Robust coordination awaited for reintegration of returnee migrant workers

Kathmandu, Dec 17: Nearly four million Nepalis are working abroad, sending remittance to sustain the national economy. The migrant workers are indeed major pillars of economy at home because nearly 25 percent of GDP is fed by the remittance they send from abroad.

More than 2,000 Nepalis leave the country every day for better jobs. Taking into account the remittance flow to the country, such outmigration has been a boon to economy, while the stories about host of challenges they face from Nepal to the countries of destination draw equal concern, thereby pointing out the urgency of better governance of migration.

One of the pressing parts of the migration governance is the reintegration of the migrant returnees in the country. Many Nepalis return home - some with money, skills and experience, and some others with rising debt and plight - aspiring respectable reintegration in the society. But whether they are integrated in the society well with social and financial opportunities in the country and live up to their expectation is still a challenge as the research studies and media stories have revealed from time to time. 

Piloting on reintegration 

Although issues and interventions on safe migration were surfaced and launched long back, intervention on returnee migrants came late. 

The Reintegration of Returnee Migrant Workers (ReMi) is the very project that Nepal government launched in July 2022 by taking into account the issues and concerns of returnee migrant workers. It aimed at engaging the returnee migrants in employment and entrepreneurship along with comfortable reintegration in family and community. With this, they could be treated as a vital workforce within the country where they utilize their skills and experience gained abroad.

A four-year pilot project, covering 20 local levels of Koshi and Madhesh Provinces, is a bilateral initiative of the governments of Nepal and Switzerland to which technical assistance is provided by Helvetas Nepal. In order to enforce the intervention, there are policies and directives from the Federal Government (e.g., the Reintegration Programme Directives), outlining specific roles for Provincial and Local Governments, like leveraging Employment Service Centres (ESCs) as key service delivery points. 

The salient feature of the intervention is the engagement of all three-tiers of government. The intervention aimed at empowering the returnee migrants to cope with the economic, social, and structural obstacles.

Achievements 

Sharing the achievement of the project that has few months left for the completion of the first phase, Team Leader of ReMi at Helvetas Nepal, Madushika Lansakara, informed about the establishment of systems and processes for the full functioning of Employment Service Centres (ESCs) in target local governments so that they could provide counselling, support and referrals to services for returned migrant workers and their families. "These ESCs in 20 local governments have been trained and equipped to act as the first entry points for returnees seeking guidance, offering referrals for skills training, job placements, business development skills, financial literacy and psychosocial support. Many returnees have benefitted through entrepreneurship training and facilitation for soft loans. The local governments facilitate for such loans," she added.

 A poignant case the ReMi Project shared was the rescue of a male- preventing a man returned from foreign job from sliding to a severe mental health condition. It was observed at Katari Municipality of Udayapur in Koshi Province. He had fallen victim to illegal labour condition overseas, resulting in a prolonged worsening of mental health. ReMi's facilitation to his medication with counselling and financial help ensured him remarkable progress in his health status. It was one of the successful cases of social reintegration, a vital part of the activity.

Training in poultry, goat farming, tea farm and entrepreneurship are other schemes that have attracted the women returnee migrants. As many as 16,853 persons were reached out through orientation and awareness under this scheme. Similarly, 3,030 returnee migrants registered at 20 local governments to receive reintegration support and services.

Challenges awaiting address

Irrespective of the positive impacts the project has created, challenges cannot be denied. The challenges exist in collective and multifaceted manner. The ReMi Project has observed that the most critical is the structural economic challenge: Nepali labour market currently lacks the capacity to absorb all returnees into high-quality, well-paying jobs, leading to a high temptation to re-migrate. Skills utilization, mismatch of skills gained abroad, social and psychological stigma, especially toward women returnees, lack of sustained institutional set up and resource mobilization across all government tiers are issues to address well.

In this connection, there is an opportunity to complement Nepali media’s focus on politics by highlighting social narratives like migrant reintegration. As Team Leader Lansakara notes, sustained reporting on returnee success stories can powerfully shift public perceptions. 

Similarly, for strengthening the efforts, Ministry of Labour, Employment and Social Security (MoLESS) and related partners are identifying ways to enhance data integration. Joint Secretary at MoLESS, Krishna Prasad Sapkota, highlighted the potential to build on existing immigration records, creating more comprehensive datasets that allow the Ministry and local partners to better support returnees.

Sapkota argues it is just a pilot project, so we're planning its expansion across all 753 levels. "The Ministry is evaluating the project. Learning from the past intervention, government is for making local level fully responsible in enforcing the activities while the federal and provincial ones in a role of monitoring and facilitation. Now onwards, government is integrating the ReMi under its National Employment Programme which is also in the national budget," he explained.

The experience of the pilot project has made us engage private sector, seek further responsible role of local levels and make the intervention result-oriented, Sapkota said, adding that the second phase after July 2026 would be in full scale. "Digitization is given a high priority for scaling up the intervention that helps builds Nepal's labour market information system," he informed. ReMi is also supporting actively to the MoLESS for this cause. 

Moreover, ReMi project coordinator at Diktel Rupakot Majhuwagadhi municipality of Khotang district, Ojan Babu Acharya, said they were largely focusing on awareness raising at local level so that it would be easier for the returnee migrants to be integrated in the community.  For effectiveness of the intervention, Acharya said, "If the project gives a special focus on the early returnees who are of younger age, they can find more favourable atmosphere for quicker integration and start small business or develop entrepreneurship." Sheer lack of data is obstruction, he added.

The above mixed experiences and observations reinforce that the reintegration is an essential part of migration governance, which needs adequate attention and engagements of all the three-tiers of government with robust coordination and cooperation. We are confronting the urgency of ensuring decent livelihood to returnee migrant workers with better financial and social status, entrepreneurial engagement, good health and zeal. (RSS)