This article demonstrates that a growing number of Tibetans aspire

to migrate to the West and that their ‘capital’ in India, Dharamsala,

has become a place of various on-migration activities for the Tibetan

newcomers who have relatively recently arrived to India. The case

is connected with the current academic discussion on on-migration, a

task that has not been fulfilled in the context of this locality before.

The study is done by qualitative ethnographic methods, examining

migration aspirations of the Tibetan newcomers and their flow out

of Dharamsala particularly through heterogeneous refugee narratives

and the statements of the Tibetan settlement officials. There is no

single motive behind the on-migration aspirations of the Tibetan

newcomers, but the interviewees highlighted their livelihood-related

difficulties, although increased freedoms in India compared with Tibet

under the Chinese rule were appreciated. Hence, global socio-economic

and political inequalities affect the migration patterns of the Tibetan

newcomers.