The Easy Way Out

The barber shop at New Baneshwor that I visit every fortnight looked quite different when I went there for a haircut recently. There were no signs of familiar faces, and the current crew of barbers, except the owner, looked completely new to me. As I waited for my turn to come, I asked the owner nonchalantly about the whereabouts of those faces familiar to me. He replied, with a hint of frustration, that they had moved to “Qatar”. As I sat down for my haircut, he told me that he had had to replace two departing barbers with new members from his hometown near Janakpur.

I then remembered a conversation that I had with one of the barbers a few months ago. At that time, he, along with one of his colleagues, was mulling setting up a barber shop of his own in Ghattekulo. He was also processing his visa for Qatar as a backup option if things did not work out as planned with his new venture. I then presumed that things must not have worked out for him; and, as a result, he along with his colleague must have decided to move to Qatar for better opportunities. I did not know much about that barber, but from the fair bit of conversation that I had with him over the last one year, I found him to be quite entrepreneurial. He had everything planned out about the barber shop; he had found a place for a rental of Rs 8,000 per month, he had a colleague as a partner, and he was willing to risk his existing job and give his new venture a go.

I don’t know what materialized that made him scrap his venture and move to Qatar. But I do know that Nepal has lost out on an entrepreneur, irrespective of the size of his business. As I moved out of the barber shop that day, it made me think about the pervasiveness of the foreign employment culture in Nepal and its effect on the Nepali economy.

Nepal is a remittance dependent economy. Everyone who follows our economy knows this fact. According to the World Bank’s data, Nepal now ranks as the fifth highest remittance receiving country in the world (this ranking is based on the share of remittance in the country’s Gross Domestic Product). Remittance has had a lot of positive influence. According to academic research, it has helped reduce the headcount poverty rate in the country. It has been providing much needed foreign currency reserves and, given Nepal’s perennial trade deficit, has helped to maintain our external sector stability. It has also helped the money transfer business to flourish;

many people have made billions out of the remittance business. Not only that, it has also provided much needed liquidity to the financial system.

Having said that, incidents such as the one I mentioned above makes one introspect about the long-term impact of migration on the Nepali economy. Initially, mass migration to the Gulf countries and Malaysia, where a majority of Nepali migrant workers reside, I believe, transpired because of the Maoist conflict. At the height of the conflict, Nepali youth started to migrate overseas fearing for their lives. The conflict also resulted in closure of industries and stifled employment opportunities within the country, which exacerbated migration as Nepali youth had to earn a livelihood and support their families.

However, this has persisted for a long period of time. Going to Dubai or Malaysia is now so entrenched in the Nepali youth’s psyche that they don’t even think about giving it a go here. Yes, there are still a lot of problems in Nepal. Employment generation is not adequate, and there is a wide mismatch between demand and supply of workers. Having said that, it’s not as bad as it was during the height of the conflict.

However, because this migration culture is so pervasive that most Nepali youth have an established mindset of going abroad as they perceive that there are no opportunities here. They want to take the “easy” route and fly out of the country. I am not saying that working in Dubai or Malaysia is easy. Nepali workers toil hard for minimum wages. However, once someone has that idea of going abroad in mind, it’s easier for them not to give their best at what they are doing here.

Going forward, the danger then is that Nepali youth, while growing up, will inculcate this “growing up to go to Dubai” approach to their lives. Having seen their uncles or cousins or brothers make that journey, they might as well take that “easy” plunge. The loss to our nation will be their entrepreneurial skill and strong work ethics.

This article was first published on 7th Feb, 2011 in The Kathmandu Post

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