Nepal - Migration

Nearly 20,000 Tibetans arrived in Nepal between the Chinese annexation of Tibet in 1959 and 1989. Hundreds of thousands of Nepalese were believed to be working in India in the 1980s, and over 100,000 Indians were working in Nepal, particularly in the garment industry and on the building of highways.

An influx of Bhutanese refugees into Nepal began in late 1991 and peaked in 1992; the flow of new arrivals has slowed since 1997. As of May 1997, there were 91,000 refugees and asylum seekers from southern Bhutan. As of 1999, there were 96,000 Bhutanese in seven refugee camps in eastern Nepal. In 2000, the net migration rate was -1.1 per 1,000 population. The total number of migrants in that year was 619,000 including refugees. The government views the migration levels as satisfactory.