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

The Remake of a Statecan Nepal generate resource for state building or for the different MDGsand periodic plans this country has set for itself?6. The Nepali diaspora and its potentialThough the diaspora has different meanings, we adapt a peculiar meaningof diaspora for the purpose of this chapter. Nepali diaspora for the purposeof this chapter are those Nepali who are outside Nepal for different causes,be as labour migrants, student migrants or the non resident Nepalese.Government and international donors today are taking notice of thediaspora’s potential contribution. Attention most often focuses on theireconomic contribution in the form of remittance which now surpasses theofficial development assistance in most countries. But the contributiondoes not end here. Today the diasporas’ potential in terms of skill andknowledge transfer is equally acknowledged. The traditional perceptionof looking at diaspora as security threats is now being replaced by seeingtheir organisation as an effective means in counteracting against rightviolation and abuses. Evans (2001) has shown how the grassroots alliancesof labour of the third world workers and the first world activities havesucceeded in producing significant changes in the working condition andpractices of multinational giants towards their labourers.The economic contribution of diaspora was in fact the main cause of theirfirst global recognition. Diasporas in fact were first noticed by the worlddue to their economic contribution. Ever since Dilip Ratha put remittance– the money that global migrants send home - on the map (De Parle2008), the eyes of the analysers are increasingly bulging over on it. Todayremittance exceeds US$ 300 billion per year (The World Bank 2007).In a world of six billion inhabitants, international migration seemsinsignificant as it comes to represent 3 per cent of the world (Orozco2005). But contributions of migrants reflected primarily through familyor workers remittances and to some extent through donations made bythe migrants association constitute a key component of economic growthin many countries. We have ample examples of remittances sustainingeconomies of countries during the time of crisis. One of the most citedexamples is that of the Philippines. During the Asian Economic Crisis (1997-99) when FDI tumbled, in the Philippines remittance helped cushion theeffect of crisis (The World Bank 2007). Even in 2006, the remittance (US$177