Challenges: Poverty, Injuries and Accidents, Lack of Healthcare

Discuss about the Challenges And Opportunities For Nepalese Migrants In Australia.

Human migration started far away from the beginning of mankind civilization with people moving from one country to another in large numbers.  Migration among Nepalese for the foreign countries in search of employment began way back in 19th century(Gosnell and Abrams, 2011). The main religious practices among Nepalese are Hinduism (19 476) and Buddhism account for (3245) as of 2011 census (GellnerPfaff-Czarnecka and Whelpton, 2012). Nepalese migrants are people from Nepal country who run from their Nepal country to other countries in search of jobs and better living conditions for their families. The people who have been perceived as “Global worriers” for a long time are now perceived as migrants for few decades (Bardsley and Hugo, 2010). For this reason, some people go in search for jobs and would be desperate to work in jobs that the native people rejected due to the high demand of the job, risks associated with it and these may result to bad health for these people (Upadhyay-Dhungel and Lamichhane, 2011). The migrants are mostly from low-income countries and are low-skilled making them work in risk conditions. Countries with many industries run for these people to offer them with physical employment in short-term-contracts. Access to healthcare for minority and marginalized groups is inadequate with also poor healthcare services provided to them.  Nepalese in different countries just like other common refugees face hardship and a number of other challenges in their host countries and some of these problems can be avoided if the Nepal government is ready to help its people. This project discusses some of the challenges faced by Nepalese migrants as well as opportunities available for them in Australia. 

This project will focus on two main objectives which include the following;

1. To investigate whether there opportunities for Australian Nepalese migrants
2. To assess whether working in Australia industries can open more opportunities for the Nepalese

This project focused on Nepalese migrant workers, students unrolled and studying in Australian universities. The choice of this university reflected the possibility of its students belongs to almost every country.

Nepal is among the largest suppliers of the workforce to countries with the high demand for under-skilled labor and works in unskilled construction jobs. Their jobs mostly include carpentry, Loaders and off-loaders and plumbers (Caluya, Probyn, and Vyas, 2011). These jobs are risky and can cause injuries when working mostly because these people are not oriented before they start their job.

Poverty is a major challenge facing Nepalese migrants in many Gulf countries a country which was formally known to have rich agricultural practices that led to exporting agricultural produce to other countries. Nepalese are poor because of limited employment opportunities; armed conflict and existing poverty are some of the reasons for migrating to other countries.

Opportunities: Employment, Education, Nursing

The other challenge facing these people is injuries and accidents during work time. Since the nature of available jobs for unskilled labor is physical jobs, Nepalese involves themselves with these jobs because they are less skilled and are more likely to fall victims of accidents and injuries than other workers in other occupations. Gulf countries to be particular offers jobs to international migrants including the Nepalese to works in sectors referred to as three Ds which means Dirty, Difficult and Dangerous. In these sectors, they are oppressed by contractors who do not meet the requirement of labor laws and health safety standards because they want to reduce labor costs. Today the government of Nepal has introduced pre-departure mandatory training to all those intending to work in foreign nations. The problem is that some Nepal training institute will offer a certificateto migrants who have not gone through the training. Nepalese migrants are more prone to accidents and sufferings from health-related issues due to local languages barring them from expressing themselves, long working hours, and poor living conditions compared to the natives. Sometimes they die and others decide to return home due to dangerous jobs. Sometimes disabilities may result due to injuries and exposure to a range of occupational toxic agents because there is no provision of protective equipment when handling them.

Most Nepalese do not get health insurance services from their employers and this is a major problem causing the poor health among them. A study that was conducted to 408 Nepalese migrants who had a stay of not less than six months in the host countries found that only one-third of all of them had secured health insurance from their employers (Adhikary, Keen and Van Teijlingen, 2011). There is a challenge accessing health care services among the Nepalese migrants due to lack of leave for illness, cost of illness and fear of losing job makes their health to deteriorate making them prone to preventable disease. They are not included in health, welfare,and social services, they have poor and unsatisfying health outcome. They cannot afford health care services because of poor payments and lack of insurance coverage. The legal migrants are only provided with accident insurance and are also not able to meet their other health needs (Adhikary, Keen and Van Teijlingen2011).

The findings propose increased availability of information to the Nepalese to make them aware of the health risks and their rights in relation to health services in their host countries. Nepal’s government should take responsibility for providing all the information proposed in relation to these health challenges.  It also proposes that employers provide orientation on the possible health risk and offer training to them for preventive measures and all information related to their health care services(Adhikary, Keen and Van Teijlingen, 2011).

Economic Status of Nepalese Migrants in Australia

The situation at Nepal homes is even worse making people from home to depend on their family member who works in foreign countries. Middle-low class families are the majority of temporary migrants to other countries(Mishra, 2011). An approximated 500 people from Nepal migrate to foreign countries to find jobs every day. A survey carried by the Nepal Institute of development studies (NIDS) found that Gulf countries have employed two-thirds of all the Nepali working in foreign countries. For instance,Qatar 11.5%,United Arab Emirates has employed 9%,andSaudi Arabia has employed 42% of all the Nepali (Joshi Simkhada and Prescott, 2011).

Opportunities for growth;Nepalese have an opportunity for employment in Australia where they earn salaries to support their home country. The money received from Nepalese migrants has been used to as a backbone of Nepal’s economy. Foreign workers remittances to be specific contribute a 31.3% of Nepal’s GDP. There is improvement starting to be seen in the country as there is mushrooming of towns and private schools, shops,and clinics across Nepal’s villages.

Education opportunity; According to reports by Nepal’s media, WesternSydneyUniversity and Sydney’s Victoria University arethe major destinations for Nepalese students, while Auburn is the Sydney hub for Nepalese-speakers. Australia is proud of a growing number of international students it receives from Nepal every year which has continued togrow over the past decade. Nepali’s student population was the fifth largest in Australian international students’ population (Olwig and Valentin, 2015). The Australian ministry of education reported that Nepali students had taken ‘no objection certificate’ to study in the country in the fiscal year 2013-14 and were over 2800 in number (Valentin, 2012).Australia remains the most sought destination for studies among the Nepali students in the recent years. These as reported by an official in the ministry, result from Australian adoption of liberal visa policy. The year 2016 saw a number of Nepali students enrolled in Australian universities raise to 20, 463 a double of the previous year due to lower fees, attainable job prospect and easy access to a student visa. Many of the students enrolled said they intended to remain and work in Australia after studies(Valentin, 2012).Education remains one of the best weapons in fighting poverty amongst the world population and that is why Nepalese are flocking Australian universities to get a most preferred quality education from this institution. As more and more people from Nepal continue to pursue education from Australian universities the better the Nepal economy is going to thrive.

Australia’s Efforts to Help Nepalese Economic Enhancement

Opportunity;nursing in the world is in high demand than any other career and opportunities are easy to find if one does not keep their mindset in one place. Australia offers good opportunities for the registered nurses to work in their hospitals with high demands for nurses.Australia is the most popular destination for nurses from Nepal currently, and this is because it is most developed country and recognizes skills and professionalism of Nepalese nurses. Australia also provides background for increased nursing skills which gives opportunities to Nepal‘s nurses to continue with studies as a way of increasing their competency (Gosnell and Abrams, 2011). Among reasons attracting Nepalese nurses in Australia are; jobs availability and job security, flexible working hours, reasonably better pay, a variety of job opportunities, and the likelihood of permanent residency for nurses. However, at times, nurses would face some challenges such like not being recognized as registered nurses and are not given chance to work as professionals. This has to do with registration and nurses are advised in order to fit to; meet English requirement and meet nursing qualification requirement for recognition. Nepalese nurses are also required to enroll for further studies which are an opportunity for opening new windows for opportunities(Upadhyay-Dhungel and Lamichhane, 2011).

Economically,First category Nepalese migrants in Australia at least own motor vehicles, a private house and is registered as Australian citizen especially those who came as PRs. They are able to get a good quality education to their children which assure them of bright future. This is because they are doing fairly economically and their living standards are on the average majority. Also, the Australian government continues with its agenda of helping Nepal economic enhancement for the poor and less fortunate like orphans, women and the disabled(Adhikari, 2013). Australia intends to achieve this through offering employment opportunities by micro-entrepreneurship for the poorest women, strengthening service delivery and governance, under the federal structure and improving quality and access to basic education. Australia government a focused in creating more than 84,800 micro-enterprises which 71% will be reserved for women and also create more than 154, 000 jobs a reserve of 70%  for women through microenterprise programs(Adhikari, 2013). The government plans to provide with education opportunities support to for more than 17,000 children, especially marginalized girls,and disabled children and also provide with psychosocial support in safe temporary learning spaces as there transit back to school (Gosnell and Abrams, 2011) and (Negin et al., 2013).

Conclusion

Australia 2011census shown that median weekly individual income for Nepal-born in the country aged above 15 years and above was $485 in comparison to overseas-born of $538and Australian-born earning $597 (Negin et al., 2016). The total weekly median earning in Australian per individual was $577. This means Nepal’s earns quite above the average of all income earner(Adhikari, 2013).

Most Nepalese live in Australian big cities such as Melbourne, Adelaide, Sydney, Perth, and Brisbane. They have an opportunity to form organizations that enable them to fight and defend their rights and interact with one another(Campese, 2009). These organizations include Nepalese Association of Queensland’ and ‘Nepali Community of West Sydney’. These organizationscome in during the crisis and also will help in skill and knowledge innovation as a technical support in reaching Nepal’s target changes (Gosnell and Abrams, 2011).

Families are allowed to pay a visit to their loved ones working in Australia and there exist strong bonding between those who live in respective locations of Australia which helps to remain distinguishable from others. A strong bond with the Nepal native culture is also experienced as reflected with sons-in-law or daughters-in-law frequent visits to Nepal in times of vacations and festivities. The second generation, however, has no strong bond because of seeking life partners in Australia, mostly non-Nepalese communities(McDonald?Wilmsen et al., 2009). At times their children would be invited to Australian social milieu and common education. Nepal’s first generation are never willing to compromise local language, their social values, behavioral patterns and beliefs and this has led them not to achieve full integration(Pradhanand Visweswaran, 2011).

Australia is a very democratic country and leaves political engagements doors wide open even for Nepalese who acquired citizenship.They are allowed to vote candidates of their choice and even involve themselves with politics even though there is not in a record one Nepalese who havetried to vie for a political seat currently(Fix et al., 2009).  This is because voting is compulsory in Australia and registered Nepalese must participate. It is anticipated that Nepalese will be soon very involved inthe elective position because they are among the most politically conscious ethnic groups living in Australia. Past migration patterns Sociological studies have suggested that third or fourth generations of migrant societies will have more political interest and would love to have more active roles in society.  This has even been witnessed in Peru where Japanese migrant become a prime minister(Thieme et al., 2005).

There is collaboration between Nepal government and the Australian government. Nepalese have an opportunity to enjoy and maximize the strong ties established between the two countries in 14^TH July 2017 to have closer bilateral relations in the future. This bilateral relationship for the future was signed between Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) and Nepal’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs.The two countries signed an MOU represented by Nepal’s Foreign Affairs ministerShanarBairagi and Australian acting Secretary General for Foreign Affairs meant to start reassessing the existing bilateral relations between them(Jensen, Arnett and McKenzie, 2011).

Conclusion

Nepalese are people from Nepal country once famously known for agricultural practices and were known as “Global worriers”. Today they continue to multiply in numbers as evident in 2011 census which shown, Nepalese migrants in Australia account for a 24, 636 newborn an increase of 439.6 percent from 2006 census. Nepal’s economy highly depends on remittances sent by their citizens working abroad which contribute 31% of the total GDP. These moneys are sent to the families and have been seen to make an impact because of the mushrooming of shops, small towns and clinics in the rural areas of Nepal where these moneys arrive. There are many challenges that face Nepalese in Australia and others in oversea and these would mainly include medical related issues brought about by hardship associated with their jobs. Many Nepali do not get health insurance services from their employers which put them at a very high risk of health-related issues. Challenges of sexual abuse among women migrants are also common in a working environment which is a major human right concern. However the challenges, there are more opportunities for the Nepalese to grow both economically and socially due to diverse culture and lifestyle with the Australia people. There are Nepalese who have had an opportunity to own one or two houses and a number of vehicles from their salaries. The Nepal government should try all means possible to educate their citizens who go abroad to look for jobs by strengthening the already institution available to train them before the live. The government should support these institutions and supervise the type of the work they do to avoid poor services such as offering certificate without completion of the training.

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