Introduction
Migrant labour is a major feature of Nepal’s development in the last few decades and at present contributes to more than 20 percent of Nepal’s gross domestic product1. The World Bank estimated that in 2011 more than two million people were working abroad, 40 percent of them in India2. The number of migrants to India is proportionally higher than to other destinations, mainly due to the substantial costs and paperwork involved for overseas migration.
Nepali soldiers or so-called ‘Gurkhas’ recruited into the British Army and tea plantation workers are perhaps the most frequently remembered faces of labour migration in Nepal since the beginning of the 19th Century3. Labour migration entered a new phase with the signing of the Peace and Friendship Treaty between India and Nepal, in 1950, allowing free movement of people between the two countries4. In the 1980s, the Government of Nepal increasingly recognized its potential contribution for the development of the country and, with the introduction of the Foreign Employment Act5 in 1985, opened opportunities for migrants to look for work beyond India, such as the newly industrialized Asian region, the emerging Gulf countries or Europe and the United States. Nepal’s labour migration witnessed a sudden increase during the conflict period and maintained a steady growth as well since the signing of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement in 2006.