The Demographic Picture

From "Nigeria's Diverse Peoples: A Reference Sourcebook"

As already discussed in previous chapters, Nigerians have migrated from place to place since prehistoric times. The main reasons for migrations were changes in environmental conditions, the need for grazing lands and farmlands, the pursuit of trade, and war. During the period of the slave trade, millions of Nigerians became involuntary migrants in the first diaspora. With the introduction of the colonial system, most migrants were male, rural dwellers moving to cities to look for wage jobs. In the first decade of independence, rural-urban migration usually involved the movement of thousands of job seekers to other African countries such as Sierra Leone, Cameroon, Ghana, Benin, and Guinea. Since the 1980s, migration abroad has been directed more toward industrialized, richer countries of Europe and the United States. Both internal and external forces are behind these more recent migratory movements. Before the mid-1960s, U.S. and European immigration laws were highly restrictive and unfavorable to immigrants from developing countries. But a growing need for low-cost labor in the industrial countries resulted in new policies more favorable to immigration from countries like Nigeria. In the early 1970s, in response to the civil war from 1967 to 1970, emigration from Nigeria began to increase somewhat. However, relatively few emigrants at that time left for Europe or the United States; most went to other African countries. The booming Nigerian oil industry after the war created a temporary period of rapid economic growth and development, which lessened the need for most Nigerians to look abroad for work. Then, in the late 1970s and 1980s, everything began to go downhill. Oil prices collapsed, as did the economy in general. A long period of political instability and military rule replaced democratically elected governments. Political repression, corruption, crime, and a vast inequality in wealth between the rich and everyone else led to a corrosion of social cohesion. In such an environment of societal decline, communal strife found fertile ground. Compounding these problems were painful structural adjustment programs (SAPs) forced on Nigeria by the World Bank and IMF since the 1980s. These efforts to reform the economy led to sharp cutbacks in jobs, wages, and social services, such as health care and education. Although the poor suffered the most from the imposed austerity programs, the educated middle class was decimated by a combination of low wages, job losses, and high inflation. As almost every African country at this time was in the same boat as Nigeria, they offered little attractive alternative for Nigerians struggling with such adverse conditions. In fact, in the 1980s, neighboring countries Ghana and Nigeria expelled millions of each other's workers due to the growing unemployment affecting their own citizens. Fortuitously, since the 1960s, the demand for labor was growing in the industrial counties as a result of economic expansion and declining population growth. Changes in U.S. immigration policies in 1965 and 1990 that favored those with skills and education and their immediate families made it possible for the first time for more people from Nigeria and other Anglophone African countries to immigrate, whereas past policies discriminated in favor of those of European national origin. The selectivity of U.S. immigration policy resulted in a typical African immigrant who was the cream of the crop of their country's citizens. In 1990, the average African immigrant had almost sixteen years of education, and more Africans (43 percent) than any other immigrant group had college degrees. Equally impressive, 30 percent of all foreign-born Africans were employed in the highest occupational category as professional, technical, and kindred workers (PTKs). Then in 1995, the diversity immigration lottery was expanded, which proved to be highly advantageous for skilled, educated Africans. This policy made available 55,000 visas each year to nationalities that had been disadvantaged by previous immigration policies. To qualify, applicants had to, as a minimum, have completed secondary school or be able to show evidence of two years of work in a skilled occupation. In 1995 alone, 37 percent of the diversity visas went to Africans. This policy, along with immigration via traditional channels, led to an increase in the percentage of African immigrants from 3 percent to 5 percent of all immigrants to the United States. Even more impressive, the percent of Africans in the 1990s that were PTKs had risen to 44 percent. Both Nigeria's internal problems and the changes in U.S. immigration policies led to a large increase in immigration to the United States. Initially, Nigerian immigration began to climb upward in 1971. Most of the immigrants were Igbo fleeing Nigeria at the end of the civil war. Most of them were highly educated and skilled. Another group, also mostly Igbo, were students already in the United States for higher education who decided not to return to Nigeria. Here on student visas, they applied for immigrant (i.e., permanent resident) status. The 1970s oil boom in Nigeria led to additional students coming to the United States on student or other temporary visas. However, when economic and political conditions soured in the late 1970s and 1980s, many changed their status to that of permanent residents in order to avoid returning to Nigeria. Many others began to leave Nigeria to escape conditions there. Between 1974 and 1995, Nigerians comprised the largest number and percentage of immigrants in the United States from Africaclose to 70,000 (17 percent of the total). Nigerians have become a significant presence in many countries. Approximately 15 million Nigerians, out of a population of perhaps 120 million, live abroad. Many are in developed countries with immigration laws that favor the educated and skilled. This exodus has produced a dramatic brain drain from Nigeria. It is estimated that more skilled, professional Nigerians now live outside of Nigeria than inside. In the United States alone, 1990 census data showed Nigerians to be the most educated group in the country. About 64 percent of Nigerians had at least a four-year college degree, and 84 percent were in the labor force. In 1995, included in this talented group were 21,000 Nigerian medical doctors and researchers. Each year, approximately 12,500

the country. About 64 percent of Nigerians had at least a four-year college degree, and 84 percent were in the labor force. In 1995, included in this talented group were 21,000 Nigerian medical doctors and researchers. Each year, approximately 12,500 Nigerian academics move to developed countries, and the number of Nigerian academics in the United States is said to be higher than the number in Nigeria. One of these academics is writer Femi Ojo-Ade. Ojo-Ade discusses the desperation that has driven so many educated Nigerians to leave their homeland. Nigeria is the only country, he observes, where exile, even if it means enslavement, is now preferred to life at home (2001, 37). Ojo-Ade notes that Great Britain used to be the favored destination because of Nigeria's colonial ties to that country, which gave them favored access as members of the Commonwealth. The United States is now would-be migrants' first choice. Ojo-Ade recalls a popular Lagos joke on the subject. The gist of it is as follows: a slave ship going to the United States would be so overfilled with willing candidates that it would sink before it even got under way. On a more serious note, Ojo-Ade laments that so many professionals are desperate people hell-bent on running away to greener pastures. Yet he understands that they are escaping the robbers and rapists who are destroying Nigeria (ibid., 211).

Copyright 2003 by April A. Gordon

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APA The Demographic Picture. (2003). In Nigeria's Diverse Peoples: A Reference Sourcebook. Retrieved from http://libproxy.edmc.edu/login?url=/login?qurl=http://www.credoreference.com/entry/abcnigeria/the_demographic_picture

Chicago Nigeria's Diverse Peoples: A Reference Sourcebook. Santa Barbara: ABC-CLIO, 2003. s.v. "The Demographic Picture," http://libproxy.edmc.edu/login?url=/login?qurl=http://www.credoreference.com/entry/abcnigeria/the_demographic_picture (accessed November 04, 2011).

Harvard The Demographic Picture 2003, in Nigeria's Diverse Peoples: A Reference Sourcebook, ABC-CLIO, Santa Barbara, CA, USA, viewed 04 November 2011, <from http://libproxy.edmc.edu/login?url=/login?qurl=http://www.credoreference.com/entry/abcnigeria/the_demographic_picture>

MLA "The Demographic Picture." Nigeria's Diverse Peoples: A Reference Sourcebook. Santa Barbara: ABC-CLIO, 2003. Credo Reference. Web. 04 November 2011.