Nepal Now: On the Move
We're talking with the people migrating from, to, and within this Himalayan country located between China and India. You'll hear from a wide range of Nepali men and women who have chosen to leave the country for better work or education opportunities. Their stories will help you understand what drives people — in Nepal and worldwide — to mortgage their property or borrow huge sums of money to go abroad, often leaving their loved ones behind.
Despite many predictions, migration from Nepal has not slowed in recent years, except briefly during the height of the Covid-19 pandemic. About 1 million Nepalis leave every year to work at jobs outside the country. Tens of thousands go abroad to study. Far fewer return to Nepal to settle. The money ('remittances') that workers send home to their families accounts for 25% of the country's GDP, but migration impacts Nepal in many other ways. We'll be learning from migrants, experts and others about the many cultural, social, economic and political impacts of migration.
Your host is Marty Logan, a Canadian journalist who has lived in Nepal's capital Kathmandu off and on since 2005. Marty started the show in 2020 as Nepal Now.
Nepal Now: On the Move
Right Now! A migrant couple aims for South Korea; protests over Nepalis stuck in Russia
What do you think? Send us a text
Welcome to Nepal Now: Right Now, a weekly micro-episode where we share news about the show and what's happening in migration as it affects Nepal.
First, I want to give a shout out to listener Sikhar for his persistence. He wrote and suggested a guest to me. And somehow I couldn't figure out how I could link that guest and their work with this, podcast on migration. And so I wrote back to him. He wrote back to me and very clearly spelled it out. And so I finally got it. So thank you very much again, Sikhar, for, um, for sticking with it and making me understand what you were suggesting.
This week I'll be recording two interviews. The first will be with a migration expert. We'll be talking about women migrant workers. And in particular, we'll be discussing the Sushma case. You might remember Sushma, whose episode we aired a few weeks back. She went to Kuwait and had to come back early.
Also this week, there's a traveling government consultation that's happening, on the government's draft labor migration policy. Hopefully some of the proposals that they present will make things better for migrant workers like Sushma.
The second interview I'm doing this week is with a couple who are both applying to go work in South Korea. I met and talked to the husband when he had just finished his first exam. But they're both applying to go, which is quite unusual, I think. And what makes their story even more unique is that they met as migrant workers in Saudi Arabia before COVID.
Also in the news this week and last, there have been protests by family members of migrants who were recruited to go work in Russia and nearby countries and then taken into the Russian army. And a number of Nepalese now have died while serving in the Russian army and more are there trying to get back and have appealed to the government to help them come back. I even read a report this week that some of those recruits were let go from the army and then stuck in this kind of no man's land near the border with Ukraine and Russia, never made it out and have now been forced to go back into the army and continue serving.
Also in the news this week, in Nepali Times, they're running a series on internal migration from the eastern hills down to the plains, a migration caused by drought and climate change, also. If you're interested, I'll put the links to these stories in the notes to this episode.
Resources
Article on migrants stuck in Russia
Nepali Times reporting on drought and internal migration
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Music by audionautix.com.
Thank you to Himal Media in Patan Dhoka for the use of their studio.
Hi, everyone. Welcome to Nepal Now: Right Now, a weekly micro episode where we share news about the show and what's happening in migration as it affects Nepal. First, I want to give a shout out to listener Sikhar for his persistence. He wrote and suggested a guest to me. And somehow I couldn't figure out how I could link that guest and their work with this, podcast on migration. And so I wrote back to him. He wrote back to me and very clearly spelled it out. And so I finally got it. So thank you very much again, Sikhar, for, um, for sticking with it and making me understand what you were suggesting. If any of you out there also have any ideas for people who you think could appear on the show, or other feedback about the show itself, what you've listened to, or just some ideas you have about how to improve it, that would be great. You can write to me at nepalnowpod at gmail. com. This week I'll be recording two interviews. The first will be with a migration expert. We'll be talking about women migrant workers. And in particular, we'll be discussing the Sushma case. You might remember Sushma, whose episode we aired a few weeks back. She went to Kuwait and had to come back early. And so as we're doing that, there's also a traveling government consultation that's happening on its draft labor migration policy. So it's been to four provinces so far and has three more to do, going around consulting migrant workers apparently and officials and other people involved in the whole migration process. And hopefully some of the proposals that they present will make things better for migrant workers like Sushma. So let's see what happens with that. The second interview I'm doing this week is with a couple who are both applying to go work in South Korea. I met and talked to the husband when he had just finished his first exam. The second one apparently doesn't come till the end of the year. But they're both applying to go, which is quite unusual, I think. And what makes their story even more unique is that they met as migrant workers in Saudi Arabia before COVID. So I'm really looking forward to hearing their story. Also, in the news this week and last, there have been protests by family members of migrants There have been protests by family members of migrants who were who were recruited to go work in Russia and nearby countries and then taken into the Russian army. And a number of Nepalese now have died while serving in the Russian army and more are there trying to get back and have appealed to the government to help them come back. I even read a report this week that some of those recruits were let go from the army and then stuck in this kind of no man's land near the border with Ukraine and Russia, never made it out and have now been forced to go back into the army and continue serving. Also in the news this week, in Nepali Times, they're running a series on internal migration from the eastern hills down to the plains. A migration caused by drought and climate change, also. If you're interested, I'll put the links to these stories in the notes to this episode. Also this week, I met a former guest on the show, Prem Awasthi, who went to Kabul just at the end of the year, 2023. So he's been there over three months now, and sounds like he's still finding his feet working for the UN there, but it was great to see him and talk about his experiences so far, and who knows, maybe we'll hear from him on the show again. So that's it for this week. If you have any thoughts about what you've heard, you can leave a comment on our channels. We're on Instagram, LinkedIn, or YouTube. Or again, you can email me at NepalNowPod at gmail. com. I'll talk to you next week.
