Things have gotten really ugly in the nation that due to the unemployment ratio, Nigerians willingly accept refugee status offered by foreign countries ready to accommodate immigrants.
Everyevery.ng deduced this message from the World Bank’s recent report, themed, “Of Roads, Less Travelled: Assessing the Potential for Migration to Provide Overseas Jobs for Nigeria’s Youth.”
According to the report, an acute jobless crisis caused socio-economic challenges for the rising working-age population, increasing citizens seeking asylum and refugee status in other countries.
The World Bank said the labour market has significantly worsened following the 2016 recession and the coronavirus pandemic.
The report highlighted a combination of rising unemployment, booming demographics, and unfulfilled aspirations as factors increasing the pressure on young Nigerians to migrate internationally, searching for gainful employment.
“With limited legal migration options, young Nigerians are increasingly choosing irregular alternatives to find better work opportunities overseas.” The World Bank Report partly stated.
Meanwhile, it further noted that the Nigerian Government developed institutional and policy frameworks that recognise international labour mobility as a tool to address unemployment.
According to the report, the frameworks also aim to increase remittances, facilitate the transfer of knowledge and investments from its diaspora, and simultaneously work on initiatives to curtail irregular migration.
Notwithstanding, the Bretton Wood Institution, as mentioned in the report, said Nigeria’s working-age population grew from 102 million to 122 million, growing at an average rate of approximately 3 per cent per year.
On the refugee status debate, World Bank revealed that the expanding working-age population combined with scarce domestic employment opportunities creates high unemployment rates, particularly for Nigeria’s youth.
“Since 2018, the active labour force population has dramatically decreased to around 70 million—lower than the level in 2014— while the number of Nigerians in the working-age population but not active in the labour force has increased from 29 million to 52 million between 2014 and 2020.
“Similarly, Nigeria’s active labour force population, that is, those willing and able to work among the working-age population, grew from 73 million in 2014 to 90 million in 2018, adding 17.5 million new entrants to Nigeria’s active labour force.”
The Bank advised Nigerian institutions to promote managed migration approaches that help create opportunities for prospective job seekers to find employment internationally.
It also advised Nigeria to implement and support schemes that increase the returns to human capital investments for youth.