THE MIGRANT CRISIS IN LIBYA AND THE NIGERIA EXPERIENCE

OLADEJO

International Migration, 1998

Population displacements, refugees and migration are not only common phenomena, but are also on the increase in sub-Saharan Africa. Although scholarly explanations for the causes include political oppression, economic adversities and environmental degradation, conflicts and wars account for the bulk of sub-Saharan Africa's refugees and migration in recent years. These explanations are themselves dependent on, or symptomatic of, more fundamental causes, including "the problem of the African state" and its failure to address the region's environmental crisis.

This study examined the leading causes and consequences of international migration in Nigeria. A survey research design was utilized for the study. The data was collected through a structured questionnaire. The opinions of 100 respondents selected through the purposive sampling technique were obtained on the principal causes and consequences of international migration in Nigeria. The findings revealed that the principal causes of international migration in Nigeria were job opportunities, unemployment, wealth prospects, safety and security, better conditions of service, low salaries and higher standards of living. These foremost causes of international migration in Nigeria were mostly economic factors. Furthermore, the findings showed that the foremost positive and negative effects of international migration in Nigeria were integrated development, increase in remittances, cheap and surplus labour, urban services and social infrastructure under stress, stricter immigration norms, multi-ethnic society and increased tolerance, Xenophobia, close gaps in skills and cultural dilution. These effects were economic, social and political. Among others, the study, thus, recommends that: the strategies of the government for stemming international migration should address push factors of unemployment, safety and security and low salaries and pull factors such as job opportunities, wealth prospects, better conditions of service and higher standards of living since they are the root causes of international migration. Furthermore, migration, a long-standing poverty reduction and strategy for human development need to be mainstreamed into policies of development in Nigeria at the Federal, State and Local Governments. Contribution/ Originality: This study contributes to existing literature by examining the leading causes and consequences of international migration in Nigeria. The outstanding contribution of this study is that it examined numerous push and pull factors that are economic, sociopolitical and ecological that could motivate Nigerians to migrate.

2020

In as much as Homosapiens existed, members do migrate from one area to another looking for food or escape from disaster and war. International migration comprises movements of over 100 million people each year, in some circumstances the movement is temporary, whereas sometimes resulted to the permanent settlement. The theme of migration becomes crucial to international political discussion both between the receiver countries and that of sending countries. This paper explores the impact of migration between Nigeria and United States of America. Using content analysis, it is concluded that so many reason have been put by scholars to come up with the reason behind people to migrate to another countries, these included economic, political, social, as well as war which make magnitude of the migration varies depending on the time, moreover, with the emergence of globalization the pattern of migration varies considerably depending on the purpose being refers. This has made the concept a de...

AFRICAN HUMAN MOBILITY REVIEW

Using the experiences of Ghanaian and Nigerian migrants who were implicated in the 2011 Libyan crisis as a case study, this paper highlights the importance of examining micro-level factors in explaining migration decision-making processes. It therefore challenges the uncritical use of macro-level factors as exogenous ‘root causes of migration especially in developing country contexts. Adopting mainly qualitative approaches among seventy-five key informants from six distinct categories, the study finds that migration culture, household livelihood aspirations, geographical propinquity, the existence of social networks and migrant smuggling rings motivate migrations to Libya. The paper also challenges scholarship on the 2011 Libyan crisis that treats the experiences of sub-Saharan African (SSA) migrants in the country as an undifferentiated group. The paper concludes that within a developing country context, the political economy of the origin country contributes to the establishment...

Unarguably, sub-Saharan Africa is a region where there is existence of voluntary migration especially in search of labor. However, people migrate due to several reasons; such as violent conflicts, governance crisis, visible attendants of corruption, unemployment as well as high standard of living. This paper made use of historical evidence from written sources to unravel why people migrate to various places despite the region's abundance natural resources. Put succinctly, sub-Saharan Africa has been a theatre of internecine warfare for quite some decades or more which invariably brought about political instability resulting from conflicts which paved the way for voluntary migration in the region. Further afield, the political landscape is unpredictable and volatile, coupled with unpleasant attitudes of dictatorial regimes in some cases that often intimidate lots of people especially intellectuals, union leaders and many other groups leading to the voluntary migration of professionals. Loss of state capacity, the fluctuating effects of structural adjustment programme and human insecurity have also prompted migratory movements. The paper submits that successive political and economic crises have triggered skilled Africans searching for political asylum.

African Journal of Humanities and Contemporary Eucation Research, 2023

Since 2015 Nigerians have been experiencing failure of governance which has manifested in persistent insecurity, high inflation, poor socio-economic performance, unemployment, hardship, suffering, poverty, low development, and frustrated hope. Currently, the level of poverty has skyrocketed and people hardly provide for one square meal a day. The inflation rate has increased to 20.77%, the debt profile is 41.62 trillion, the unemployment rate has risen to 33.3% and the GDP growth rate is 3.5%. Consequently, these precarious conditions in Nigeria have led to massive migration of both trained and untrained professionals like academics, doctors, nurses, engineers, builders, and even students to developed countries. Thus, this study examined the impact of migration on the socio-economic development of Nigeria from 2015 to 2021. The study relied on secondary sources of data collection and data collected were analyzed using content analysis. The study is anchored on relative deprivation theory and argues that poverty is the major driving force for the migration of Nigerians to developed countries. The security, economic, and political conditions in Nigeria have worsened the surge of people migrating in search of better living conditions and safety. The study revealed that Nigeria has lost skilled personnel with the capacity to transform the economy through the wealth of knowledge at their disposal to developed countries. The study concludes and recommends that the government should expedient efforts in tackling insecurity confronting the nation, create more job opportunities, and improve the environment to stop people from migrating. Furthermore, good economic policies should be formulated and implemented to revamp the Nigerian economy to compete with the developed world.

African Journal of Humanities & Contemporary Education Research, 2023

Since 2015 Nigerians have been experiencing failure of governance which have manifested in persistent insecurity, high inflation, poor socio-economic performance, unemployment, hardship, suffering, poverty, low development, and frustrated hope. Currently, the level of poverty has skyrocketed that people hardly provide for one square meal a day. The inflation rate has increased to 20.77%, the debt profile is 41.62 trillion, unemployment rate has risen to 33.3% while, the GDP growth rate is 3.5%. Consequently, these precarious conditions in Nigeria have led to massive migration of both trained and untrained professional like academics, doctors, nurses, engineers, builders and even students to developed countries. Thus, this study examined the impact of migration on socio-economic development of Nigeria from 2015 to 2021. The study relied on secondary sources of data collection and data collected were analyzed using content analysis. The study is anchored on relative deprivation theory and argued that, poverty is the major driving force for migration of Nigerians to developed countries. The security, economic and political conditions in Nigeria have worsened the surge for people to migrate in search of better living conditions and safety. The study revealed that, Nigeria has lost skilled personnel with capacity of transforming the economy through the wealth of knowledge in their disposal to developed countries. The study concludes and recommended that, government should expedient efforts in tackling insecurity confronting the nation, create more job opportunities and improve the environment to stop people from migrating. Furthermore, good economic policies should be formulated and implemented to revamp the Nigeria economy to compete with developed world

2019

The paper interrogates the phenomenon of mobility, migration and its discontent using insights from Nigeria. International migration is a growing phenomenon both in its range and complexity. The United Nations Department of Economics and Social Affairs estimates that there are over 214 million international migrants worldwide representing three per cent of the global population. The growing trend is from developing economies and countries in conflict to the developed countries of the world. The social, economic and political underpinnings are diverse and often not manifest even though they could be linked to globalization. These factors include the asymmetry in the international political order, demand for cheap labour in the developed countries, ease of international transportation and availability of information technology. In addition, countries such as Nigeria have developed strong kinship networks in Europe and America. Fundamentally, what impels decision to migrate is not unconnected with unemployment and the need to achieve better well being. However, migration has generated a myriad of discontent both in countries of origin and destination as many developed countries perceive migrants as responsible for some social problems such as crime, terrorism and growing youth unemployment. Using library resources and online materials, and anchoring the analysis on Caldwell's theory of Intergenerational Wealth-flow and Political Economy theories, the paper avers that migrants discontent stems from their inability to be fully integrated in host countries and given rights and opportunities to earn legitimate livelihood. The paper concludes that Nigerians have been singled out for xenophobic attacks in countries such as South Africa, Libya, even sold as slaves and disparaged in some other countries. Flowing from the discourse the paper recommends the bridging of the inequality gap between countries to avoid brain drain and waste.