It is now (at the time of creation of this information resource) a full ten years since the 2010 landmark Gordon Brown Government decision to accord on the direction of Parliament, retired Nepali Gurkhas and their families settlement and citizenship rights. In 2019 it was estimated that 65%+ of the total UK Nepali community were British Army Gurkha related.
However – as illustrated by a reputed 2000+ NHS Nepali nurses cadre within the NMC (Nursing and Midwifery Council) – the first major professional personnel level migration to the UK took place in the late 1990s to 2004 period. This when the NHS due to a 20,000+ deficit in required nurses undertook a major South Asian recruitment campaign that included Nepal, where nursing as a career choice was an honourable path in life and popular. As such the medical and healthcare (subsequently social care / residential homes private sector) professions in fact preceded the Gurkha settlement rights milestone, in regard to the substantial acceleration of the UK Nepali population.
Understandably, with retirement from the army, retired Gurkhas because of their exceptional reputation for ferocity combined with outstanding combat expertise and martial skills, swiftly entered and were eagerly sought after by security sector businesses, especially from 2010. Retired Gurkhas dominate the security businesses sector where BAME employees, managers and owners are concerned (as a very by nature entrepreneurial people, Nepalis have naturally gravitated to managerial and business owners positions in this and other sectors of the UK economy), and are a major frontline to manager level component within the security companies world of Britain (and this extends to a certain extent to the EU, North America, Singapore, Malaysia and beyond).
Beyond the security and nursing/health and social care sectors, perhaps the major (and growing) employment, career, and business ownership area of Nepali prominence lies in the restaurants and catering field. The practical, skills and expertise based reasons for this are covered in the Nepali cuisine section of this information resource, but here it is important to mention that in South Asia, Nepal is renowned for the variety and quality of its multiple forms of cuisine (Kathmandu being a true South Asian ‘Mecca’ for quality and diversity of Nepali foods). Indeed, in the UK it is a common belief of Indian restaurant owners and managers (who are in fact mostly, even 85%+, Bangladeshi rather than Hindustani) that if they can secure a Nepali chef or sous-chef this will be a major asset to their business in terms of quality of food cooked and served.
As such these are the three, historic-based employment and business sectors that the UK Nepali community are dynamically associated with. Beyond these areas, entrepreneurial, creative, innovative, compassionate and peoples orientated career paths, Nepalis have taken very successful career paths in multiple sectors of the UK economy, from bus or taxi drivers to PhD academics, to artists, to graphic designers and make-up artists, social care professionals, to politicians.