Purposes and destination countries

Middle East countries or to study in European and Western countries. Some other people also migrated in search of better opportunities in foreign countries for a secure future through permanent residency programs. Few Nepalese people having extraordinary intelligence and high profile person such as singers, actors, and journalists are also migrating in foreign countries under specific criteria of pursuing a permanent residency in developed countries.

1. Purposes of migration

The number of migrants for foreign employment is higher than the number of

migrants for study and other purposes. The government of Nepal officially records the number of migrants who either migrate or want to migrate for foreign employment or study abroad.

The Department of Foreign Employment of MoLE, Nepal, officially records the number of migrants who migrated for foreign work by issuing foreign employment permits (Baideshik rojgari anumatri). MoE, Nepal officially records the number of migrants who migrated for abroad study by issuing No Objection Letters. The number of seasonal or temporary migrants is recorded by Non-governmental organizations voluntarily working for the rights of seasonal migrants. There is no such official record of migrants who migrated in search of permanent residency or other purposes. However, there are some news report that claims the number of receiving permanent residency is notable.

a. Migration for work and study

The majority of migrants migrated either for work or study purposes. Figure 2 shows that more than 3.5 million people migrated to foreign countries for work purpose, 0.8 million people migrated for the study abroad purpose (DoFE, 2017 and MoE, 2018). Most unskilled, semi-skilled and relatively less educated people migrated for work as they could not afford the

high cost of to migrate in developed countries.

Meanwhile, those who migrated for study have to complete at least 12 years of education before migration. They are the significant component of migration that flow to Europe and other developed countries and they are planning to stay for work or get married to settle down after completion of their study.

b. Seasonal migration

Nepalese people also migrate for

seasonal or temporary work and the number of seasonal migrants is decreasing year by year.

In general, low-level income, unskilled and relatively less educated or uneducated people are migrating for seasonal-based or low-level work in India after the establishment of the first democracy in 1951. The number of migrants for seasonal work is about 1.5 million in 2017 (Sapkota, 2018).The decreasing number of seasonal migrants as illustrates in figure 2 indicates that the flow of migrants is gradually changing from temporary migration to long term foreign migration, where most of people are migrating in Middle East and Gulf countries.

c. Other types of migration

Very few people also migrate through different migration schemes, for example, a permanent residency of USA through a lottery program, also called Electronic Diversity Visa (EDV). There are more than 31,000 Nepalese people were migrated as a permanent resident of the USA under EDV program until 2005. 900,000 Nepalese people, which covers about 3.1 percent of the country’s population applied for EDV lottery program in 2017 and the chance of winning lottery was 0.35 in the same year (Mukesh Baral, My Republica, 2017). Similarly, few other people migrate after marriage with Nepalese migrants, who is living in foreign

0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5 3 3.5

4 work study seasonal

Figure 2: Purpose based migration

Source: Author’s compilation based on secondary data from CBS (2017), DoFE (2017), Bhattarai (2005), Sapkota (2018) and MoE (2018)

countries. There is no recorded data for this kind of migration.

2. Major destination countries

The majority of Nepalese people are migrate to Malaysia and other Middle East countries for work. It is because of the enormous demand for unskilled and semiskilled workers in those countries and the poor economic conditions of Nepal. Most of migrants had

to leave their families in Nepal. Therefore, they are economically and emotionally tied with their families and communities. Figure 3 illustrates that the highest number of migrants are in Malaysia that covered 29.8 percent of total migrants in 2017. However, some recent news reports show that the number of migrants in Malaysia decreased last year because of the suspension of issuing work permits by the government of Nepal (Mandal, The Kathmandu Post, 2017). The number of migrants in Qatar is 21.57 percent, followed by 10.62 percent in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), 20.37 in Saudi Arabia in 2017. The number of Nepalese migrants in South Korea is also remarkably increasing in recent years because of the bilateral agreement to recruit Nepalese workers under EPS in 2007. Figure 3 shows that 1.32 percent of total migrants are in South Korea in 2017.

Figure 3: Major destination countries for work Source: MoLE, Nepal, 2017

29.88

21.57 10.62

20.37 2.54 1.32 0.86 0.63

0.21

0.35

11.65

Destination countries for work

Malyasia Qatar UAE Saudi Arabia Kuwat South Korea Bahrain Oman Japan Lebanon others

49.44

3.86 22.69

3.59 1.74 2.76

2.41

13.51

Destination countries for study

Australia India Japan USA S.Korea China Poland others

Figure 4: Major destination countries for study Source: MoE, Nepal, 2018

Nepalese people prefer to migrate in European, western and some Northeast Asian countries to pursue higher studies, for example, Australia, the USA, Japan, and Canada.

Australia has emerged as a number one abroad study destination among Nepalese people, covered almost half of the total number of abroad study-related migrants in 2017 (Figure 4). It is because of the easy immigration policy, pleasant climatic condition and quality education of Australia (Nandi Doodle, 2018). Figure 4 shows that the second destination country for the abroad study of Nepalese people is Japan, which covers 22.69 percent. The number of Nepalese migrants in Japan is increasing, and it is because of the easy immigration policy of Japan for international students. The study abroad process for Nepalese People to migrate to Japan is also less time consuming and low risk for Nepalese people. Similarly, another abroad study destination country is India, which include13.51 percent.