Nepal's Gen Z faces bleak future at home amid unemployment and corruption

In his hometown, Chamkhar, a tiny village of breathtaking beauty tucked into the hillside about an hour away from Nepal’s capital, Rajendra Tamang sits plotting his future. 

Jobs are scarce and competition is fierce, even for low-paying work. Wealth disparity is high and corruption is endemic.

Two years ago, Tamang moved to Dubai. He earned four times the salary he could expect in Nepal. As he browsed Dubai’s malls on his days off, he noticed that baristas and secretaries were in demand. 

So he came home and enrolled himself in a two-month barista training course in Nepal. He is hoping that his skills will distinguish him from the tens of thousands of Nepalis who are also looking for jobs overseas. 

Sick of Corruption 

Many young Nepalis say they feel hopeless and frustrated. 

Persistently high unemployment and inadequate investment in skills training have hurt economic growth. The country relies heavily on remittances sent home, which equal about a third of Nepal’s gross domestic product. At the same time, many Nepalis say they experience corruption in their everyday dealings with bureaucracy. 

Those feelings morphed into rage in early September, when thousands of students took to the streets to vent their anger at corruption, in what came to be known as the Gen Z protests. The immediate trigger was a social media ban. The protests spiralled into a nationwide arson rampage and led to the downfall of the government. It is one of Asia’s most corrupt countries, according to Transparency International’s Corruption Perceptions Index. 

Pressure to Leave 

Five days after the student protests, as the capital, Kathmandu, returned to calm, the Department of Passports was bustling as usual. Most were young, and many were applying for their first passports. 

Sunita Bishwakarma, 29, had arrived at 9 am, an hour before the office opened. Bishwakarma, who is unemployed, has no immediate plans to go abroad but said her brother, who works as a security guard in Kuwait, had urged her to apply for her passport. In 2023, the Nepal Living Standards Survey found that nearly a quarter of Nepalis between the ages of 15 and 24 were unemployed, almost double the rate of the overall population. The number of Nepalis working abroad almost tripled, to 2.2 million, in the two decades leading to 2021, according to government data. 

A Labor Mill 

Nepal not only provides a steady supply of unskilled labor to Gulf countries, but also to European ones like Portugal and Greece. 

Roughly one in four households in Nepal has a family member abroad, according to government data.

Recruiters offer two-year “free visa, free ticket” contracts. 

The “Nepo Kids” 

With more than a million Instagram followers, Shrinkhala Khatiwada, was an inspiration for many Nepali youngsters. She spoke often about politics  and became a voice of her generation. 

But during Gen Z protests, Khatiwada was targeted as a “nepo kid” for taking foreign vacations. She lost many of her Instagram followers. Khatiwada was a “disappointment” for not supporting the protesters. 

Young people said the demonstrations are unlikely to improve their everyday lives or make them want to stay in the country. If anything, they say, the disruption and uncertainty they caused have made things worse.