English - Support to Participatory Constitution Building in Nepal ...

The forgotten forcesIn terms of economic benefit it has been shown that individuals froma developing country with a moderate level of formal education, bymigration, for example to the US, can reap an annual income gain ofapproximately US$ 10,000- roughly double the average level of per capitaincome in his home country (UNDP 2009). Besides this, remittances areconsidered to be the least volatile source of foreign exchange earnings fordeveloping countries (Martin and Albella 2009).From the debates on both sides, we can now see that we have come toa new paradigm of migration discourse where migration-developmentnexus is becoming central to discussion. Migration and its managementare reflecting more and more in the development paradigm, be it as newagendas recognised by the leading development agencies like the UNand the SDC or in the development strategies like the Poverty ReductionStrategies (PRS), other plans and initiatives of individual countries.Moreover developing countries like Phillipines, Mexico, Zimbabwe,Bangladesh, India which also make up the majority of sending countriesare viewing their migrants as potentials of resources and making strategiesto tap the potential inherent there.The state-building agenda definitely needs economic and human resources.Even when we look at the migrants in light of what they contributeeconomically, their remittance forms the second largest economic activityfor Nepal. This is an un-ignorable source if we juxtapose it to the fund weneed even for restoring the damaged infrastructure which is estimated toamount to 3.8 billion rupees (US$ 53 million).Besides, migrants as human capitals can be made to contribute in thestate-building process. It will be discussed in coming parts of the chapter.We find that before discussing on migrants’ potential as contributors, itis important to show why the phenomenon of migration itself should betaken into account while envisioning strategies, policies and programmesof the state-building process.3. Migration-development dimension: Facing the reality ofNepalMigration is going to be continued as a fact of daily life. More so until atleast the stabilisation phase 4 of the post-conflict state building process - ifever it is reached timely.4For detailed discussion on phases of state building, see Chapter 2 of this book.172