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

Money from overseas makes up a quarter of GDP, and the effects of the pandemic are putting a squeeze on an already struggling economy

By Chandan Sapkota
As COVID brings migrants home, how can Nepal reintegrate returning workers?
Low-interest business loans could ease Nepal’s employment crisis | Pierre Rochon photography / Alamy Stock Photo. All rights reserved
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With COVID-19 disrupting travel, shutting borders, and redefining what is essential work, Pandemic Borders explores what international migration will look like after the pandemic, in this series titled #MigrantFutures

For Nepal, like other developing countries that depend on migrant remittances, the COVID-19 pandemic has dealt a severe blow.

Money sent home by the thousands of Nepali migrant workers abroad amounts to about 25% of the country’s GDP, making it one of the most dependent countries on remittances in the world.

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Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0