From times past, relocation to more developed
nations has always been identified with better economical opportunities and anyone
who could find his way out of Nigeria is often deemed to be “opportuned”. The
assumption of the average Nigerian is that relocation brings economic
progression and opportunities. This is a faulted assumption; one I had previously
made in my younger years. While economic progression is expected with
relocation, its not always the case.
As a matter of fact, people often struggle
in the destination countries for some amount of time before stabilizing. Some
never stabilize. However, the stigma of being in a “developed country” and “not
making it” often lead people to pretend lifestyle. Its important to understand
that its rather rare for your friends living in these countries to paint the picture
of real-life situation in these destination countries. Sometimes, when they do,
it’s usually discarded, disavowed or rarely believed. Don’t get me wrong, the
standard of living in any destination developed country like Canada will always
be higher than Nigeria. However, it comes to you at a high cost as an immigrant.
Nothing is given unto you for free here – this statement can not be
overemphasized. Suffice to say that the family support system and manual everyday
labour available in Nigeria is totally out of the equation here.
Say you have finally relocated to Canada
either as a Permanent resident or a student, unfortunately the struggle does
not necessarily end in Nigeria for you. Firstly, you might need to start all
over here which isn’t a bad thing. However, if you are coming in with 5-8 years
work experience, MSc or even PhD, starting all over isn’t exactly palatable
unless it’s a career change. My first advice, if you have more than 5 years of
work experience in Nigeria and earning more than 400,000 naira monthly in
Nigeria or somewhere else, rethink your relocation strategy.
Secondly, unlike the US or UK, Canada is
just opening itself up more to immigration and is still in its early stages of
that. Don’t get me wrong, people have been relocating to Canada for a long time
and 4
in 10 people you will meet in Canada are immigrants of different origin. But
it was never a first option for Nigerians in general until the last 2-3 years.
US and UK have always been the first choice and probably still is (anecdotal
data). US was my first choice for my MBA. Relatively higher MBA fees (in
comparison to Canada), favourable post study policy and less criminally violent
environment pushed me in the direction of Canada. In hindsight, I would have
made the same choices given the same situation. However, if I had just a little
more money, the US would have been the perfect country for my MBA education.
From my point of view, the average
Canadian is more indifferent towards immigration and immigrants than open to
it. Also, canadians are the most polite group of people I have ever met.
However, being polite is very much different from being friendly. For the
average Nigerian, friendship means “I trust you to a reasonable level”. That’s
not the same for Canadians as the average Canadian is friendly mostly to be
socially correct and polite; this is sometimes followed by a spurious smile. Despite this,
I have met some of the most genuine Canadians around, but racial profiling still lurks
around in the system. It might get a little worse if you are black or even Nigerian.
Say you finally landed and living in a Canadian
city or municipality, here are a few tips I have learnt in my 11 months of
being here. Your first set of friends will probably be the Indians – they are
more open and believe in communal living. Your first set of friends won’t be blacks
or Nigerians unless those you know closely from back home. Nigerians are
generally wary of other Nigerians here. You may not find a lot of Africans or
Nigerians around depending on your city. And when you do, they are often less
warm or welcoming than you will find back home. This, I find, is often because they
are wary of being tagged as “another black man” and the individualistic
tendencies of the average Nigerian who believes more in getting ahead by
himself than as a community (I intend to write explicitly on this in another
essay). Forming a community is one of the ways in which the Indians and the
Chinese have been able to build a community and network amongst themselves here.
You will find that most Indians and Chinese stay within their close community
whether in school or at work.
Ps: Post completed in Part 3 (next post).
Foye.
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