Nigerian migration to Ireland: movements, motivations and experiences

Abstract

This article focuses on the different Nigerian groups that have migrated to Ireland from the 1980s. Data from a series of interviews in Ireland and Nigeria are employed to identify distinct groups of Nigerian migrants to Ireland and their specific migration patterns. The article identifies two broad categories of Nigerian migrants to Ireland: those who have moved from other European countries, and those who have migrated directly from Nigeria. Within each of these categories, the article also identifies a number of sub-categories that are related to both macro- and micro-level factors and conditions. The paper argues that any study of African migration to Europe should focus on individual experiences rather than generalisations in order to capture to complexity of such migration movements.

Keywords:

• Nigerian migration
• individual experiences
• macro and micro-level approaches

Acknowledgements

Thanks to Drs Mary Gilmartin and Allen White for the helpful critiques on drafts of this paper. I also would like to thank Dr Mark Hennessy in the Geography Department of Trinity College Dublin, who supervised the research on which this paper is based. Finally, the author gratefully thanks the courageous interviewees for sharing so many significant details of their lives.

Notes

1. First, Ireland has passed a number of laws aimed at combating illegal immigration since the late 1990s. These laws provide a legal basis for deporting non-nationals in violation of Ireland's immigration legislation, and ban the trafficking of illegal immigrants and the carrying of a passenger who does not have proper immigration documents. Second is the removal of the automatic right to permanent residence for non-Irish national parents of Irish-born children by a Supreme Court judgment in January 2003. Third is the Employment Permits Bill, enacted in April 2003. Fourth is the elimination of an Irish-born child's automatic right to citizenship when the parents are not Irish nationals as a result of the Citizenship Referendum in 2004.

2. Europe was the largest host of international migrants, with 56 million migrants in 2000 (UNFPA 2004).

3. According to the Nigeria 2006 Census report, Yoruba represent 20 per cent of the total population of Nigeria (over 27 million), Ibo represent 12 per cent (over 16 million) and Edo/Benin represent 1 per cent. According to Komolafe (2002b), Yoruba represent 77 per cent of the total Nigerian population in Ireland, Ibo represent 12 per cent, and Edo/Benin represent 3 per cent.

4. During a telephone conversation with this interviewee on 22 February 2007, she revealed to me that: ‘I could have chosen to go back to Nigeria, living in the hot weather … So why did I stay? Having spent enough years in Ireland, I clearly felt after my study that I have passed through culture shock and emotional crisis in Ireland, and I thought to myself this country (Ireland) would provide a good platform for me to learn and experience advance medicine.’

5. See the Executive Committee Conclusion No.39, Refugee Women and International Protection, 1985: ‘States … are free to adopt the interpretation that women asylum-seekers who face harsh or inhuman treatment due to their having transgressed the social mores of the society in which they live may be considered as “a particular social group” within the meaning of Article 1A(2) of the 1951 United Nations Refugee Convention.’

6. Section 11B of the Refugee Act 1996 requires the Refugee Applications Commissioner (RAC) and the Refugee Appeals Tribunal (RAT) to have regard to a broad range of criteria in assessing the credibility of an application. These include accounts of identity documents including loss and destruction, travel history to the State, and failure to seek protection in the first safe country.

7. The L and O families, who had Irish-born children, had their appeal against deportation orders rejected by the Supreme Court in January 2003. Prior to this, families with Irish-born children had been given leave to remain in Ireland, since these Irish citizens had been deemed to be constitutionally entitled to a family life in Ireland.