Sustaining Nepalīs foreign labor exports
Surya B. Prasai
July 30, 2009
In the middle of 2009, Nepal is facing a crises of economic expectations. Nepal is still among the poorest and least developed countries in the world with almost one-third of its population living below the poverty line, according to the CIA handbook 2009.
While the stark truth is Nepalīs current unemployment rate hovers at 49%, with a foreign debt of $ 3.28 billion, official and unofficial estimates put the countryīs annual foreign remittance earnings at around two thirds that amount, thus making Nepalis relatively less indebted in comparison to other Asia-Pacific countries at the struggling end of development, weak governance and undecided political structures. Like Nepali geographers wrote school text books some three decades back, in 2009 agriculture still remains the mainstay of rural livelihoods of three-fourths of Nepalis while prospects of foreign investment continue dwindling due to insufficient political guarantees.
In 2009, tourism was the only growth sector that marked 5% improvement compared to 2008. Thus, with the deteriorating world economy in 2009, Nepal will continue to see tourism and foreign labor remittance as two viable national income sources for economic stability.
It is crucial the Nepal Government plans more carefully the way it exports foreign labor. Due to positive foreign labor remittance returns in the past decade, the Nepali peopleīs economic purchasing power has increased considerably while at the same time, governmentīs resources have continued dwindling. Nepali migrant workers have become more courageous continuing to reach foreign shores in droves hoping to fulfill their families dreams of a proverbial Pot of Gold.
In the early Eighties, the Philippines promoted a motto īAble Hands in Foreign Landsī. The Philippines has always been considered a pioneer among Asian governmental structures that carefully promoted foreign labor. The Philippines indeed has been promoting foreign labor in quite a few ways that other Asian countries can well emulate, particularly in making sure the workers fit the job profile, develop the necessary technical and language skills, and are educated about their rights and obligations so they can perform well in host countries.
In 2008, the Nepal Government report on overseas employment promotion mentioned the number of countries seeking Nepali workers had doubled. However the quality of workers remained stagnant education and skills-wise. Nepali labor experts ought to be honest with themselves: Nepal cannot continue generating a pool of unskilled workers at lower rung jobs, since the nature of foreign labor markets is slowly transforming to a more higher technological absorption base. Migration costs have continued to grow, particularly to East Asia and the Middle East labor destinations.
In the last reliable report of 2008, the Nepal Governmentīs Department of Labor and Employment Promotion stated that workers leaving for Qatar, Malaysia, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Saudi Arabia had made up more than 93 percent of the total departures during the first 11 months of the fiscal year 2007-08. Of the total 215,639 workers, which is a record number to date, most were unskilled. The Nepal Government recorded 201,507 workers headed to four countries to fill in for blue-collar jobs in construction, manufacturing and service sectors. On the other hand, there were also governments in Qatar, Japan, South Korea and Malaysia that had tested Nepali workers for their hard work, honesty and ability to do more than just dirty and dangerous jobs. They were convinced that Nepali workers could perform in an excellent manner in management oriented jobs as well. Recently, Nepal has requested for revision of its air and labor agreements to some of the traditional labor receiving countries in the hope of promoting better skilled workers and boost internal tourism revenue. However, one should note, Nepali labor attaches are posted in only a handful of Nepali embassies worldwide, though many Nepali diplomats abroad are performing a valiant job in listening to the woes of mostly unskilled workers. It has almost become a bad Nepali precedent to ask for help while facing distress, and usually the poor attaché has little in his hands to try anything new or innovative to assist at the eleventh hour.
There is a strategic dimension to Nepali foreign employment as well. It is just more than a coincidence that Nepali workers mostly work in countries where the U.S and India have a major strategic hold and foreign policy stake. Nepali workers are in fact, considered by most of the host countries as a secondary stream of the Indian labor force which has been in those countries for decades, sending nearly US$ 19 billion a year back to India last year! For instance, recently Saudi Arabia opened a quota for 100,000 Nepali workers, many Nepali migrants are already settled there comfortably for more than two generations.
One of Nepalīs most well known, frank, persuasive and foresighted intellectuals, Professor Sridhar Kumar Khatri, has stated for more than two decades that Nepalīs economy has good prospects and enough reasons to survive, if it promotes systematic overseas employment tailored to various emergent host country requirements. In fact, Professor Khatri is probably the first to predict that the changing dependence of the Nepali economy on foreign workers remittance would slowly outpace national agricultural exports as land became more scarce.
In a major workshop on Labor Migration Poverty Alleviation and Foreign Employment conducted in August, 2007 in Kathmandu, this view of Professor Khatri was resonated by many, including then Finance Minister Ram Sharan Mahat. Professor Khatriīs truthful argument has been that labor export īreturnsī must be viewed at a more macro economic level. It is well vindicated by the fact that Nepalīs economic growth and stability, despite the civil conflict that took place between 1996-2006, was largely sustained through migrant remittances which was gauged at US$1.7 to 2 billion dollars annually for the past half decade alone. Lest one forget, Nepalīs foreign labor remittance phenomenon is also a fruit of Nepali democracy in the post-1990 period, and all political parties and governments have contributed in some manner to foreign employment promotion. In fact, the post-1990 Nepali democratic process contributed to a new liberal passport and immigration policy to countries other than India.
Like all past governments, the current government led by Mr. Madhav Kumar Nepal too has promised to fill in with quality service and extend all necessary infrastructure required to promote foreign employment and assist Nepali migrant workers abroad. A good bet would be to extend Nepalīs diplomatic reach abroad with well equipped labor attaches particularly among countries where Nepali labor streams tend to congregate more. However, there must be a definite enhancement of skilled Nepali laborers too. The drawback is, the current constitution framing stalemate in Nepal has affected everything. Nepalīs foreign labor placement woes in 2009, just like the national peace equation, has no easy panacea or logical conclusion worth recording! However, the past year did show the number of countries hiring Nepali workers on a regular basis had shot up to 64 from 38.
Where lies the future of Nepali labor exports then? Today, Nepal permits its citizens to work in 107 countries around the world except Iraq, which is highly impressive. In future, the Nepal Government must push various universities and colleges to introduce foreign language courses, train young graduates at least two or three vocational skills, so they can easily adjust at host destinations, and provide labor skills certification which will increase their chances of earning even higher salaries abroad. According to the Skills Training Directorate, a government-run skill training center, in the past year, nearly 16,000 Nepalis got training in various subjects such as masonry, automobile repair, plumbing, house wiring and other occupations, but the fact is, this is a meager sum to contend with. The reality remains, thousands of Nepali able hands are still wishing to join foreign lands for a safe income and the promise of a better quality of life so they can remit some income to their poor families back home.
While the stark truth is Nepalīs current unemployment rate hovers at 49%, with a foreign debt of $ 3.28 billion, official and unofficial estimates put the countryīs annual foreign remittance earnings at around two thirds that amount, thus making Nepalis relatively less indebted in comparison to other Asia-Pacific countries at the struggling end of development, weak governance and undecided political structures. Like Nepali geographers wrote school text books some three decades back, in 2009 agriculture still remains the mainstay of rural livelihoods of three-fourths of Nepalis while prospects of foreign investment continue dwindling due to insufficient political guarantees.
In 2009, tourism was the only growth sector that marked 5% improvement compared to 2008. Thus, with the deteriorating world economy in 2009, Nepal will continue to see tourism and foreign labor remittance as two viable national income sources for economic stability.
It is crucial the Nepal Government plans more carefully the way it exports foreign labor. Due to positive foreign labor remittance returns in the past decade, the Nepali peopleīs economic purchasing power has increased considerably while at the same time, governmentīs resources have continued dwindling. Nepali migrant workers have become more courageous continuing to reach foreign shores in droves hoping to fulfill their families dreams of a proverbial Pot of Gold.
In the early Eighties, the Philippines promoted a motto īAble Hands in Foreign Landsī. The Philippines has always been considered a pioneer among Asian governmental structures that carefully promoted foreign labor. The Philippines indeed has been promoting foreign labor in quite a few ways that other Asian countries can well emulate, particularly in making sure the workers fit the job profile, develop the necessary technical and language skills, and are educated about their rights and obligations so they can perform well in host countries.
In 2008, the Nepal Government report on overseas employment promotion mentioned the number of countries seeking Nepali workers had doubled. However the quality of workers remained stagnant education and skills-wise. Nepali labor experts ought to be honest with themselves: Nepal cannot continue generating a pool of unskilled workers at lower rung jobs, since the nature of foreign labor markets is slowly transforming to a more higher technological absorption base. Migration costs have continued to grow, particularly to East Asia and the Middle East labor destinations.
In the last reliable report of 2008, the Nepal Governmentīs Department of Labor and Employment Promotion stated that workers leaving for Qatar, Malaysia, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Saudi Arabia had made up more than 93 percent of the total departures during the first 11 months of the fiscal year 2007-08. Of the total 215,639 workers, which is a record number to date, most were unskilled. The Nepal Government recorded 201,507 workers headed to four countries to fill in for blue-collar jobs in construction, manufacturing and service sectors. On the other hand, there were also governments in Qatar, Japan, South Korea and Malaysia that had tested Nepali workers for their hard work, honesty and ability to do more than just dirty and dangerous jobs. They were convinced that Nepali workers could perform in an excellent manner in management oriented jobs as well. Recently, Nepal has requested for revision of its air and labor agreements to some of the traditional labor receiving countries in the hope of promoting better skilled workers and boost internal tourism revenue. However, one should note, Nepali labor attaches are posted in only a handful of Nepali embassies worldwide, though many Nepali diplomats abroad are performing a valiant job in listening to the woes of mostly unskilled workers. It has almost become a bad Nepali precedent to ask for help while facing distress, and usually the poor attaché has little in his hands to try anything new or innovative to assist at the eleventh hour.
There is a strategic dimension to Nepali foreign employment as well. It is just more than a coincidence that Nepali workers mostly work in countries where the U.S and India have a major strategic hold and foreign policy stake. Nepali workers are in fact, considered by most of the host countries as a secondary stream of the Indian labor force which has been in those countries for decades, sending nearly US$ 19 billion a year back to India last year! For instance, recently Saudi Arabia opened a quota for 100,000 Nepali workers, many Nepali migrants are already settled there comfortably for more than two generations.
One of Nepalīs most well known, frank, persuasive and foresighted intellectuals, Professor Sridhar Kumar Khatri, has stated for more than two decades that Nepalīs economy has good prospects and enough reasons to survive, if it promotes systematic overseas employment tailored to various emergent host country requirements. In fact, Professor Khatri is probably the first to predict that the changing dependence of the Nepali economy on foreign workers remittance would slowly outpace national agricultural exports as land became more scarce.
In a major workshop on Labor Migration Poverty Alleviation and Foreign Employment conducted in August, 2007 in Kathmandu, this view of Professor Khatri was resonated by many, including then Finance Minister Ram Sharan Mahat. Professor Khatriīs truthful argument has been that labor export īreturnsī must be viewed at a more macro economic level. It is well vindicated by the fact that Nepalīs economic growth and stability, despite the civil conflict that took place between 1996-2006, was largely sustained through migrant remittances which was gauged at US$1.7 to 2 billion dollars annually for the past half decade alone. Lest one forget, Nepalīs foreign labor remittance phenomenon is also a fruit of Nepali democracy in the post-1990 period, and all political parties and governments have contributed in some manner to foreign employment promotion. In fact, the post-1990 Nepali democratic process contributed to a new liberal passport and immigration policy to countries other than India.
Like all past governments, the current government led by Mr. Madhav Kumar Nepal too has promised to fill in with quality service and extend all necessary infrastructure required to promote foreign employment and assist Nepali migrant workers abroad. A good bet would be to extend Nepalīs diplomatic reach abroad with well equipped labor attaches particularly among countries where Nepali labor streams tend to congregate more. However, there must be a definite enhancement of skilled Nepali laborers too. The drawback is, the current constitution framing stalemate in Nepal has affected everything. Nepalīs foreign labor placement woes in 2009, just like the national peace equation, has no easy panacea or logical conclusion worth recording! However, the past year did show the number of countries hiring Nepali workers on a regular basis had shot up to 64 from 38.
Where lies the future of Nepali labor exports then? Today, Nepal permits its citizens to work in 107 countries around the world except Iraq, which is highly impressive. In future, the Nepal Government must push various universities and colleges to introduce foreign language courses, train young graduates at least two or three vocational skills, so they can easily adjust at host destinations, and provide labor skills certification which will increase their chances of earning even higher salaries abroad. According to the Skills Training Directorate, a government-run skill training center, in the past year, nearly 16,000 Nepalis got training in various subjects such as masonry, automobile repair, plumbing, house wiring and other occupations, but the fact is, this is a meager sum to contend with. The reality remains, thousands of Nepali able hands are still wishing to join foreign lands for a safe income and the promise of a better quality of life so they can remit some income to their poor families back home.