Japa: US-based low-skilled Nigerians boost income by 1,500%, says World Bank

The World Bank has disclosed that low-skilled Nigerians who moved to the United States of America increased their earnings by 1,500 per cent.

This was contained in The World Development Report 2023: Migrants, Refugees, and Societies released on Tuesday on the World Bank’s website.

The report noted that the potential gains from migration are highest for people who moved from low to high-income countries.

It read, “The potential gains are highest for people who move from low- to high-income countries. The labour demand at the destination also shapes outcomes. Gains depend on migrants’ skills, gender, age, and language ability. Although the absolute gains are larger for high-skilled workers than for low-skilled workers, low-skilled workers experience a multifold increase in their income as well.

“For example, low-skilled Yemenis and Nigerians moving to the United States increase their earnings by about 15 times. The gains achieved by low-skilled workers are higher when they move from a society with high socioeconomic inequalities to a country with fewer inequalities and where the difference in wages between low- and high-skilled workers is lower.”

A graph illustrating the increase shows that the highest gains for low-skilled migrants are from Yemen (over 1,500 per cent), Nigeria (almost 1,500 per cent) and Egypt (over 1000 per cent).

However, it was noted that income gains are sometimes partly offset by the financial costs of moving, especially for the low-skilled.

The report read, “Migrants incur a range of expenses before their departure, from the job information and job matching fees they pay to intermediary agents to the regulatory compliance or documentation fees (for a visa/ sponsorship, medical tests, and security clearance), transportation costs, and pre-departure training costs they must pay. For low-skilled migration, these costs tend to be borne by the workers, thereby contravening the principles of fair recruitment. These costs tend to increase with the duration of contracts, and they limit the ability of many low-skilled workers to benefit from migration opportunities.”

It was further noted that Nigeria is a major origin and destination for migrants, adding that Nigeria is home to almost 1.3 million immigrants and is the origin of 1.7 million emigrants.

The report also revealed that in Nigeria, households that receive remittances invest more in agrochemicals and planting materials, and their farms have larger yields.

It, however, noted that in Nigeria, remittance inflows jumped by almost 10 times in one year and then declined, even though economic fundamentals suggest they should have increased steadily.

The report further noted that Nigeria and nine other countries account for more than two-thirds of the 59.1 million internally displaced persons, with about 3.2 million IDPs in Nigeria.

It was further noted that Nigeria is expected to expand its population from 213 million to 791 million, becoming the second most populous country in the world, after India, by the end of the century, despite the decline in the fertility rate from 6.4 to 5.1.