The election for the three-member House of Representatives has ended with the National Independence Party winning a majority. In the elections held on the basis of the 23rd and 24th Bhadra movements led by the youth, political parties had gone before the people with the main issues of properly addressing corruption and ensuring good governance, but voters could not trust the traditional parties this time.

There may be many reasons, but overall, there is a common understanding that this has happened because of the partyization from bottom to top in the vertical and horizontal structures of the state. There can hardly be any dispute that the current results have come about because the political parties that led the epochal change have been ignoring the people for decades. However, the so-called new parties are also not above the circle of questions, and those questions will gradually come to the surface. However, at this time, the election has put the country's political culture at a crossroads. Let us hope that the country will chart a path with the assurance of good governance in line with the times.

All aspects including these common expectations, understandings, concerns, and victories and defeats will be analyzed. There will also be an analysis of the economic, political, geo-political, economic, socio-cultural dimensions. But the clear picture at this time is that no one is stopping the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) from entering Singha Durbar to lead the government. It is also responsible for taking appropriate steps against corruption and ensuring good governance through government work. This article focuses on some relevant suggestions related to immigration management, which is shrouded in waves of economic and policy corruption.

The question in understanding immigration is what is (labor) immigration?

Lack of understanding will actually be the biggest challenge facing the RSP in managing immigration. According to the information made public so far, the RSP has not been found to have opened an organization of foreign employment entrepreneurs close to it or publicly declared any of them as its fraternal organization. The RSSS, which has led the Ministry of Labor in the past when it was a partner in the government, must have initial information about the nature of policy and economic corruption within various dimensions of immigration, and how human trafficking and trafficking are flourishing under the umbrella of foreign employment. Similarly, central leaders including the RSSS President used to say that if they win the election and form the government, they would return millions of youths who are in foreign employment to their home countries and provide them with jobs in the domestic labor market. 

If this is not just a vote-getter in the upcoming elections but rather the RSP's policy, then it is appropriate to understand that the RSP leadership is not clear about immigration in general, and especially labor immigration, the economic backbone of Nepal. And, this ambiguity is not surprising for the Nepali political field. Because, almost all political parties in Nepal have been exploiting laborers by interpreting and analyzing immigration in their own way and taking economic and political benefits. Meanwhile, the RSP has not found any basis for being different and clear from others.

Lack of understanding will actually be the biggest challenge facing the RSP in managing immigration. According to the information made public so far, the RSVP has not opened an organization of foreign employment entrepreneurs close to it or publicly declared any of them as its fraternal organization. However, there are many manpower companies run by its cadres.

What is the party's view on the misdeeds they have committed? It should be said that those entrepreneurs have done business by unconditionally following internationally recognized ethical recruitment standards in the process of recruiting migrant workers. If that is not the case, then it should be said that none of the RSVP supporters, members or cadres are involved in the foreign employment business.

The official line on various dimensions including the RSVP's policy document, work direction, its theoretical approach towards immigration and the strategy to manage it is not clear. Even when he was leading the Ministry of Labor, I did not get a clear idea when I inquired about this with the then minister. Round-about talk does not make the theoretical approach clear.

Now the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) should not delay in making public its official view and strategy regarding overall immigration, especially labor immigration, which has become the backbone of the economy and an employment opportunity for millions of Nepali youth, and its management. It should also clarify whether it has formed a fraternal organization of foreign employment entrepreneurs like other parties, and if not, whether it will do so now.

If not, how is the RSSS different and new from others? By forming an electoral network with a few dozen NRNAs and collecting donations, it is not possible to understand or manage overall immigration. And what the RSSS needs to understand, like other parties, is that the pillars of Nepal's economy are different from periodic migrant workers, who have left the country for a long time or permanently, who come unexpectedly, who make a lot of investments and take their profits there. Let's say this much for now. Because this is also a separate topic of debate, including a class perspective.

Immigration is the key to development and prosperity

The leaders and activists of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) should also understand that for Nepal and liberal democratic countries like Nepal that have adopted a political system and economic policy, the issue of foreign employment and labor migration in particular is not just a narrow and election slogan, donation and vote-gathering issue. Labor migration, whether it is an organized and formal foreign employment process facilitated by the state or a periodic journey made by citizens themselves to the global labor market to earn a living, both dimensions of migration are opportunities provided by our system and the potential for economic prosperity. They are inextricably linked to our development model.

The development model linked to prosperity is not only the economic aspect, the socio-cultural experience, technical competence, professional skills, knowledge and awareness of understanding society acquired by an immigrant, the network of cooperation expanded and the contemporary worldview he brings in as a whole are all the capital of migration, remittances. Which are indispensable for the transformation of our domestic society.

There are millions of youth in foreign employment and thousands of youth who try to start some ventures in their own country but fail and are forced to make another country their destination again. In this context, exceptions like some migrant workers with political connections and some efforts  do not make much sense. We have not practically included this multifaceted capital earned from our formal labor migration of nearly four decades in both policy and programmatic plans. However, the 16th Plan talks big, but its programmatic transformation does not seem to have taken place practically, which is confirmed by the annual/periodic review reports of the commission that have been made public. As stated by the well-known economists and planners of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) who have been part of the leadership team of the National Planning Commission twice and formulated the plan, mathematical economic growth figures alone cannot represent Nepal's development model. They cannot ensure social justice. They cannot address the discrimination caused by oppression of cultural diversity. 

There are millions of youth in foreign employment and thousands of youth who try to start some ventures in their own country and fail and are forced to choose another country as their destination. In this context, exceptions like some isolated and politically connected migrant workers making some efforts do not mean much.

There are gaps in socio-cultural diversity and structural discrimination in our society. Which is also a class society determined by gender, caste system, geographical complexity, cultural marginalization and political fragmentation. Here, the addition and subtraction of mathematical indicators set by the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund cannot address it. For that, a development model based on social justice that can attack the structural causes of these discriminations is needed. Such a model that should be able to address some basic questions.

For example, why do those living in the northern part of Bardiya and made landless by the state light their stoves only with the wages they earn as seasonal agricultural laborers for 3-4 months in Shimla, India? Why are Dalits in the southern part of Mahottari forced to earn a living through unequal labor contracts in the Gulf? Why are female migrant workers from the mid-hills and the south forced to sell themselves as domestic workers by foreign employment brokers and make ends meet?

Why are migrant workers who have returned from the Gulf and Malaysia with a lot of experience, big dreams, and little financial remittances forced to visit the doors of foreign employment brokers again by taking loans from meter interest and cooperatives? If this is how it is for generations to pass, what does the state mean for this class of citizens? What should a development model based on social justice be like for them? These are just a few representative examples, but such questions must be addressed.

The main reason why our plans fail to provide returns relative to investment is the lack of a development model based on social justice. If we can properly convert the economic, social, cultural, and technical remittances/capital received from migration into plans, positive results will not take long to come. This is also the experience of other countries that depend on remittances like ours. Does the RSVP want to try to strengthen the people-oriented development model based on social justice, which not only broadens and diversifys the domestic labor market, including this aspect of immigration, but also makes it dynamic from the local level to big cities through public debate?

Proper management of immigration

The problem of immigration is not the crowd of youth at the airport, the problem is how, who and why the opportunity for Nepali workers to access the global labor market is systematically being misused and instead of facilitating, they are exploiting the working youth by institutionalizing brokerage. And the biggest problem is why, for what and how the political and administrative leadership is protecting all of this. Isn't this policy corruption? Isn't this a distorted model of misgovernance? The then RSVP's Labor Minister must have been aware of all these aspects, but the question is, how will the powerful RSVP government, which will now be formed, address the complex corruption going on under the guise of immigration?

To understand how complex the web of such political, administrative, economic, policy-level, personal and professional, internal, cross-border and international crimes is, we must go to the very foundation/root of our state structure. That root is not at the end, but at the heart of Singha Durbar. It is from there that unrest and crime have become institutionalized under political and administrative protection. As a result, crimes against the state such as human trafficking and crimes against workers such as human trafficking are gaining momentum.

How will the RSN team, which is about to assume the reins of power with the promise of ensuring good governance, address the mismanagement of immigration management coordinated from the heart of Singha Durbar? Only time will tell. However, to address this challenge, the first thing to do is to transform foreign employment entrepreneurs into honest entrepreneurs who unconditionally follow the international standards of ethical recruitment processes in immigration management, not political fraternal organizations. Similarly, the Ministry of Labor should be radically restructured and freed from foreign employment syndicates by setting an integrated immigration policy framework through the Act. For that, the RSP leadership should have a meaningful dialogue with the political parties of foreign employment entrepreneurs.

Immigration: The basis of labor diplomacy

Learning from these experiences, we should now make our overall diplomacy relevant to the times by keeping labor diplomacy at the center. हाम्रा जस्तै श्रम सम्झौता गरेका फिलिपिन्स र कतिपय सन्दर्भमा भारतका अनुभव हाम्रा लागि उपयोगी हुन सक्छन् । When analyzed from the perspective of immigration, many changes have already occurred in the global labor market that our workers have chosen as their destination. But what has not changed is our understanding of the changing trend of immigration, our approach to management, our labor-unfriendly policy framework, the state structure that encourages partyization, and our diplomacy in the traditional pattern. A detailed analysis of all these aspects may not be possible here. However, it seems that now we need to revise the overall diplomacy with a clear vision of labor diplomacy without delay.

खासगरी राज्यले खुला गरेका श्रम गन्तव्य र त्यसमा पनि पश्चिम एसिया, मलेसिया, कोरिया, जापान लगायतका दक्षिण पूर्वी एसिया र युरोप लगायतका प्रमुख गन्तव्यहरूमा जेसुकै भिसामार्फत गए पनि प्रमुख उद्देश्य रोजगारी नै हुने गर्छ । श्रमिकलाई संकट पर्दा छिमेकी मुलुक र गन्तव्य मुलुक गुहारेर संकट टार्नेभन्दा पनि बदलिँदो विश्व राजनीतिक, आर्थिक र सुरक्षा परिवेश आकलन गरेर हामीले हाम्रा दूतावासको कार्यक्षेत्रको दायरा, मानव, आर्थिक, प्राविधिक र कूटनीतिक दक्षता विस्तार गर्नुपर्छ । समय, श्रमबजारको चरित्र र विश्व राजनीतिक तरलताका कारण कुनै पनि बेला उत्पन्न हुन सक्ने चुनौतीको सम्बोधन गर्न सक्ने गरी दूतावासहरूलाई चुस्त र दुरुस्त पार्न अब ढिला गर्नु हुँदैन ।

जथाभावी अवैतनिक, वैतनिक, राजनीतिक नियुक्तिलगायत सत्ता र पार्टीपिच्छे दूतावासहरूका बारेमा निर्णय गर्नुभन्दा कम्तीमा पनि प्रमुख गन्तव्य मुलुकहरूमा दूतावासको संरचना र नेतृत्वको एउटा मापदण्ड बन्न सके श्रम सम्झौताहरू तयार पार्दा गन्तव्यको श्रमबजार विश्लेषण गरी उचित निर्णय लिन सहज हुन सक्छ । हामीसँग कोरोनाकालका तीता अनुभव छन् । अहिले द्वन्द्वका कारण खाडीमा देखिएको चुनौती सम्बोधन गर्ने सन्दर्भमा यूएई लगायतमा रहेका हाम्रा नियोगहरूले गरेको समन्वय तुलनात्मक रूपमा सकारात्मक देखिएका छन् ।