What does it say about a country when a young person’s first question after graduation is not “What can I build here?” but “Which country can I go to?”
For thousands of young Nepalis, foreign employment has become more than an opportunity. It has become an expectation. Every year, young people leave Nepal for the Gulf, Malaysia, Japan, South Korea, Europe and elsewhere in search of employment, better wages and a more secure future. Migration has undoubtedly benefited Nepal. Remittances support millions of households and remain one of the strongest pillars of the national economy. But we should ask ourselves a difficult question: “Are we building an economy that gives young people a reason to stay, or one that increasingly depends on their departure?”
The scale of the problem is difficult to ignore. Reuters reported in February 2026 that Nepal’s youth unemployment rate stood at 20.6 per cent, the highest among South and Southeast Asian countries according to the cited World Bank data. The same report noted that at least three million Nepalis were working overseas. The World Bank’s April 2026 Nepal Development Update further showed that remittances had risen to 16.6 per cent of GDP in the first half of FY2025/26.
Migration helps keep the economy running, but the continued dependence on migration also exposes the weakness of our domestic job market. To be clear, foreign employment is not the enemy. For many families, migration has lifted incomes, financed education, improved housing and reduced poverty. Remittances have genuine economic value. Asking young people not to migrate without creating alternatives would therefore be unrealistic and unfair.
The real problem is when migration becomes the only convincing answer to unemployment.
Nepal has enormous potential in hydropower, tourism, information technology, agriculture, manufacturing and entrepreneurship. Yet young graduates often encounter a mismatch between what they study and what the labour market offers. Starting a business can involve complicated procedures, limited access to finance and uncertainty. Even talented young people may feel that spending years waiting for a stable opportunity at home makes less sense than accepting a job abroad.
The solution is not to close Nepal’s doors to migration. It is to open more doors at home.
The government must prioritise sectors that can create productive employment, not merely announce employment targets. Technical and vocational education should be connected to actual market demand. Young entrepreneurs need easier access to credit, mentorship and markets. Digital industries should be encouraged, and private investment should be made easier and more predictable. Hydropower, tourism and agriculture must be developed in ways that create value chains and employment rather than simply producing isolated projects.
Most importantly, young people need to believe that talent has a future in Nepal.
A country should be proud when its citizens succeed abroad. But it should also be concerned when leaving becomes the default definition of success. Nepal does not need to choose between migration and development. It needs to make migration a choice rather than a necessity.
The future of Nepal should not depend on how many young people it can send abroad, but on how many young people it can give a reason to stay.
