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
2/3 of manpower agencies suspended; brain drain or brain circulation?
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Last week the show reached 80 episodes. It's not a significant number, except that it brings us closer to what will be a milestone—100 episodes. I figure we'll reach that at around the end of the year, and will definitely want to mark it somehow. Maybe with T-shirts, other 'merch', or a Best Of episode? How about an online party? If you have any ideas to celebrate, send them along using the text message link at the top left of these notes.
In migration news this week, Republica newspaper reported that the government had put 'on hold' 548 manpower agencies. These are the companies that arrange jobs for migrant workers going abroad, and which are constantly being accused of over charging and otherwise trying to take advantage of workers. 548 is a huge figure, given that the total number of agencies is said to be about 850 - 870, but based on the accusations that fly around about deceitful agencies, it's not all that surprising. The big question for me is: will these companies soon be let off the hook or will they actually be punished somehow?
This week's other news that I noted is an argument that the 'brain drain' of educated students should actually be considered a 'brain circulation'. The authors suggest that eventually the students give back a huge amount to their home countries, via remittances and other means. I would like to see more statistics behind these claims, but it's certainly an interesting theory.
Next week we'll be speaking with Nepali journalist Pramod Acharya. His reporting about Nepalis working in Persian Gulf countries, especially those building stadiums for the World Cup in Qatar and others working in Amazon warehouses in Saudi Arabia, has earned him many awards and high praise.
Let us know what you thought of this week's episode, on social media, via email or text message.
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Manpower agencies suspended
Brain drain or brain circulation?
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Music by audionautix.com.
Thank you to Himal Media in Patan Dhoka for the use of their studio.
Hi everyone, this is Marty. Thank you for joining me for another episode of Nepal. Now: Right Now!, where we share feedback from listeners and news about migration and Nepal. I noticed sometime last week that I had just posted episode number 80, if you count the ones I did as Nepal Now between 2020 and 2023. And 80 itself isn't really a momentous number, but it does signal that one is coming up, of course, number 100. And if my calculations are correct, that should be sometime around the end of this year. So it's a big event. 100 episodes is, for me, a major achievement. And I'm wondering how can this little podcast celebrate such a big milestone? Do we make t shirts? A'best of' episode? Something else to give away? Do we have some sort of online party? I don't know. I'm not great at these things, but if you have a suggestion, why don't you send it to me via the text message function. Click on the link at the top of the notes episode, or any episode, actually, and you can send me a text message, for about six rupees from Nepal. And if you're somewhere else, sending to the US, the normal rates would apply. In terms of migration news this week, one story that caught my eye is that 548 manpower companies were, the newspapers said, put on hold, which I think means more or less suspended, for basically cheating workers. These manpower agencies are private companies that more or less make all the arrangements for a migrant worker who's planning to go overseas. So, they arrange the physical exams that every worker needs to take, um, buy the plane tickets, and of course work out the contract for the worker in the host country. And over the years, these agencies have continually been accused of overcharging potential migrant workers or telling them that they'll be sent to country X to do job A, and instead they find out that they're going to country Y and doing job B, which inevitably is more difficult and pays them less than they've been told. So 548 companies suspended is a huge number because from my quick Google research, I see that the total number of these manpower agencies is around 850, 872 according to one estimate. So that would mean that two thirds of the companies have been suspended,, which of course is very significant. While doing this research, I found one study that estimated that about 80 percent of workers use these private agencies and others managed to go overseas with the help of neighbors, friends, and family members. And of course, none of these figures count the many, many migrant workers who just cross the border visa-free going to India. So for me, the big question from this news is, how long will the suspensions last? The cynical side of me says not very long at all, but I'll be looking for updates. If you have heard anything about this that you want to share with me, if you have any inside information, please send me an email, nepalnowpod(at)gmail.com. The other interesting piece of news was written by someone I interviewed a couple of years back for another podcast, for IPS News, and it looks at the issue of brain drain educated people leaving the country to go work elsewhere. But it argues that brain drain is not actually completely negative, and suggests that the term should be replaced by another one, which is brain circulation. So the co authors say that students going overseas can benefit their home countries in many ways, including by sending remittances and arranging for foreign direct investment. Also, that the successful migration of educated Nepalis, in this example, would lead more young people in Nepali to emulate those who migrated to go to school to get a good education. And in that way, it brings up the education level of the population in general. And the third way that international migration, student migration, helps home countries, according to the article, is that after successfully graduating in the host country, these individuals run businesses and eventually gain enough experience that they go back home and start businesses and in some cases kind of spark the beginning of a whole new industry as happened in India with high tech in Bangalore and other areas. Now, I'm not completely convinced by these arguments. In terms of students earning money and sending it back. I think that would take many years after graduation to happen. So I think it's definitely a delayed benefit. And of course, I think these things need to be measured more precisely. In terms of the argument that educated Nepalis leaving the country would motivate more young people to get better educated, well, I think many of those next wave of young people would again follow in the footsteps of their predecessors and just leave the country with their education. So again, I'd like to see more details behind these arguments. I'm not dismissing them, but I think they need to be looked at more carefully. So coming up next week, we're going to have the episode that was scheduled for last week that we couldn't quite finish in time. Instead, I posted an episode with Head Teacher Kishor Kumar Rai talking about the Taplejung IT Academy. If you haven't heard that, it's a short episode, it's about 15 minutes, so take a listen to that now before next week. Next week we'll finally be speaking with Pramod Acharya. He's a Nepali journalist who reports about migration, and in recent years particularly about Nepali migrant workers in Gulf countries, including those who worked building stadiums and other infrastructure for the World Cup in Qatar a couple of years ago, and also, Nepalis working in Amazon warehouses in Saudi Arabia, and he exposed many wrongdoings, um, in terms of how those workers were treated. I'm really looking forward to talking to him about how he did that work and what's coming up next. That's it for this week for Nepal Now: Right Now. Thank you for spending your time with me. I'll talk to you again next week.
