As a population, the Bhutanese-Nepali community are forced migrants that have faced human rights abuses inflicted by the Bhutanese government. Upon fleeing to the border country of Nepal, they were relegated to and confined in refugee camps for anywhere between 10-20 years before being resettled internationally. As a result of being stateless for a significant period of their life, combined with other additional challenges that stem from low socioeconomic status, lack of access, and increased vulnerability, among numerous other factors, this population is at an increased risk of depression and mental health challenges. 

In the late 19th century, the Bhutanese government actively recruited Nepalese individuals to settle and farm the lands of Southern Bhutan and as a result, it soon started to fill up with Nepali individuals that had migrated over mostly from the eastern regions of Nepal.  In 1945, these Nepali individuals originally from Nepal but now living in Southern Bhutan were given full citizenship by the Bhutanese government. As these individuals started to become more established within Bhutan, the Bhutanese in the Northern and other regions started to feel threatened with the southern Nepali individuals, which were now predominantly Bhutanese-Nepali. The late 1980s and 1990s became a period during which the Nepali language was banned from school curriculum, Nepali-bhutanese individuals were marked as anti-nationionalists, discriminated against, imprisoned and tortured. These individuals started fleeing Bhutan and into Nepal in the early 1990s, and have been living in refugee camps since then. Since 2008, the international community, including the USA started opening its borders for resettlement of the Bhutanese community.