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There’s a potential for remigration in Nepal. We can create a thriving “returnee economy” through repatriating first-generation Nepali immigrants back to the country. The hope is they bring their passion, energy, wealth, skills vision, etc back. But how to accomplish that?

The idea:

What’s the smallest viable idea for this? What would be the lowest hanging fruit to accomplish some of the goals below for the highest ROI per lowest expense?

My proposal:

A ‘returnee/remigration’ booth at the airport, right before people head out in their vehicles after they collect their luggage. Why the particular location? Because folks are in a rush to get their luggage and get out of immigration, but by the time they are ready to exit the airport, they’re ‘almost there’. Less rush/more willing. Small potatoes, can always experiment with moving it around in the airport.

It would have 2-4 full time employees/volunteers with a laptop each, a TONNE of leaflets, who are really good in pitching and reaching out to folks from all socioeconomic statuses. In the day/when the airport traffic is higher, they would be assisted by a couple of additional student volunteers.

Their jobs would be threefold:

1. Making incoming residents proactively aware of potential opportunities for networking in the country. Handout the fliers and give the quick 10/15 second pitch.
2. Collecting their contact information, and their interest area as soon as possible. Includes email/phone number/whatsapp/facebook/whatever, country of target, and their interest(s)
3. Making folks realize that they will be engaged with / be made useful at an institutional level, and that govt/private bodies have plans going on. For those more interested, folks can handout the more detailed fliers, and in slower times, explain in detail what the goal of the plan is.

This is the lead generation phase.

The goal of the initiative is to actually create a NETWORK (!!!!) of (potential, or current) farmers, businessmen, investors, employees, owners, customers etc, and match them to each other.

At its most basic form, the initiative will do the following:

1. Send out regular emails/mass messages to each interest group (eg. Investor, Restaurant worker, Farmer) – lets say once or twice a month – updating them on potential opportunities, new intiatives, and opportunities to network.

2. Organize events in the valley and across the country targeting contacts collected from this distribution list, with the goal of keeping them engaged and interested. The goal of those events is to inform, and create a space to network.

3. Beyond the email, do community management for online platforms such as discussion groups, whatsapp/facebook/instagram channels etc, and post opportunities, regularly ask for opportunities, needs etc. Be on top of what folks (potential/final returnees) want, and what is on offer.

4. Create social media content through youtube, tiktok, instagram etc on a regular basis through podcasts and video content, to update folks on what’s being done to facilitate the farkeka Nepalis, the opportunities. Ideally, do a case study every 10 days - 2 weeks, in the form of a video covering a farkeka Nepali, and how they have adjusted/worked in the country since return. Each video could be 30 ish minutes long.

5. Can we also get a ‘call center’ for folks who might want to reach out, beyond social media, looking for opportunities. They go in the “File”. Need a CRM to maintain this.

6. Speaking of which, maintain an accessible list of semi-anonymous networking file, so folks can reach out to each other.

In its essence, it looks like a sales (the lead generation step) and marketing (the second step) initiative. It could all be outsourced to private parties for what imagines wouildn’t be very expensive sum. (80k x 10 folks x 12 months = ~1c crore/pa, without all the overhead. Overhead would probably double it)

Finally, what would the explicit deliverables be, what would the ROI look like, and how might we measure it/evaluate the initiative?

Deliverables:

• 30-40 video stories on social media /youtube, each 30 minute long of cross-class Farkeka nepalis
• Multiple channels of outreach to a decent number of farkeka Nepalis, each properly managed by a social media management team.
• Ideally a contact list of 20-50k people (is it too ambitious, or not ambitious enough?) collected over the first year, who can be reached out to.
• The above contact list, split clearly across interest lines, and across geographical boundaries, in terms of foreign residence, and local residence.

What would the ROI on this look like, and how would we evaluate it?

• Number of self-reported businesses/job opportunities/collaborations created
• A survey sent out to a certain % of the mailing list, measure the intake rate, and measure satisfaction with the initiative.
• Cross-check/Measure public awareness of the iniative amongst folks going out of the country/coming back, to make sure folks are at least aware there’s something happening at the airport.
• Number of events organized across the country, a measure of attendance in those networking/training events, and participant satisfaction during those meetings.

There’s a potential for remigration in Nepal. We can create a thriving “returnee economy” through repatriating first-generation Nepali immigrants back to the country. The hope is they bring their passion, energy, wealth, skills vision, etc back.

I was originally inspired by this Nepali Times article that talks about Nepali migrating to Europe, and EU encouraging remigration of wealthy/smart immigrants to help Nepal.

It’s based on the policy brief created in collaboration with the EU.

Here’s some choice quotes:

Return is a real aspiration, but not yet a reliable policy outcome. Many migrants indicate they would consider returning if Nepal offered more credible employment opportunities, better wages, and stronger reintegration support. In the absence of these conditions, return is often postponed and re-migration becomes the more rational option. The realistic policy objective is to support brain circulation, skills transfer, and forms of circular engagement — particularly relevant for Europe-based Nepalis with capital, experience, and interest in investment.

I’m also particularly interested in Pillar 3 and 4 related to re-integration and circular migration. The idea is that people want to come back, but need a network, a strong network, support and assistance of various kinds. In fact, the proceedings report suggests a good chunk of people going to Europe are interested in returning.

Pillar 3 · Reintegration and Circular Migration

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Operationalise Nepal's Reintegration Programme with clear institutional mandates, dedicated funding, and integrated one-stop services — combining job-matching, skills recognition, psychosocial support, and entrepreneurship assistance — across federal, provincial, and local levels.

Formally recognise and certify skills acquired abroad; target the 48% of Europe-based Nepalis undecided about return with concrete incentives for circular engagement and diaspora investment linkages.

Pillar 4 · Promoting Remittances and Diaspora Investment

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Create a sub-FDI investment tier for NRN investors (below NPR 20 million), fast-track NRN citizenship processing through European embassies, and extend NID and PAN access to unlock routine financial participation including fixed deposits and formal banking.

Strengthen formal remittance channels by reducing transaction costs and expanding digital financial products; conclude DTAAs with Belgium, Germany, Netherlands, Portugal, and France to remove a documented deterrent to diaspora investment and profit repatriation.

Treat political and regulatory stability — anti-corruption frameworks, transparent business registration, judicial enforcement of contracts — as non-negotiable preconditions for large-scale diaspora capital flows

So what can be done?

Countries like Ireland (https://www.backforbusiness.com/) and Guatemala (https://www.iom.int/return-opportunity-reintegration-support-guatemala) have created dedicated departments to deal with returnee emigrants, to create opportunities for them.

While, at some point in the future, there can be a more consolidated effort, it appears that even small-scale efforts to train the returnees, connect incoming investors with the potential investment-seeking folks, creating a portfolio of potential investment opportunities at various scale, and trainings+orientation programmes targeted at returnees on how to work in Nepal, start a business can go a long way.

At a minimum, creating a network of the returnees across the socioeconomic strata (a la “Farkeka Nepali” but more inclusive) would be a valuable resource for many.

While it would obviously be in the purview of other governmental ministries in the future, there’s a lot of small scale opportunities for the immediate future.

I wonder if anybody would be interested in “free training and guidance in return for small equity for the government” program… it has been tried in China in the past to various degrees of success, but might be worth the success…

If properly planned and executed, even a small-scale program could have outsized PR at a global scale for the newly created Ministry, as this is an issue so many countries are dealing with/will be dealing with very soon…

Potential stakeholders for engagement:

1. Manpower companies who could guide folks returning towards this direction
2. Formal and informal networks of Nepalis working abroad
3. Various NRN groups situated across various countries
4. Department of Immigration who could direct returnees to an informational counter/collect their information for reach-out later
5. Existing groups like farkeka Nepali etc
6. Investment groups, business groups, farmers and other entrepreneurs seeking funding
7. Students aged 16+, but college students specifically, who could volunteer
8. Banks and other financial institutions who’d be willing to provide subsidized interest rates
9. Municipalities and other local bodies who might be interested in engaging the newly-returned population
10. Different governmental bodies that provide skills-based training. Can we create a unified database of all available training and empowerment programs for the returnees to lookup and attend?