On Twitter, you may find that a user’s account name has both the Nigerian and Canadian national flags sitting pretty beside it. This is usually a reflection of allegiance to two nationalities, the former by birth and the other by immigration. More importantly, however, it depicts a massive movement of Nigeria’s active population to the United States’ smaller, quieter, less-likely-to-make-the-news neighbour.
More and more middle-class Nigerians are making the exodus from their home country to Canada, and according to recently published data, the number of Nigerians that have been issued residency permits has tripled in the last five years. The numbers show no signs of slowing down anytime soon: people are taking French classes and studying for IELTS tests, high-earning individuals are saving up amidst year-long applications, and conversations centred about migration have increased online and offline.
One reason for this would be that of all the countries in the world, Canada has been one of the most intentional about welcoming immigrants, who are motivated by the North American nation’s economic opportunities, diverse population and functional health care system, among other factors. In 2015, Canada implemented a new system for accepting skilled immigrants through its borders, using a points-based calculation in which applicants are scored on the basis of their age, work experience, education level, and language skills, with a view to easing the entry of skilled foreigners. In 2018, Canada’s immigration minister, Ahmed Hussein expressed the country’s intention to attract more than 1 million people from 2019 to 2021. Last year, over 341,000 immigrants successfully gained entry into Canada.
At the other end of the Atlantic, people are seeing more and more reasons to leave Nigeria. Many working-class youths are dissatisfied with the level of security, paucity of employment opportunities and slow pace of infrastructural development, and not only seek to carve out a better quality of life for themselves, but also raise their children in an environment where social security and human dignity are assured. For instance, more doctors and nurses, who are aware that there is a high demand for skilled labour in Canada, are taking foreign examinations to ensure qualification for a smooth passage to a country that appears to place more value on their services. A Twitter user once made a post about how an entire department in his organisation stopped functioning because the employees there had migrated.
Surely, having more Nigerians in Canada who send money back home and invest in local business contributes significantly to Nigeria’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP), but the issue of brain drain calls for concern. Canadian authorities have been accused in certain quarters of subtly invading Nigeria to steal its talent, but the major argument is that if everything was alright back home, Nigerians wouldn’t be so eager to run to the airport. The youth population is ditching Lagos and Abuja for Ottawa because they feel a degree of discontent, and it is up to the government and public policy stakeholders to give them a reason to stay. If Nigerians can be guaranteed an adequate level of security, a fertile ground for business and supply of basic amenities, then immigration offices would be a lot less crowded.