Skills transfer, employability & entrepreneurship of returnee labour migrants in Nepal.
Authors: van Teijlingen, E., Simkhada, P., Regmi, P., Aryal, N. and Adhikari, K.
Conference: BNAC 16th Nepal Study Days (Nepal Conference)
Dates: 16-17 April 2018
Journal: http://bnac.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/BNAC-NSD-Durham-Programme-and-Abstracts.pdf
Abstract:In recent decades, Nepal has emerged as a key contributor to outward economic migration, and particularly in unskilled and semi-skilled occupations. Of its 26.5 million population, approximately 3.5 million Nepalis are working abroad; primarily in Malaysia, the six countries of the Gulf Co-operation Council (GCC) and India. Remittance is a mainstay of the Nepalese economy currently contributing 32% of total Gross Domestic Product (GDP), and, Nepal is the first largest recipient of remittances in terms of its share on national GDP. In addition to the remittance, migrant workers also bring back new skills, knowledge and ideas acquired from overseas employment. However, migration also opens up channels to gain high-waged employment and develop entrepreneurship in the migrants’ country of origin.
Skills, experiences and knowledge which the returnee migrants possess can also be effectively transferred in the home country context through application or by teaching new skills to non-migrants. These possibilities are of much significance to the sending countries like Nepal whose economic migrants return usually with more skills than when they left.
There is no literature review which examines the new skills of Nepalese returnee migrants, their employment prospects at home, and applicability and portability of acquired skills in the Nepalese labour market. Likewise, there is a limited review of studies which have
examined the challenges and barriers faced by returnees to re-integrate into the workforce.
Against this backdrop, the proposed presentation aims to share key findings from a comprehensive review of out-migration by disaggregating positive impacts (skill transfer, entrepreneurship) of returnee migrants as well as the negative impacts (skill shortage, skill lost, skill redundancy) on the Nepalese labour market. It will assess relevant existing legislations, policies and practices in Nepal, and seek to compare policies across South Asian region, and suggest policy development in Nepal.
Source: Manual