GEOGRAFICAL INFO
Total : 923,768 sq km
Capital city: Abuja
Major cities: Lagos, Kano, and Ibadan
Independence from England: 1960
Government structure: Federal presidential republic. The President (Muhammadu Buhari since 2015) is elected directly for a 4-year term (eligible for a second term) and is both chief of state, head of government and commander-in-chief of the armed forces.
The cabinet is appointed by the president but has to include at least one member from each of the 36 states.
The legislative branch consists of a bicameral National Assembly (a 109-seat Senate and a 360-seat House of Representatives.
The juridical branch includes the Supreme Court, the Court of Appeal, the Federal high Court, the Sharia Court of Appeal of the Federal Capital territory and the Customary Court of Appeal of the Federal Capital territory. Judges are appointed by the president upon the recommendation of the National judicial Council.
Economic activities: crude oil, coal, tin, columbite; rubber products, wood, cocoa, peanuts, cotton, palm oil, corn, rice, sorghum, millet, cassava (manioc, tapioca), yams
Transportation: less than a third of the 95,000 km of Nigerian roadways are paved, and the railway lines are in a severe state of disrepair, needing replacement.
Two main waterways are Niger and Benue rivers, while the major seaports are Bonny Inshore Terminal, Calabar and Lagos.
Climatic/environmental issues: air pollution and water pollution due to the fuel industry, deforestation, erosion and desertification.
Ethnic groups: Hausa 27.4%, Igbo (Ibo) 14.1%, Yoruba 13.9%, Fulani 6.3%, Tiv 2.2%, Ibibio 2.2%, Ijaw/Izon 2%, Kanuri/Beriberi 1.7%, Igala 1% are the major among an estimated 250 groups in total.
Official language: English
Recognized regional languages: Hausa, Yoruba, Igbo, Fulani
Religions: Muslim 51.6%, Roman Catholic 11.2%, other Christian 35.7%, traditionalist 0.9%
Social issues: since 2009, Boko Haram fighters have killed tens of thousands of Nigerians during hundreds of attacks and disrupted trade and farming in the northeast, causing a risk of famine and displacing millions of people; the group violently opposes any political or social activity associated with Western society, including voting, attending secular schools, and wearing Western dress.
A transit point for heroin and cocaine intended for European, East Asian, and North American markets; consumer of amphetamines; safe haven for Nigerian narcotraffickers operating worldwide; major money-laundering center; massive corruption and criminal activity; Nigeria has improved some anti-money-laundering controls, resulting in its removal from the Financial Action Task Force's (FATF's) Noncooperative Countries and Territories List in June 2006; Nigeria's anti-money-laundering regime continues to be monitored by FATF.
Neighboring countries: Benin, Niger, Chad, Cameroon
Historical Background
Migration has always been a significant aspect of Nigerian history. All of the major ethnic groups in Nigeria believe their current settlement in Nigeria came out of their ancestors migrating there. Later on, in the beginning of the 20th century after the Europeans had arrive in Africa, thousands of Nigerians started moving abroad, to Ivory Coast, Mali, Ghana, Sudan and Togo in search of job opportunities there (SIHMA, 2014).
After World War II, many Nigerians left the country to complete their education abroad, mainly in the UK and in the USA, to return home as highly qualified professionals. These persons would play an important part in the period leading up to independence and in the post-independence period (SIHMA, 2014). After independence, the ethno-religious violence between groups from the (Islamic) north and (Christian) south generated several forms of involuntary migration in Nigeria (SIHMA, 2014). However, because of their relatively stable economy, the 70’s saw a large influx both intraregional as well as international migrants from ECOWAS countries. With the political tensions and the economic recession starting in the early 80’s, this became less and emigration became more permanent. Moreover, due to the consequences of the Structural Adjustment Program, many professionals decided to leave Nigeria as their wages and working conditions were becoming worse (SIHMA, 2014).
Since the beginning of the twenty-first century, emigration of educated Nigerians to other African countries has increased. Many Nigerian migrants integrate successfully in their host societies, and often keep in touch with their family in Nigeria, creating transnational networks. However, Nigerian emigration has the reputation of being highly criminalized because of arrests of Nigerians using face documents, unauthorized settlement and engaging in criminal activity abroad (SIHMA, 2014).
Immigration in Nigeria knew relevant variations, and especially recently the total number of international immigrants in Nigeria has grown extensively (UNDESA, 2019). International migrants come from other African countries, mostly Benin, Ghana and Mali. 0.52% of the total Nigerian population in 2014 are immigrants from other ECOWAS countries (SIHMA, 2014).
Migration Policies
The Immigration Act of 1963 is the principal legal instrument for migratory movements to and from Nigeria: it defines the conditions of entry, residence, and departure of both Nigerian citizens and foreign nationals to and from the country (Agyeman and Setrana, 2014).
There are several gaps within the migration policy of the country because until recently, Nigeria had a laissez-faire attitude about migration. Thus, the government with the help of IOM wrote a new Labour Migration Policy for the country that was completed only in 2010 (Agyeman and Setrana, 2014). The policy was then approved in October 2014 and it "aims to promote good governance of labour migration on development, while mitigating its adverse impact" (IOM, 2016).
Other acts that deal with migration in Nigeria are: the Labour Act (1974), protecting the rights of Nigerian as well as foreign labour migrants working in Nigeria; the Child Right's Act (2003), prohibiting child trafficking, child labour and protecting the rights of the child.
Governmental Institutions
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs regulates migration movements in and out of the country while the Federal Ministry of Labour and Productivity regulates labour policy for immigrants and is responsible to create employment agreements with other countries (Agyeman and Setrana, 2014).
Within the ministries, there are a series of offices that operate to manage migration, such as the Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS), created in 1963 with the Immigration Act, which registers expatriates for naturalization, monitors borders and controls documents.
The National Commission for Refugees, Migrants and Internally Displaced Persons (NCFRMI) deals with the framework and policy to protect and manage refugees, asylum seekers and internally displaced persons.
The National Population Commission (NPC) and the National Bureau of Statistics are instead responsible for collecting information on migration statistics.
Internal Migration
Internal migration involves many educated and unskilled Nigerians; however, data about such a complex phenomenon are few and outdated, so it is difficult to understand the real impact of internal movements on the social and economic realms. According to the 2006 Housing and Population Census, more than 10% of Nigerians were living in states other than the states where they were born (IOM, 2016). The Internal Migration Survey of 2010 showed that 23% of Nigerians were migrants, having changed residence within the last 10 years. It also reported that 46% of internal migrants were between 20 and 34 years of age, underlining the movement of young people across the country. 51% were female and 49% were male (IOM, 2016).
Internal migration started after independence and increased between 1976 and 1996, when Nigerians started to move from one state to another, especially from rural to urban areas (Mberu & Pongou, 2010). Internal migrants come from regions in Nigeria that are significantly less developed. Being the most important economic centre of the country, Lagos attracted many national migrants in search of employment; when the capital was moved to Abuja, the latter became a major destination area for people employed in the industrial, construction and business sectors (Mberu & Pongou, 2010).
Rural-urban migration is driven by agricultural productivity, low incomes, scarcity of land and poor socio-economical structure in rural areas (MGSoG, 2017). The relevance of rural-to-urban migration was highlighted in the 2006 Census, which reported that 60% of the internal migrants lived in cities. According to Adeyemi Oyeniyi (2013), the main drivers for this kind of internal migration are the better opportunities major urban centres offer in the economic and educational sector.
Most of the internal migrants come from the South East regions, but, recently, also from the Northern regions, following the introduction of the Sharia Law and the presence of terrorist groups related to Boko Haram.
In seven out of 36 states, the population consists of internal migrants for more than 40%, as the following figures show: Abia (48,7%), Ekiti (48.1%), Delta (45.3%), Imo (45,1%), Anambra (44.4%), Bayelsa (43.2%), and Lagos (40.1%) (IOM, 2016).
A serious issue about internal migration is that Nigerians moving from one state to another often face discrimination as they are treated as foreigners by locals – often being excluded from political participation – potentially igniting social conflicts (Mberu & Pongou, 2010).
Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs)
Nigeria has one of the highest numbers of IDPs in Sub-Saharan Africa: between 2003 and 2008 3.2 million people were forced to leave their homeplaces. In 2012, another flood led to the displacement of 2,157,419 people, while in the same year 442,329 had to flee from conflicts, which in 2014 increased the number of IDPs up to 802,148, especially in the North Eastern regions (IOM, 2016).
According to UNICEF in 2017, there were 1,713,771 IDPs in Nigeria. At the end of 2018, there were a total number of 2,216 thousand IDP’s in Nigeria. A flood in 201 caused the displacement of 600,000 Nigerians. The main reason for the displacement of people in Nigeria is the emergence of Boko Haram, a militant group that has been carrying out attacks such as bombings and shootings since 2014 (IDCM, 2019).
Immigration
The estimate for Nigeria’s population done by the National Population Commission as of 25 September 2018 was 198, 000, 950 million people. The net migration rate for Nigeria is -0.3 migrants/1000 population, meaning that more people are leaving the country than moving into it (UNDESA, 2020).
The UNDESA (2019) calculates that the international migrant stock for Nigeria comprises 1.2 million foreigners which is equal to 0.6% of the total population. The five largest immigrant nationalities are Benin (226,349), Ghana (176,493), Mali (126,63), Togo (109,862) and Niger (109,862) (UNICEF, 2013). Overall, most international migrants come from ECOWAS countries. Studies indicate that most of the labour migrants coming into Nigeria work in the informal sector. According to IOM (2016), the main prominent occupations among immigrants in Nigeria are general managers (2.73%); corporate managers (0,89%); physical science, mathematics and engineering science professionals (0.43%); clerical staff (0.34%); and labourers in mining, construction, manufacturing and transport (0.27%) (this does not take into consideration irregular migrants).
Gender/Female migration
According to UNDESA (2019) women comprise 45.1 % of the international migrant stock in Nigeria, which stands for 567,1 thousand individuals. Women represent an increasing section of the immigration population (SIHMA, 2014). As men keep losing their jobs, women are turning to migration to find ways to sustain themselves and their families. Women are getting more educated and are moving to improve their education. Also, in West Africa overall, women dominate the informal commercial sector, which is less affected by the economic crisis (FAO).
Children
According to the UNICEF (2018), 48% of the total international migrant stock in Nigeria is under the age of 18. Children are protected under the Child’s Rights Act (2003) (SIHMA, 2014).
There is a high unemployment rate in Nigeria, especially among younger population. The inability of the labour market to prove employment leaves the Nigerian youth no option than to leave Nigeria (Agyeman & Setrana, 2014).
Children are especially vulnerable for human trafficking (Mberu & Pongou, 2010), which will be discussed in the section on trafficking.
Refugees and Asylum Seekers
According to UNDESA (2019), there were 9,019 refugees and asylum seekers in Nigeria in 2010, 1,781 in 2015, and 10,535. According to IOM (2016), the low number in 2015 can possibly be explained by refugees from Liberia, Sierra Leone and Cameroon returning to their home countries because of the restoration of normalcy there. Involuntary migration into Nigeria is caused by factors such as environmental degradation, political conflicts, persecution and war in other parts of Africa (IOM, 2016). The main sending countries in 2014 were DRC, Mali, Liberia and Cote d’Ivoire (IOM, 2016).
At the end of 2019, there were 242,326 refugees from Nigeria. The three main asylum countries for Nigerian refugees are Niger, Cameroon and Chad (UNHCR, 2019). The main reason for Nigerians fleeing the country in recent years is the Boko Haram insurgency (MGSoG, 2017).
Emigration
UNDESA (2019) estimated Nigerian international emigrants to be 1,256,114 in 2015 and 1,438,331 in 2019, suggesting an increase in emigration. According to IOM (2016), emigration more than doubled between 1990 and 2013 (from 465,932 to 1,030,322). Most of the Nigerian immigrants reside in the USA (309,699), UK (203,98), Cameroon (148,076) and Niger (130,982) (UNDESA, 2019).
In 2017, the Nigerian government presented the Immigration Regulation that would try to severely bring down illegal migration, and thus also emigration, in order to stop Nigerians from dying in the desert or at sea on their way to other countries (Scholz, 2017).
Labour Migration
Comprehensive data on the employment of Nigerian immigrants is not available, though emigration of skilled Nigerians is high (IOM, 2016). 51% of Nigerian migrants have tertiary education (MGSoG, 2017). The most highly educated most often work in the medical sector (IOM, 2014). UNESCO estimates 95.6 thousand Nigerian students studying internationally in 2017.
Nigerian diaspora are among the best education and relatively affluent of immigrant population in most of the countries of destination. It is mostly the most educated, healthiest and most economically active men and women that are likely to leave Nigeria (IOM, 2016).
Unauthorised Migration
In 2012, the National Immigration Service reports that there are 1,497 illegal entry points into Nigeria. At the time, the Government started to invest large sums of money to secure the borders (IOM, 2016).
The country suffers a lot from human trafficking. Nigeria is a country of destination, transit, and origin for especially children and women, exposed forcefully to forced labour and sex work. Girls are victims of domestic servitude, sex trafficking, and prostitution while boys are forced into begging, drug mulling or to become child soldiers (Agyeman and Setrana, 2016). According to NAPTIP, which was established in 2003 and compiles human trafficking statistics in Nigeria, there is a total number of 6,572 cases of human trafficking received from its inception until the end of 2018. In that same time, there were 13,533 victims of human trafficking rescued (NAPTIP, 2018). According to CTDT, 91% of victims from Nigerian origin are women. 77,4% of the exploitation is sexual. The main countries of exploitation are Russia, Italy and Morocco (CTDT, 2020). Since its inception and end of 2018, NAPTIP reports 233 convicted persons for human trafficking (NAPTIP, 2018).
The country does not fulfil the minimum standards for eliminating human trafficking, though the country is making more and more efforts to do so (MGSoG, 2017).
Remittances
According to the World Bank (2019), Nigeria received over 22 billion American dollars in remittances in 2018. This comprises more than 6% of the national GDP, and the remittances therefore play a major role in the economy of the country. In 2010, the remittances received were 9,595 million USD; in 2013, they were 21,158 billion USD (Agyeman & Setrana, 2014). The increase in remittances over the last ten years partly occurred because of increased engagement of the diaspora by the through the NIDO (Nigerians-in-Diaspora Organisations) (Agyeman & Setrana, 2014).
Returns and returnees
In 2001, IOM started the Assisted Voluntary Return and Reintegration program to help Nigerians abroad return to the country. Between April 2017 and May 2018, IOM in collaboration with the Nigerian government assisted more than 8,000 stranded Nigerian migration to return home (IOM, 2018).
International and Civil Society Organizations
IOM: provides support to the Nigerian government to better manage migration. IOM helped the government to develop strategies to engage with the Nigeria diaspora abroad and has also supported the government for the drafting of the national migration policy.
UNHCR: collaborated with the government to provide support with issues related to refugees, asylum-seekers and IDPs.
There is a long list of NGOs that support the National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP) in human trafficking eradication efforts in Nigeria (e.g. Girls Power Initiative GPI, Young Girls Foundation, Gender Care Initiative GCI, etc.).
References
Agyeman, E. A. & Setrana, M. B. 2014. Human Mobility in Ghana. In Baggio, Fabio (ed): Africans on the Move: Human Mobility in Ghana, Nigeria, Angola and South Africa South Africa. Scalabrini Institute for Human Mobility in Africa: Cape Town, pp. 13-63.
IOM. 2016. Migration in Nigeria: A Country Profile 2014. Retrieved from: https://publications.iom.int/system/files/pdf/mp_nigeria.pdf
IOM. 2018. Mapping and Socio-Economic Profiling of Communities of Return in Nigeria. Retrieved from: https://www.alnap.org/system/files/content/resource/files/main/IOM%2B-%2BNigeria%2B-%2BFull%2BReport.pdf
Maastricht Graduate School of Governance (MGSoG). 2017. Nigeria Migration Profile: Study on Migration Routes in West and Central Africa. Retrieved from: file:///C:/Users/User/Downloads/1518185530%20(1).pdf
Mberu, B.U. & Pongou, R. 2010. Nigeria: Multiple Forms of Mobility in Africa's Demographic Giant. Retrieved from MPI: https://www.migrationpolicy.org/article/nigeria-multiple-forms-mobility-africas-demographic-giant
NAPTIP. 2018. 4th Quarter 2018 Analysis. Retrieved from: https://www.naptip.gov.ng/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/4th-Quarter-2018-Analysis.pdf
Scholz, J. 2017. Nigeria moves to stop illegal emigration. Deutsche Welle. Retrieved from: https://www.dw.com/en/nigeria-moves-to-stop-illegal-emigration/a-38051202
SIHMA. 2014. Migration Profile: Nigeria. Retrieved from: https://sihma.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/Migration-Profile_Nigeria.pdf
UNDESA. 2020. Retrieved from: https://www.un.org/en/development/desa/population/migration/data/estimates2/estimates19.asp
UNHCR. 2019. Nigeria Situation. Retrieved from: https://data2.unhcr.org/en/situations/nigeriasituation
UNESCO. 2017. Retrieved from: http://data.uis.unesco.org/Index.aspx?DataSetCode=EDULIT_DS
World Bank. 2019. Personal Remittances: Nigeria. Retrieved from: https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/BX.TRF.PWKR.CD.DT?amp%3Bamp%3Bstart=2016&%3Bamp%3Bview=map&end=2018&locations=NG&start=1977
Banner photo by Babatunde Olajide on Unsplash
