What do you think? Send us a text

Hi 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 Soham articulated, and which I hadn't considered that Nepal wouldn't have progressed on several areas today if migration hadn't happened."

"I know it isn't clear cut, but essentially I had viewed migration as an unconscious contributor to the breakdown of the essence of what makes Nepal unique, vital, and such a role model in terms of family support, traditions, life outlook, etc.

"I agree absolutely: I think the Nepalese government should have reverse brain drain policies in place. I've never heard this stated publicly before, and I hope it gains momentum, as it's a very empowering perspective. I think this direction would reignite Nepalis own belief in their country."

So, thank you very much, Jennifer. I'd love to be able to read more of this kind of feedback, positive or negative we don't discriminate. So, again, you can email me at nepalnowpod(at)gmail.com or you can send a text message using the link at the top of the show notes for every episode. It is a US number, so if you're not in the US or Canada, there will be some charges.

Also this week, as usual, there's been lots of news about migration. I finally took a look at the World Migration Report 2024, and pulled out a couple of facts about Nepal. For example, Nepal is the number 10 country in terms of remittances or the money that migrants send back home, expressed as a percentage of GDP.  For Nepal, remittances make up 23 percent or almost one quarter of Nepal's gross domestic product. The number one country by the way is Tajikistan at 52 percent.

Another piece of news I want to mention is in the Kathmandu Post. (I'll put links to these items in the notes to this show.} The news comes from Rukum West, a district in the Karnali region, and it quotes a guy named Subhas, who has spent 8. 6 million rupees in the last decade (about 64, 000 US dollars) trying to, himself or his son, get to the US through illegal channels. And this is a phenomenon that's been growing in recent years.

In fact, one reason I switched Nepal Now podcast to focus solely on migration is I heard a story when I was in Rukum West, following the earthquake in Jajarkot late last year. I met a nurse, and she told us that her husband had left a year earlier to make his way to the US through illegal routes and had already spent one crore. One crore is 10 million Nepali rupees, so about 70, 000 dollars.. And that is just a huge amount of money. for people living in rural Nepal or anywhere in Nepal, where some people continue to live on sums as low as two dollars a day, for example.

Resources

Kathmandu post article on illegal migration from Rukum We

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Thank you to Himal Media in Patan Dhoka for the use of their studio.