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As COVID brings migrants home, how can Nepal reintegrate returning workers?

In fact, there already exists social protection and public workfare programmes that can be better utilised to quickly engage returning migrant workers at the local level. For example, the Prime Minister Employment Program, which guarantees a maximum of 100 days of employment at subsistence wage, has been severely under-utilised so far. From July 2020, until March 3 this year, it provided an average of six days of work for 25,852 people out of 743,512 listed unemployed people in its roster.

The programme was launched in early 2019 to reduce youth dependency on overseas jobs and to create job opportunities within the country itself. Ramping up this programme with adequate budgeting and targeting could be beneficial in the short term to employ returning migrant workers.

Unfortunately, a fallout of the ineffectiveness of this programme was that many migrant workers who returned home are again actively pursuing job opportunities overseas. For instance, by September 2020, there were long queues of migrant workers at the Indian border points waiting for an opportunity to enter India for employment.

Technical and vocational education and certification could be another option for reintegrating migrants who are willing to enhance their skills and perhaps change profession. This could be done in partnership between government and businesses.

Another way to support returning migrants is to provide them with access to affordable credit to help those who are willing to start their own business ventures. Programmes such as Youth and Small Entrepreneurs Self-Employment Fund are set up to subsidise interest on loans for self-employment, and could be used for this.

The fund has not been as effective as expected largely owing to politicisation, a high interest burden even after subsidy, and approval hassles. Since its launch a decade ago, there are just 72,789 recipients, including 6,500 between July 2019 and July 2020. The central bank has also launched a scheme to issue subsidised loans at 5% interest to returnee migrant workers, among others. However, the uptake has been slow.

Successful reintegration would not be possible without accelerated economic growth as domestic employment opportunities will remain constrained, contributing to the “push factor” for outmigration which compel folks to migrate overseas for employment and safety.

Short-term economic stabilisation measures followed by structural reforms to ensure sustained and inclusive economic growth are required. In this process, more digitalisation, better targeting and, most importantly, sound governance will be vital.

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Chandan Sapkota | Radio Free (2021-03-16T04:09:51+00:00) As COVID brings migrants home, how can Nepal reintegrate returning workers?. Retrieved from https://www.radiofree.org/2021/03/16/as-covid-brings-migrants-home-how-can-nepal-reintegrate-returning-workers/

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