Every day, the same scene unfolds in the departure hall of Kathmandu's Tribhuvan International Airport, one that has decisive implications for the fate of a nation. Thousands of young Nepalese, full of hope and anxiety, say goodbye to their families and head for the planes that will take them to Malaysia, Qatar, Romania or Japan. This daily exodus is not just a collection of personal stories; it is the country's most significant economic process and its greatest national paradox.

At the heart of this paradox is a fundamental contradiction: a country that is being abandoned by its most viable demographic group – youth – is simultaneously being kept afloat by a financial artery that these same youth feed from abroad. In the 2023/24 fiscal year, remittances to Nepal reached a staggering 1.445 trillion Nepalese rupees (about US$10.86 billion) – a figure equivalent to about a quarter of the country’s entire gross domestic product. This amount exceeds foreign direct investment and official development assistance combined, and is a major stabiliser for Nepal's fragile economy.