live, work and study in Britain to Kensington Palace in London.
The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, Prince William and Kate Middleton, have been seeking advice from Chevening Scholars ahead of their upcoming trip to India and Bhutan.
The royals invited a group of Bhutanese and Indian students enrolled on the FCO's Chevening Scholarship Programme, the UK's international awards scheme aimed at developing global leaders to meet them at a reception at their Kensington home for a chat ahead of their trip.
