Nepal Now
We're talking with the people migrating from, to, and within this Himalayan country located between China and India. You'll hear from a wide range of Nepali men and women who have chosen to leave the country for better work or education opportunities. Their stories will help you understand what drives people — in Nepal and worldwide — to mortgage their property or borrow huge sums of money to go abroad, often leaving their loved ones behind.
Despite many predictions, migration from Nepal has not slowed in recent years, except briefly during the height of the Covid-19 pandemic. About 1 million Nepalis leave every year to work at jobs outside the country. Tens of thousands go abroad to study. Far fewer return to Nepal to settle. The money ('remittances') that workers send home to their families accounts for 25% of the country's GDP, but migration impacts Nepal in many other ways. We'll be learning from migrants, experts and others about the many cultural, social, economic and political impacts of migration.
Your host is Marty Logan, a Canadian journalist who has lived in Nepal's capital Kathmandu off and on since 2005. Marty started the show in 2020 as Nepal Now.
Episodes
115 episodes
Sasmit Pokharel on democracy and rape culture
Sasmit Pokharel was sworn in as Minister of Education, Science and Technology and Minister of Youth and Sport in the Nepal Government on 26 March. When I interviewed him five years a...
Nepalis speak about their journeys to and lives in Canada
The number of Nepalis migrating to Canada has zoomed upwards in recent years, many of them first arriving as international students. They came for good education opportunities, free healthcare, and the promise of secure, stable futures.M...
Bibek returned to Nepal, but he plans to return to Canada stronger
Bibek Poudel had a very detailed plan for succeeding in Canada. He would graduate from college, then work to gain experience in his IT field, setting himself up as a digital nomad—someone who could get a job and support himself basically anywhe...
Nepal Now: One step from PR in Canada
Aayush Pokharel is very close to getting his 'invitation' to apply for permanent residency in Canada. It's taken the former student five years to get to this point, and he's had some tough times along the way. Not surprisingly, he's...
Year-end update from Canada, plans for 2026
It's been more than to months since I posted an episode, so I thought it was about time I was in touch. I'm speaking from the top of a hill, catching my breath as I look back at the ocean and a large island beyond the harbour. Conti...
Korean project prepares former migrant workers to stay in Nepal
Today you will hear the last episode that I recorded in Kathmandu. I had long wanted to talk to a representative from a so-called labour receiving country – one that hires some of the hundreds of thousands of Nepali migrant workers who leave ho...
Youth on the move
In Monday's Kathmandu Post I read short bios of two of the 19 protesters killed by police in the GenZ demonstration one week ago. Both were from Nepal's Far West — Deepak Singh Saud was from Baitadi district, Subas Bohara from Bajhang. Deepak w...
Nepal Now is actually on the move: Follow us!
Help steer the future of Nepal Now as it moves to Canada in September 2025. Fill out the survey. It takes just 3 minutes. You might have guessed from the head...
Covid-19 devastated the lives of many migrant workers from Nepal
The Covid-19 pandemic in 2020 and 21 hit Nepali migrant workers hard. Thousands working in India were blocked from crossing the border into Nepal. Others overseas were laid off and confined to living quarters with little or no food, no money, a...
Visual anthropologist turns long lens on Nepali migration to Japan
The rise in the numbers of Nepalis migrating to Japan in recent decades has been phenomenal — and I think overshadowed by movement to countries like the US, UK and Australia. Today the Asian country is by far the top destination for students go...
Who will look after Nepal's returned gods and goddesses?
Undoubtedly the Nepal Heritage Recovery Campaign has been a success. In less than five years it has led the identification and return to Nepal of about 160 religious icons — statues, paintings, and more. These were stolen from this country and ...
Setting aside migration dreams for a musical journey
Talking to Prakash Gurung made me realize that not all migrant workers from Nepal are leaving the country out of necessity. When I interviewed him last year the 26-year-old told...
Are there still reasons to be optimistic about Nepal?
Gyanu Adhikari is co-founder of The Record, the online news portal that published from 2014 to 2024. With 10 years’ experience running a media outlet that not only innovated in its content – offering long reads, history series, and podcasts, fo...
A 30-year study of Chitwan's people reveals migration trends
If I told you about a 30-year study that has already resulted in 261 research publications, you’d be impressed right?And if I added that the study is based in Chitwan, and co-led by a Nepali, Prof. Dirgha Ghimire? I think you’d be even ...
Who is choosing to study and work in Nepal?
I’ve said it to you listeners more than once: it seems that almost every young person I've met in Nepal in the last couple years was planning to go overseas, or knows someone who's doing so. Now I have proof, kind of. Yesterday I sp...
Should students going abroad use education consultancies?
Just like coffee shops, it seems that education consultancies are multiplying faster than rabbits in Kathmandu. I’ve always wondered why prospective students spend tens or even hundreds of thousands of rupees to have someone fill ou...
Maya migrated to support her family, got shamed by her community
It’s been more than a dozen years since Maya Sherpa returned from working in Kuwait. Today she devotes herself to helping other returned female migrant workers readjust to life in Nepal. One reason why she's so committed to that wor...
His children all migrated but Rajendra is happy in Nepal
Hi everyone. I have to admit that I had a pretty good idea of what this episode was going to be about, how it was going to unfold, as they say. I was talking to the father of three daughters, grown daughters, all living overseas, and I th...
No-cost, or low-cost, labour migration is not just a dream
Khakendra Khatri paid 7 lakh or 700,000 Nepali rupees (about 5,000 USD) for a job in Russia, but soon after arriving he realized that he was being sent to the front line of the Russia-Ukraine war. Desperate, he bribed a commander, and then esca...
Being a migrant in Trump's US - journalist Tanka Dhakal
Hi everyone. Today we're speaking with Tanka Dhakal, a journalist who’s currently doing a Master’s degree in the US. He’ll tell us about how the targeting of migrants in that country affected a city council meeting he was reporting on. But what...
Nepal unprepared to reintegrate female migrant workers
Hi everyone. I’m sorry for the delay in releasing this episode. In a minute, we’ll get to this week’s chat about how female migrant workers are treated after they return to Nepal, but first I want to share some personal news. My stepfat...
On the move from Kathmandu to Kabul: 2024's top episode
Hi everyone. Today we’re replaying our most popular episode of the year. Like every migration story, it is a unique one. Prem Awasthi moved to Kabul, the capital of Afghanistan, almost exactly one year ago to start a new job w...
Pragati Nepali plans to further her design career by migrating to work in Jordan
Pragati Nepali is just 19 but already she has been married, migrated to work in neighbouring India, and then moved to Nepal’s capital Kathmandu for other opportunities. That’s where friends told her about a job in a garment factory in Jordan. W...
UPDATE: Nepal graduate in Canada desperately looking for a job
Today we’re catching up with Aayush Pokharel, a graduate student in Canada who we first talked to in May. This year, the government of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has severely cut the number of temporary residents it allows into the country, ...
Tricked into going to Russia, Khakendra fled before reaching the front lines
Of all the reasons I’ve heard for Nepalis migrating to work abroad, this one was the most shocking: to fight for the Russian Army in its invasion of Ukraine. The news first reached the mainstream media in mid-2023 but long before that, photos o...