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© 2024 Nepal Now: On the Move
Description
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.
86 Episodes
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What do you think? Send us a textFrom Kathmandu to Kabul is not really that far in this era of daily intercontinental flights. And today’s guest Prem Awasthi is also fortunate in that he gets to make the return trip home at least every six weeks. But still, he already feels that less than a year after migrating to work abroad, his roots in his homeland are somehow shallower. If you missed it, Prem was the first ever guest of the show after we relaunched earlier this year to focus solely ...
What do you think? Send us a textToday’s episode is not a migration story; you could even call it a non-migration story. I’m chatting with someone successful enough in her field that you could easily imagine her skills being in demand in many other countries, and that she could leave Nepal if she wished. But of course she hasn’t. Like many Nepalis, Dr Rojina Shilpakar went to Bangladesh to study medicine, then returned to Nepal. Searching for a niche, she found it quite fast at Sushma Ko...
What do you think? Send us a textUp until now I've been recording most of these episodes speaking into a half-empty clothes cupboard. It's sounded surprisingly good, at least to me, but from next week I will have a slightly more professional setup: a dedicated — though tiny — space, basic soundproofing on the walls, and a new mic. I hope we'll be able to hear the difference.In migration news this week, I came across an article featuring data on students going overseas to study in the past yea...
What do you think? Send us a textMistreatment of migrant workers, especially those forced to work in hot, dangerous conditions, created huge headlines in the run-up to the Qatar World Cup in 2022, thanks in part to the work of today’s guest—journalist Pramod Acharya. Pramod’s subsequent reporting also made the news globally. Also done in collaboration with journalists around the world, it spotlighted the conditions faced by Nepalis and others working in Amazon warehouses in Saudi Arabia, and ...
What do you think? Send us a textLast 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 th...
What do you think? Send us a textIt’s amazing what you can find when curiosity is your guide.I was on a reporting trip in Taplejung district in northeast Nepal, bordering Tibet and India. I had an extra day so I thought I’d look for a school that provides meals to its students. It’s a topic I’ve been following for the past couple of years. I asked a guy I met at the hotel if he knew of a school principal in town— it turned out that he was the head of the committee of a local school. He took m...
What do you think? Send us a textI want to start this week with a shout out to Tanka, who shared our 3 latest episodes on LinkedIn, including his favourite. His top choice was our chat with Raj and Sunita, who met, online, while working in Gulf countries, got married in Nepal and are now living here again, at least temporarily. Although they’re now pregnant, they appear destined to be a migration family, as Raj is now trying to get a work visa for South Korea.Do you have a favourite episode o...
What do you think? Send us a textIf you’ve been listening to this show since we re-launched in March to focus only on migration, I think, like me, you would have started to see that there is no one type of migration story. Yes, there are two large groups of migrants — people going abroad to work and others going to study. But within those are a vast number of sub-groups, for example, people going to work because they cannot imagine any other way to earn money (and then within that group are t...
What do you think? Send us a textThank you to listener Trilok for pointing out a typo that was on the Nepal Now webpage for almost 4 years, from episode #1. I'm embarrassed but grateful to his sharp eyes. Please keep the feedback coming, via LinkedIn, as Trilok did, or at the other social channels listed below. You can also email: nepalnowpod(at)gmail.com, or text the show at the link at the top left. It's a US number so the usual messaging charges would apply. I don't think we have man...
What do you think? Send us a textToday we’re back with another personal story—two in fact: those of Raj and Sunita. I gotta admit, what I like about this story is the romance element, which is something we haven’t heard from other guests so far. What they told us, when we recorded in the ACORAB studio in Chakupat, Patan, was that they were both working in Persian Gulf countries when a colleague suggested that they become Facebook friends. Sunita and Raj then chatted online for three years bef...
What do you think? Send us a textToday we’re taking a step back from the personal stories we’ve been hearing to get some perspective on migration and Nepal. Specifically, we’re talking about women who leave the country to work, including why a ban on them migrating as domestic workers is not a good idea. We’ll also hear – and this is the idea that jolted my brain during the interview – why we need to share positive news about women’s migration. My guest today, in the Himal Media studio i...
What do you think? Send us a textHi everyone, this is Marty. I got a really interesting and positive email about our last interview with Soham, who first moved to the US when he was 17, a couple of decades ago, and he's been going back and forth ever since. The email was from Jennifer, and I want to read a few excerpts: "I learned so much as it's information which is not easily available. It also validated at a gut level what I thought was happening in Nepal. I appreciate the new perspectives...
What do you think? Send us a textToday we’re speaking with Soham Dhakal, who first travelled to the US when he was 17 and has been back and forth between the two countries so many times he considers himself a nomad. But before we get to Soham’s story I want to correct something I said last week. Our new text messaging service is not limited: it’s for everyone listening to the show, on any app. Sneak a quick look now to confirm: at the top of the description to this episode – and every episode...
What do you think? Send us a textIf you listen to the show on Buzzsprout, which happens to be the platform I use to host the podcast also, you can now send me a text message directly from the website. So what you do is, in the description of each episode, at the very top left, you'll see a link that says, send a text or send me a text. Click on that and your messaging app will open on your phone and you can write me a text message, which I think is pretty cool. Also this week, uh, some ...
What do you think? Send us a textAayush Pokharel will soon be graduating from his diploma programme in Canada, and so his search for a full-time job has already started. He’ll have three years to work in the country before leaving or applying for permanent residency. For now he says he wants to come back to Nepal. Aayush was one of more than 20,000 young Nepalis officially studying in Canada in 2023, according to one report. That’s almost triple the 7,680 students in 2022, making Canada one o...
What do you think? Send us a textWelcome 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 finall...
What do you think? Send us a textHi everyone. I’m Marty Logan. Thank you for clicking on this episode of Nepal Now: On the Move, where we speak with some of the huge number of people leaving – and occasionally returning – to this country wedged between India and China. Bharat Adhikari is another former migrant worker who returned to live in Nepal, but his story could hardly be more different than Sushma’s, who we heard from in a previous episode. I chatted recently with Bharat at the Himal Me...
What do you think? Send us a textThis is the first episode of our new micro-series: Nepal Now: Right Now. These pieces will fill the gap between regular full episodes of the show, which are published every two weeks. About 5 minutes long, they will be published on alternate weeks and will focus on past and upcoming episodes — including listener feedback — sharing news about migration and Nepal, and anything else relevant to Nepal Now.Let us know what you think of this new addition to the show...
What do you think? Send us a textHi everyone. I’m Marty Logan. Thank you for choosing to listen to Nepal Now: On the Move from the literally millions of podcasts available. This is our third episode since we shifted the show’s focus to migration — to, from, and within Nepal. And, I gotta say: I’m biting my nails waiting for feedback from you listeners — especially long-time fans. Good, bad or indifferent, I want to hear it. Your responses are the best way for me to see how I might improve the...
What do you think? Send us a textHi everyone. I'm Marty Logan. Thank you for listening to Nepal Now: On the Move. Let me know what you think of this episode, and if you have ideas for future guests. My email is nepalnowpod@gmail.com. I’ve done about 10 interviews to date for the show and I can see that it’s going to be much more difficult to find female guests than male ones, so please do send me tips about women who I might speak to. As a bit of a teaser, the people you’re going to hear...
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