Time For Introspection

A continuous exodus of Nepali youths abroad is a clear indication that the push factor is becoming dominant. In 2024 alone, as many as 66,835 Nepalis left the country for permanent residence abroad. Of them, 34,544 were male and 32,287 female. While this statistics is lower than that of the preceding year, the Department of Immigration highlights that the highest number of Nepalis go abroad in search of a job.

So, it is self-explanatory that unemployment is one of the core issues facing the country. There remains a huge gap between the job market’s demand and the actual availability of human resources. Amidst this situation, while youths travel abroad, the new migrant policy adopted by the United States of America (USA) is bringing them back home. No sooner had newly-elected US President Donald Trump assumed his office than his administration released a list of illegal immigrants for mass deportation. Its list shows some 1,365 Nepalis are being deported to Nepal.

This situation points to a room for introspection. Firstly, there is an American dream playing a part, but people’s effort to get to that country even through illegal means is a reflection of unemployment back home too. Secondly, if the number of illegal immigrants increases in coming times, it will exacerbate the problem of joblessness in our nation. Obviously, a question arises as to what the returning migrants will do once back home. Nepal’s mechanism is weak when it comes to ensuring employment for the people who are living here. 

And it is the same to manage returning migrants or make use of their skills and expertise that they have gained abroad. But one good outcome of this situation is that the policy will stop human traffickers from making attempts to send hapless youths to the USA. In the past, there were heydays for the traffickers to deceive Nepali youths on the pretext of taking them to America. Back channel routes had become popular for Nepalis to travel abroad. They would pay hefty sums to travel through dangerous routes. However, this was not always successful and many had to return home empty-handed while some lost their lives. 

But there could be a different side to this story as well. Many could flock to other countries, trying to identify destinations easy to enter. Nepal’s migrants abroad have more or less carried the nation’s economic burden through foreign remittances. Our remittance-dependency is very huge, but it is not sustainable. Therefore, the country is in need of making use of remittances in capital forming productive sectors and creating jobs. 

The demographic window of opportunity is decreasing with each passing year, and in the worst case scenario, there might be cases where countries would stop taking migrants to ensure opportunities for their own citizens. If the present US policy is followed by other countries as well, this will have a direct impact on our country. So, we must try to fend off such vulnerabilities and risks at all costs. Nepal is in need of an effective strategy and its timely execution by experts to tackle the worsening problem of unemployment. 

Until and unless this does not happen, people will always search for opportunities to travel abroad and work there. This could even mean getting involved in illegal ways to find jobs. As long as our structural problems are not tackled, policy changes taking place in some other parts of the world are bound to affect us badly. Therefore, the government must work on making reforms like improving the education system, creating a skilled workforce and developing its production and productivity capacity.