CONTEXTS OF INTERNATIONAL MIGRATION OF NIGERIANS: PROPELLERS AND METHODOLOGICAL LESSONS FOR VALID AND RELIABLE MIGRATION RESEARCHES

Abstract

Nigerians are among the most migratory people in the world, with increasing population abroad. According to the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) of Nigeria, the number of Nigerians abroad, with National Identification Numbers (NIN), has risen by 563.57 percent, within just a year, from 55,181 as of February 2022 to 366,164 as of February, 2023 (Jaiyeola, 2023). The exponential increase, and continuous rise, of migration of Nigerians is so massive there is now a popular contextual word/slang to represent it. The word/slang is Japa (literally translated as urgent/desperate emigration of Nigerians). However, while there has been substantial attention to economic and development implications of migration, there has been little focus on the complex motivations and objectives of migration within the framework of drivers among Nigerians. Hence, enourmous attention has been given to migration governance relative to regulations without sufficient attention to complex and complicated factors that drive migration of Nigerians. There is, thus, the need for more contextual, nuanced, methodical and empirical approaches for effective understanding of migration of Nigerians. It is against this background that this article examines, and explains, the drivers of migration within the remit of methodological discoveries and contextual realities of Nigerians as migration increases exponentially.   This article is based on many years of primary migratory insights of the author, autoethnography and decades of empirical engagements with Nigerian migrants across many countries of the world, for instance; The United States of America (U.S.A), The European Union (EU), The United Kingdom (UK), Australia, Canada and Africa. Secondary data was also used. Conventional methodologies, commonly used to study sedentary populations, were found insufficient in this article. Transnational and innovative approaches were therefore adopted. Travels to countries of destination of Nigerian migrants and innovative deployment of information technology (IT) were prioritised. Particularly, regular telephone calls, WhatsApp calls, WhatsApp chats, WhatsApp Voice Notes and other social media platforms were used. For intending migrants in Nigeria, empirical engagements, discussions and observations were used to understand drivers of migration in their contexts. Research questions this article answers include; what informs preferred destinations of Nigerian migrants? What factors drive and propel migration of Nigerians? What theoretical orientation best explains migration of Nigerians? What methodology/methodologies can be adopted in explaining the migration? What are implications of migration of Nigerians using multi-level approach (households, national and global levels)? How best can the migration of Nigerians be best understood and managed sustainably? This article contributes to the theoretical, methodological, empirical, interdisciplinary, policy and comparative exchanges as well as conversations on the subject of global migration challenge.   Keywords: Drivers of migration, lived realities of migrants, underdevelopment and international migration, migration and development in Nigeria and Africa