International migration, national development and the role of governments: the case of Nigeria

As Africa’s demographic giant, Nigeria plays a key role in African migrations, but has surprisingly been ignored in the migration and development literature. Beyond the issue of trafficking, few empirical studies on Nigerian migration are available. With a few exceptions (Nwajiuba, 2005; Osili, 2004), studies on the development implications of Nigerian international migration are particularly rare. Besides giving a brief overview of Nigerian international migration, this chapter aims to analyse the views and policies of Nigeria-based stakeholders with regard to migration and development linkages. This has been achieved through the study of available documentation (articles, reports, policy documents, undocumented notes) and interviews with twenty-two people representing eighteen institutions, ranging from Nigerian ministries and agencies, NGOs, European and African foreign embassies to several multilateral organisations such as the IOM, ILO and ECOWAS. The interviews were conducted from 26 to 30 June 2006 in Abuja. Due to the limited number of interviews, and the general lack of data and empirical studies, this chapter does not pretend to be comprehensive. Rather, it tries to throw light on the major migration trends and to identify the major policy issues and dilemmas from the perspective of the Nigerian interviewees. Unless reference is made to written sources, information in this chapter is based on the interviews. Because of limitations of space, the chapter will focus almost exclusively on international migration.