Why Nigerians Are Immigrating To Canada
In recent years, Canada has seen an influx of Nigerians and this is because it is one of the best countries to immigrate to presently. Nigeria is the 4th largest supplier of immigrants to Canada and it is no surprised as the Great White North is a country blessed with milk and honey.
READ ALSO: How Immigrants From Nigeria Can Buy A Home In The US In 36 Months
Reports from statistics have shown that over 18,000 Nigerians received permanent residency in 3 years (2018-2020) and more is expected from the result of 2021 which had a high record of 405,000 immigrants to the country.
Canada offers immigrants a lot of wonderful benefits as you get to enjoy better quality of life, lots of job opportunities with attractive salaries, top education, security and healthcare system. Who wouldn’t want to enjoy these things?
With the present situation in Nigeria like inflation, low standard of education, devaluation of the national currency and insecurity, a lot of Nigerians have been inspired to move abroad with Canada as their top destination.
Some Of The Reasons Nigerians Are Moving To Canada
- Canada needs immigrants
With the aging population in Canada, the country is in need of immigrants to come fill up labour shortages on the country. The Canadian government believes that immigrants are pivotal in the growth and development of the country and also with the hit of the pandemic in 2020, the country is looking to get back on track and so it sees immigrants as a fast way to go about that.
Canada has an immigration take of 432,000 immigrants in 2022 and a total of 1.3 million immigrants with the next three years according to its Immigration Levels Plan 2022-2024.
These immigrants are going to contribute to the workforce of the country and there are various immigration programs put in place to help immigrants from various part of the world come to Canada.
Canada is one of the countries of the world with the easiest and fastest immigration programs as it has an immigration program with application processing time of six months. So in six months, you could become a permanent resident in Canada.
The Canadian government announced recently that it will be employing students to take up jobs as this will help them earn extra cash to meet their needs while studying in Canada.
- Favorable inflationary numbers
A lot of countries around the world are experiencing high inflation rates as a result of the rise in global crude oil prices, increase in demand for consumer goods, disruption in the supply chain and also so irregularities in the policies of central banks in various countries.
Also, Nigeria’s consumer price index rose by 15.4% in November 2021, showing a 12-month low, dropping from 15.99% which was recorded in the previous month.
While other countries are experiencing high inflation rates, Statistics Canada reported that the inflation rate in Canada surged to an 18-year high of 4.7% in November 2021.
If you are comparing the Nigerian and Canadian figures, there is a 10.7% difference indicating a large varying level of price volatility between the two countries.
Looking at the 10-year trend analysis, Nigeria’s inflation rate has averaged at 11.75% between 2011 and 2020 compared to Canada’s average of 1.64%. This shows that there is a high level of inflationary pressure in Nigeria compared to Canada.
- Economy at below desirable level
No doubt that Nigeria boasts of being the largest economy in Africa with an estimated GDP of $432.29 billion in 2020 followed by South Africa and Egypt. With a population of over 200 million, Nigeria’s GDP per capita is estimated at $2,097.
Even with the large population of the country, it was unable to print impressive growth in its GDP. But Canada had an estimated GDP of $1.64 trillion which is almost four of Nigerian’s GDP.
What people are saying
A practicing nurse and student in Canada, Miss Adejoke said that the reason she left Nigeria and sort residency in Canada was that the Nigerian education system is below average and it is not designed to meet international standards.
Here is how she said it; “In Nigeria, it is not easy to be a student and work at the same time and also pay your bills but in Canada, you are able to do all these even as a high school graduate.”
She mentioned that Canada and the US are known to be lands of opportunities and that all her expectations of leaving Nigeria for Canada have been met in less than 5 years.
Also, a financial expert living in Canada, Thomas Abiodun explained that the major reason he left Nigeria was to search for greener pastures and earn high. He added that Nigeria’s system is backdated and since he travelled to Canada, he has gained access to one of the best infrastructures, transport system, healthcare system, uninterrupted power supply and also top education.