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Most Nigerians in the United States
dream of returning home some day. I should know because as a social
scientist, I have devoted most of my professional life as a social
work researcher in studying immigration and community development. A
few years ago I studied the motivation and the readjustment issues
of Nigerians living in the Northwest United States. Following the
methods of social science inquiry, I interviewed Nigerians living in
the region about how they came to settle in the area and what they
faced as immigrants. What I found out was rather interesting and
revealed what I suspected about our people here.
Most Nigerians came here to the United States to go to school. They
came with lots of ambition namely, to acquire a college education
and return to Nigeria. There were two groups of Nigerian students in
the decades of the 1970's and 80s. The first group consisted of
children of the middle class who came to the United States because
their parents could afford to send them abroad to get American
education during the oil boom years. The second consisted of
government scholarship recipients. The Nigerian government noticed
that expatriates were controlling the Nigerian economy and that
Nigerian citizens were only serving the middle level manpower needs
of the country. The Gowon and later the first Obasanjo
administrations embarked on developing a university system that
would be a world class. This ambitious project meant sending the
best and brightest young minds abroad to study. Many of those who
came on this government scheme became stranded when the Buhari
administration in 1983 cancelled the project. School fees were no
longer sent to those abroad and with the deteriorating political and
economic situation in the country many of these students decided to
stay in the United States and became what some called economic
refugees. There were a few problems associated with this decision to
stay. The courses of study selected by these Nigerian were done to
either suit the Nigerian labor market to which they planned to
return or to satisfy the requirement for government scholarships.
The decision to stay in the United States therefore meant that there
was a dissonance between the degrees already acquired and the jobs
available in the American labor market. Many of the issues faced by
Nigerian immigrants in their struggle to survive could be traced to
this problem between what their area of study was and the jobs
available for them as foreigners
. The study therefore found that the Nigerian took whatever job was
available despite high academic training. Many became bus boy,
cooks, cab drivers, carpenters, nurse assistants, and personal
attendants to wealthy and sick Americans. One Nigerian told me about
an experience he had. He was looking for a job but found that
everywhere he went; they were looking for experience and training.
One day he found an advertisement for a bar tender at a local pub.
He thought that pouring a drink for patrons could not be that hard
so he applied for the job and was invited for an interview. At the
interview, the manger asked if he had bar tended before and because
he was desperate, he said yes. He was hired and on his first day he
was overwhelmed. He said “Who knew that glasses had names and
certain drinks also had names?" Patrons, would come in and ask for
whiskey on the rocks and he had no clue what they were talking
about. He wondered what was so bloody about Bloody Mary and stood
there lost as patrons yelled for their orders. When the manager
discovered that his new bar tender had no clue about the bar, he
quickly sent our Nigerian friend to the kitchen to do dishes and so
he became a dishwasher. Another Nigerian went to work at an Italian
restaurant as a short order cook but found himself asking a Hispanic
dishwasher what the meaning of his job title was. He soon found out
when the waitresses came in with orders asking for fettuccine,
linguini, and lasagna. The problem was he had no clue what those
dishes were. For someone who ate foo-foo and can talk about the
different kinds of soup, preparing these dishes at a fast pace
restaurant on a Saturday night was a Herculean task. Again our
Nigerian friend, just like his bar tender compatriot was sent to do
the dishes and the Hispanic was promoted to be the cook. Others
became traders, buying and selling cloths and food stuff to fellow
Nigerians and their American friends.
All the Nigerians who participated in the study reported that racism
was a problem. In fact, all of them had had experience with racism.
From professors who refused to help to managers who treated the
Nigerian with scorn, all the participants in the study struggled
with racism. One of the things that participants told me about
racism was that their education back in Nigeria did not prepare them
on how to deal with racism in America. They went to school learning
about the benevolence of the western society but were not told about
the racist attitude of the American society. Some had problems
finding a place to rent, while others had problems in the work
place. The Nigerian however thrived in spite of racism. In the
1940s, the African moved westward and encountered racism. They
turned it to their advantage by opening businesses to cater for each
other. The Nigerian borrowed a page from this playbook. Unable to
find work because of racism, many returned to school and obtained
advance degrees. As one of the participants put it: "So long as you
have the degree and training that the American employer must have,
they cannot afford not to hire you". Many of the participants
therefore went to school obtaining advance degrees in many
disciplines from Accounting to medicine. Yet as the Nigerian
obtained the credentials that would get them into the middle class,
they found themselves waiting at the door with their qualifications
in hand. Education did not translate easily into a better job for
some because of racism. Yet the Nigerian retrained and some took on
vocational trainings in order to survive in America. The study
showed, just as others conducted by other researchers, that despite
the high academic training of the Nigerian immigrants in America,
they earn less than white immigrants from Europe. Our third world
origin is used against us when it comes to jobs in America. Yet the
Nigerian is very satisfied with whatever he or she makes for we tend
to compare ourselves not to our American neighbors with similar
education, but to those in Nigeria that we left behind. We thought
about what our situation was in Nigeria and congratulate ourselves
for how far we have come. In the process we failed to see that we
are not paid as much as the native born.
Yet we continue to stay in our adopted land, not because of the draw
of America, but because of unfavorable conditions at home. Many told
stories of their experience visiting home. They told stories of
corruption, police brutality, insecurity brought about by armed
gangs, illiteracy and hardships as a result of the lack of basic
necessity. But curiously, all the participants have what I called, a
sojourner's mentality. They hope to return someday to Nigeria when
they have made enough money here in America that would allow them to
live in relative ease. The picture painted by these Nigerians is
that of building a house in his or her village/town, equipping the
house with modern amenities and conveniences currently enjoyed in
America, then with a car in the garage and money in the bank, the
Nigerian returns to the land of his/her birth in the winter and
returns to the United States in the summer, thus continuing his
stride between two worlds. When I asked how they are getting ready
for this phase of their lives, many even in their fifties said they
are still planning. Some have built houses already getting ready for
this retirement and others had stories of woe on how much money they
have lost to relatives and phony contractors in their attempt to
have a house at home where they hope to return someday.
To be contd. next week
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