Many Nigerians have spent tens of millions of naira to escape the ‘dungeon’ of Nigeria for a fantastic life in Canada. However, the struggle to survive in Canada is real.
By Mayor Ikoroha
Introduction
The term “Japa” has been trending in Nigeria in recent times. The word is actually a Nigerian slang derived from a Yoruba word meaning “to escape” or “to run away.” Japa is commonly used to describe Nigerians leaving Nigeria for other countries in Europe, North America, and other parts of the world in pursuit of a better life, education, or employment opportunities, often with no intention of returning to the country. This migration trend is driven by the desire to escape economic challenges, political instability, insecurity, and limited prospects in Nigeria.
The desire by many Nigerians, particularly youths, to leave the country is primarily driven by high youth unemployment and underemployment. It is a fact that many Nigerians, both young and old, struggle to secure stable, well-paying jobs within their home country. Chronological data show that the unemployment rate in Nigeria has risen constantly in recent years. Nigeria’s youth population eligible to work is about 40 million, out of which only 14.7 million are fully employed, and another 11.2 million are underemployed.
The attraction of better job prospects, higher incomes, and improved living conditions overseas acts as a powerful motivator for migration. The country has also contended with periods of political uncertainty, insecurity, massive government corruption, and misgovernance. This has not only made the present challenging but has eroded confidence in the nation’s future. This has prompted some young and not-so-young Nigerians to seek security and stability elsewhere.
Insecurity, in particular, has posed a major challenge to Nigerians as kidnapping, terrorism, banditry, and ethnic and religious strife are prevalent in every nook and cranny of the country. Many Nigerians, concerned about their safety and that of their families, tend to seek refuge in more stable countries of Western Europe and North America.
Many Nigerians, especially the youths, are also confronted daily with societal issues such as incessant protests and strikes related to issues like rising fuel prices, minimum wage disputes, and bad governance. These have further fueled frustration and disillusionment among Nigerians of all ages with the Nigerian government. These depressing events have amplified the desire for change and the belief that greater opportunities for progress can be found abroad.
Access to stable electricity in Nigeria is difficult. There is also distrust in local institutions, such as the justice system, whereby many Nigerians believe that the judiciary is entombed in corruption and justice is only given to the highest bidder. The country’s healthcare institutions are dysfunctional and comatose, with many hospitals lacking basic equipment and competent personnel, compounded by the high cost of accessing medical care and facilities. These have pushed young Nigerians towards seeking better services and opportunities in countries where institutions are perceived as functional, more reliable, and transparent.
Migrating from Nigeria to other countries in search of a better life is not really new in Nigeria. Since the early years of independence, Nigeria and, to a larger extent, Africa have witnessed varying degrees of migration, both regular and irregular. Most of Nigeria’s pre- and post-independence leaders and earliest professionals all studied in the West.
However, the first wave of Japa in the real sense in Nigeria was in the ‘70s/’80s. Faced with an uncertain future owing to military interregnums and a volatile economy, the Nigerian youth journeyed to the West, mostly to the United States of America and the United Kingdom. After this period, more Nigerians departed the country in pursuit of their dreams abroad. Some of these Nigerians in the diaspora have distinguished themselves in different human enterprises. They constitute a financial bulwark for the country’s economy, reportedly remitting about $25 billion to the country annually.
In recent times, the frenzy for outmigration among Nigerians is alarming. Japa is not just restricted to the youths; you find Nigerians 50 years and above joining the Japa bandwagon.
It is a fact that wealthy and developed countries in Europe, North America, and Asia are openly and secretly hiring professionals from Nigeria. Some months ago, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia was openly conducting a screening exercise for Nigerian doctors interested in migrating to Saudi Arabia in Lagos and Abuja.
Migration by competent professionals in Nigeria naturally leads to brain drain, and almost all sectors of the country have been negatively affected by the current migration spike. Medical doctors and other healthcare professionals, university lecturers, bankers, and so on are resigning their appointments out of frustration to navigate their way to saner climes in anticipation of a better life.
In 2022, the Nigerian Association of Resident Doctors revealed that about 50 percent of Nigerian doctors had already found their way out of the country. The University College Hospital, Ibadan, Oyo State, also noted that more than 600 of its clinical workers have resigned their appointments, while the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital disclosed that more than 150 nurses resigned their appointments with the tertiary hospital.
Further statistics reveal that about 8,737 doctors who obtained their degrees in Nigeria are currently practising in the UK. According to the UK General Medical Council, 862 Nigerian doctors were licensed to practise in the country in 2020; while between June 2021 and September 2021, 353 doctors were registered to practise in the UK.
This is worrisome owing to the fact that Nigeria is a country where the ratio of doctors per patient is 1:5,000 against the World Health Organisation’s recommendation of 1:600. It is unfortunate that Nigerians who earned their degrees in Nigeria are being harvested by foreign countries.
Aside from the economic and social effects of the Japa syndrome, this is one of the features of a failed state, as citizens are pushed out in search of greener pastures, and, in this case, it comes with so much desperation given the current situation of the Nigerian state.
Even as some countries that are popular Japa destinations, like the United Kingdom, are putting in place measures to stem migration from countries like Nigeria, there may not be an end in sight soon for the Japa syndrome. In 2022, the Association of Nigerian Students in Europe revealed that Europe alone has more than three million Nigerians enrolled in different higher institutions of learning. A survey also indicates that 89.87 percent of Nigerian youths prefer to study in a university outside the country. Seventy-three percent of Nigerians, 60 percent of doctors, and 89.87 percent of students want to leave the country. They all want to Japa.
Another survey from the Nigeria Social Cohesion Survey revealed that seven out of 10 Nigerians are willing to relocate to other countries for various reasons, with a good number of them recording success. Today, there is still the increasing rate of an emerging urge to leave Nigeria by the old and the young. Now, the current net Nigeria migration rate is -0.273 per 1000 population, indicating that more people are emigrating from the country.
In recent times, Canada has become perhaps the choice destination of Nigerians seeking to Japa. The country’s relatively high wages, low unemployment rate, universal access to Canada’s quality primary and secondary education, Canada’s socio-political stability, and access to the country’s world-class infrastructural system make the country the dream of many Nigerians. In summary, Nigerians are drawn to Canada by the promise of a better life. Boasting sectors like oil and gas, information and communication technology (ICT), health, and various engineering fields, Canada has become a magnet for Nigerian professionals.
However, Canada is not really the heaven most Nigerians perceive it to be. In recent times, I have been to Canada as a tourist with three visits in the past five years. During these visits, I lived and interacted with Nigerian immigrants.
The following is a report on the challenges Nigerian immigrants face in Canada. Their experiences may compel some Japa enthusiasts to reappraise their desperation to leave Nigeria at all costs.
The stories told are real. The names have been changed to protect the identity of the individuals involved.
Chopping ‘Aduro’ as the Best Route to Migrating to Canada
‘Aduro’ is a Yoruba word which literally means “someone who stays or remains.” It is the term Nigerians in Canada use for those who seek asylum. Many Nigerians who are able to find themselves on the shores of Canada see chopping Aduro as the best route to stay in Canada permanently.
Asylum is simply the protection granted by a state to someone who has left their home country as a political refugee. For many Nigerians in Canada who are really economic refugees, it is oftentimes difficult to prove that they are running away from Nigeria due to political persecution. But they have over the years given it a try.
Years ago, many Nigerians were granted asylum because they were able to convince the Canadian authorities that they were running away from Nigeria due to the threat of Boko Haram terrorists. Then the Canadians realised that the Boko Haram threat existed only in some areas in Muslim Northern Nigeria and most of the asylum seekers were Christians who lived in Southern Nigeria, and the door was shut.
Then some ladies got asylum because they claimed that they faced the danger of female genital mutilation, popularly called circumcision, in Nigeria. But over time, the Canadian authorities rejected this ground for asylum as they argued that someone who faced a threat of female genital mutilation, which is prevalent in some rural areas, could migrate to any of Nigeria’s cities where such practice was non-existent. They did not need to migrate to Canada.
I met Kayode, who is in his mid-40s, in 2019, and he told me that immediately he landed in Canada from Nigeria, he applied for asylum on the grounds of a traditional practice that once existed in his Yoruba community many decades ago.
“I filled my asylum application on the grounds that my uncle died and I was being compelled to marry his old wife according to our tradition,” he said with a knowing smile. “We have had the first hearing and my solicitor has assured me that I would be successful.”
I kept in touch with Kayode after I left Canada. He lost his asylum application but appealed the decision. The appeal process was still ongoing when the Covid-19 pandemic came. He was involved in Covid-19 related work and got his asylum application approved as part of the general amnesty the Canadian government granted some asylum seekers who were actively involved in Covid-19 related work.
In recent years, most Nigerians seeking to remain in Canada have come to settle for homosexuality as their reason for seeking asylum. In January 2014, then Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan had assented to a bill outlawing gay relationships and same-sex marriage, effectively putting the legislation to use several months after it was passed by the two arms of the National Assembly. The law states that anyone convicted for getting involved in a gay relationship or entering into a same-sex marriage contract or civil union faces up to 14 years in jail. It is also a crime to have a meeting of homosexuals, or to operate or attend a gay club, society, or organization. Public show of same-sex intimate affection is also outlawed. Offenders may be jailed for up to 10 years.
Canada is one of the most liberal countries on earth and many desperate Nigerian asylum seekers claim that they are gays facing persecution in Nigeria in order to gain asylum in Canada.
“I filed in my asylum application that a mob stormed my house in Lagos to kill me because of my sexual orientation,” Chukwudi, who hails from Enugu State, told me in 2022. “My story was that after I miraculously escaped from the mob, I hid somewhere for ten days before I boarded a flight to Canada.”
Chukwudi was lucky because the Canadian authorities do not subject asylum seekers on the ground of homosexuality to any kind of test to confirm that they are really gays. For some in the Toronto area in Ontario Province, immediately they identify as gays, they are readily ‘adopted’ by the Gay and Lesbian Appeal of Toronto, an advocacy group for homosexuals.
It is ironic that people like Chukwudi use homosexuality to seek asylum when they, like the majority of Nigerians, feel a deep sense of revulsion at the thought of a sexual relationship between persons of the same sex.
“I am scared to death that one day I will be asked to perform a homosexual act to prove that I am gay,” he told me one day after we passed Woody’s, one of the most famous homosexual joints in Toronto. “I just hope that that day will not come. I will rather be deported back to Nigeria than perform a homosexual act.”
There were many Nigerians living illegally in the United States who migrated to Canada to chop Aduro because of Canada’s more liberal asylum policies. They just needed to cross over to Canada from any of her borders with the US and they were gleefully received by Canadian authorities as refugees escaping persecution.
There was even a time when some Nigerians applied for a US visa (which is easier to obtain than a Canadian visa) without any intention of spending a day in the US. When they got the visas and arrived at JFK Airport in New York, they took a regular taxi shuttle outside the airport that took them straight to the Canadian border.
However, this route to chop Aduro was automatically closed in early 2023 with an immigration deal signed by the US and Canada, which stated that any asylum seekers who lack U.S. or Canadian citizenship and are caught within 14 days of crossing will be sent back across the border.
Over the years, Nigerian asylum seekers have been increasing in Canada with mixed results. From available statistics, there were 20 successful asylum applications in 2012; 308 in 2013, 394 in 2014, and 389 in 2015. Also, 389 Nigerians were received in 2016, 764 in 2017, 755 in 2018, and 1,733 in 2019. While 2020, 2021, and 2022 saw 1,534, 2,302, and 1,315 persons granted protection, respectively, 289 Nigerians have been accepted for protection in the first six months of 2023.
For rejections, 127, 241, and 248 Nigerians were denied protection in 2013, 2014, and 2015 respectively, under the new system for determining refugee protection claims made in Canada – which took effect on December 15, 2012. Also, 476, 917, and 1,777 claims were rejected in 2016, 2017, and 2018 respectively. 2019 saw the highest rejected claims so far, with 3,951 Nigerian applicants turned down, while 1,770, 1,686, and 728 persons were denied protection in 2020, 2021, and 2022.
The good thing about Canada for most Nigerian immigrants is that there are many people whose asylum applications have been rejected, final appeals have also been rejected but they have continued living in Canada. In most cases, they would not be deported back to Nigeria as long as they are law-abiding. Most of them resort to looking to raise funds to ‘arrange’ marriages to Canadians to get permanent residency.
Academic Pursuit Enroute Permanent Residency and Citizenship
Migrating to Canada from Nigeria with a study visa is the most popular way to Japa to Canada these days. This is a costly project and it is not for the faint-hearted.
First of all, you need to secure admission in a higher institution in Canada, and most institutions demand the payment of first semester school fees before they issue you with an admission letter with which you can secure a study visa. Canada makes a lot of money from foreign students, and in some cases, international students are charged 25,000 Canadian Dollars (CAD) for a programme where Canadians and permanent residents in Canada are charged less than 5,000 CAD (1 CAD = 0.75 USD or N1,200).
When you secure admission and are able to cough out the expensive fees to get an admission letter, the next stage is to apply for a study visa. The visa application process is simple, but the problem is that you need to prove that you have enough funds to cater for your upkeep when you arrive in Canada for your academic pursuit. To this end, you are expected to keep ‘sufficient’ funds in your bank account for the period your study visa is being processed. This is generally referred to as ‘Proof of Funds.’
In most cases, you are expected to keep at least CAD 20,000 in your accounts as Proof of Funds. And these funds would have to remain in your account while your study visa is processed, which sometimes takes up to three months. It is an open secret that many prospective applicants go through agents who provide the funds for them. These agents put a lien on the funds to avoid tampering and charge the prospective students as much as 10% interest per month on the amount. Some unscrupulous banks in the country have taken over the business from agents with lower interest rates.
Most Nigerians, after going through these financially gruelling processes, arrive in Canada with student visas only to find out that it is not yet Uhuru. Hardly anyone uses his or her study visa to work because the 20 hours or so per week of work permitted for students would always be inadequate to cater for their financial needs. Even when most of them work with ‘arrangee’ work permits, which enable them to work for the maximum number of hours available as per the person’s physical capacity, they find out that there is virtually no way they can raise enough money from working in Canada to pay their humongous second semester school fees after paying their nominal bills. There have been recorded cases of Nigerians who come with student visas resorting to filing for asylum after one semester in Canada.
The life of a Nigerian in Canada with a study visa is a challenging one. In order to make ends meet, many of them are overworked, with some of them sleeping in classes after doing night jobs.
Edogie migrated to Canada with his family of five after his wife was given a study visa. It has been hell for him since they arrived in Canada and his wife began her two-year Master’s Degree programme at Memorial University of Newfoundland.
“My wife was not allowed to work because of the nature of her programme, and I was the one to take care of myself, her, and our three children – two boys and a girl aged 8, 10, and 12,” he said. “In the first three months, all of us squatted in a single room in a relation’s three-bedroom apartment. It was really a change of scene when we had lived in a one-storey duplex back in Nigeria, which I sold to raise funds for our Japa to Canada.”
He said that he exhausted almost all his life savings and the money he raised from the building he sold in getting his family to Canada and has been working both night and day to fend for the family. After their first three months in Canada, their presence had become a real nuisance in his relation’s apartment, but he had raised enough money to rent their own apartment.
“We moved to a one-bedroom flat, but I knew that our stay there was sort of illegal as the regulation was that children of opposite sex are not allowed to share the same room,” he said. “We need a minimum of a three-bedroom apartment.”
At the time I encountered Edogie, he hoped to raise enough money within three months through harder work so that he could rent a three-bedroom apartment and live within the rules.
“I can’t wait for my wife to graduate and start working so that the family burden would be shared,” he lamented. “I have really suffered. From a well-paid executive of a telecoms company who lived comfortably in Nigeria to a squatter doing menial jobs! This is really a change of scene.”
From White Collar Job to Menial Job
Doing menial jobs to survive is normal for Nigerians in Canada. Persons who have done ‘white collar’ jobs all their lives in Nigeria find themselves doing menial jobs in various factories in Canada. In some places in Canada, the ‘Canadian Factory Job Experience’ is considered an asset while looking for unskilled jobs. What is meant by ‘Canadian Factory Job Experience’ is your ability to endure hours of hard labour. Sometimes, you do herculean manual work from 8 am to 5 pm with the only breaks coming at two fifteen-minute intervals allowed for break and one 30-minute interval allowed for lunch.
Many Nigerian immigrants to Canada initially find it difficult to cope with this demanding work schedule because most Nigerians who are able to migrate to Canada are those who were not used to manual work.
I met Michael in the North York area of Toronto in 2022. He worked in a factory where for more than ten hours a day, he lifted a heavy object in a box which he threw into a mixer.
“My job is more difficult than those of common labourers in Nigeria,” he stated. “They rest when they are tired. No matter how tired I get, I am not allowed to rest unless it is the official break times. Sometimes I get tired and find a platform to sit in order to rest my waist, but the supervisor will order me to stand, showing me the CCTV that is recording and monitoring everyone in the work room to ensure that they keep to the rules. Most times, he reminds me that I claimed during my job interview that I am experienced in Canadian Factory Job.”
The pay is relatively attractive, though. In the Toronto area, the minimum wage is CAD 16.55 per hour, so Michael earned the equivalent of N180,000 per day, which his counterparts doing menial jobs in Nigeria may not earn in three months.
“The pay is not really that rosy as I have rent and other bills to pay,” he stated, when I mentioned the financial compensation to him. “The physical strain is much. And the Canadian taxes are too much.”
The tax rate in the Toronto area can go as much as 12%, and some Nigerians, most of whom are not used to paying taxes in Nigeria, bypass this by doing cash jobs. Due to the high labour demand in some areas in Canada, some employment agencies offer jobs where they pay you in cash with no taxes deducted. Most Nigerians find these kinds of jobs attractive as they save them a lot of money. The main downside to this is that in some transactions with the government, you may be expected to show evidence of tax payment.
Another disadvantage of this, as well as other jobs offered by several employment agencies in Canada, is that there is no job security or health insurance involved. The employer can summarily dismiss you at will, and they are not responsible for any injury that may occur in the course of your work.
From Affluence in Nigeria to Destitution in Canada
It is unfortunate that most Nigerians who were living comfortably as wealthy men back in Nigeria virtually turn destitute after arriving Canada.
Henry was a doctor who lived in a comfortable three-bedroom flat in Port Harcourt. He arrived Canada and could not pass the exam to practice medicine in Canada. While preparing to take the exam again, he was doing a factory job to make ends meet. In the one room apartment he lived, the had a television, fan and three chairs of different colours and shapes.
“I picked the television, fan and chairs on the streets,” he explained.
In some parts of Canada, some people who buy new items for their homes do not thrash the old ones but keep them in front of their houses for the ‘less privileged’ to acquire as fresh properties. That was how Henry acquired most of his properties.
It pained the 45-year-old man that a trained medical doctor living a middle-class life in Nigeria had virtually turned to become ‘less privileged’ in faraway Canada. He told me a story of a church that offered free food items to the less privileged once in a month.
“Many Nigerians and Africans register with them as less privileged,” he said. “You go there and fill a form claiming that you have a wife and four children to enable you get more items. The free parks of canned food and other items they give out for free save you a lot of money. You have to survive somehow.”
Dr. Henry is a Catholic and remembered a group in his home church called St. Vincent De Paul.
“This is a group that caters for the less privileged in the Catholic Church,” he said. “At Holy Family Catholic Church Port Harcourt where I worshipped, I used to be one of the major donors to the St. Vincent De Paul Society. Now I am a beneficiary from a group similar to St. Vincent the Paul in Canada.”
Managing Accommodation in Canada
In places like Toronto in Canada, accommodation is dear and rent is quite expensive. A typical bedroom with a kitchen and toilet shared by six other tenants can go for as much as CAD800 per month.
Inyang worked for a new generation bank in Nigeria and rose to Deputy Manager grade. He migrated to Canada via a study visa and has finished his Graduate Certificate programme after which he was given a one-year work visa. He was being weighed down financially by extended family responsibilities in Nigeria and in order to save cost, he had to be creative in managing his accommodation.
“I rented an apartment with another Nigerian for CAD500,” he stated. “The room is relatively cheap because firstly, it is located at the basement, which makes it very cold during winter periods. People don’t usually like such rooms. The second reason is that the room is very small and the landlord’s mandate is that visitors are not allowed to visit anyone in the rooms. Whatever would stretch the resources of the place is not allowed.”
Inyang and another Nigerian, Tunde, contributed money to rent the apartment meant to accommodate not more than one person. Tunde was the official tenant so Inyang usually hanged around the apartment during the day until nighttime when he went in to sleep. This was to avoid the landlord, a Chinese who did regular checks on the rooms to ensure compliance to the regulations.
However, one day, the landlord came to the place by 11pm and found two persons sleeping in the room.
“I claimed that I came to visit Tunde but slept off,” Inyang narrated. “But he asked me how someone who came for a visit would be in his underwear. He threw us out that very night and did not refund the outstanding rent which is usually prepaid.”
Side Chicks and Nigerian Men in Canada
Peter worked with one of the first-generation banks with headquarters in Lagos before he resigned and left with his family for Canada. While he worked in Nigeria, his family was in Uyo while he worked in Enugu. Peter loved women a lot and had a lot of ladies as girlfriends and two as side chicks. Most of the ladies were students and with his relatively good salary and allowances in the bank, he could afford the amorous lifestyle.
After spending one year in Canada, what Peter misses most are his harem of women.
“It has not been easy,” he lamented. “I don’t know why I didn’t really think of this when I was planning to migrate to Canada. I think I love my wife, but I am no longer sexually attracted to her, and I believe she understands. Then those ladies used to satisfy my sexual needs. Now I am badly sexually starved. Many of those girls in Nigeria still chat with me. Some of them send their nudes to me, and we do video calls during which they perform all manner of sexual acts, but it’s not enough for me.”
Peter once tried a whore in Canada, and it was a sad, forgettable experience.
“After charging me 200 Canadian Dollars, she was like a wood chewing gum while I struggled with her body,” he said, shaking his head mournfully. “I managed to come because I virtually forced myself to orgasm. I regretted the experience.”
Arranged Marriages in Canada
Some Nigerians, especially those who no longer have legal basis of staying in Canada, resort to arranged marriages in order to secure permanent residency. It is not an easy route, though. For the fact that the practice of ‘arrangee’ marriage is illegal in Canada, most of those who are paid in order to agree to marry immigrants for the purpose citizenship and permanent residency are persons of questionable character. It is a costly exercise which can cost you as much as CAD20,000.
And there is no guarantee of success. There have been cases where your marriage partner can go against the rules which not only nullifies the whole process but puts you on the watchlist of the Canadian authorities. By this time, you may have paid most or all of the ‘marriage fees. And you have little hope of recovering your money because you cannot seek legal redress for a breach of an illegal contract.
Ugo, who hails from Uga in Anambra State, abandoned his studies when he could no longer afford the school fees. He applied for asylum but it was rejected. His appeal was also rejected. After being notified by the Canadian authorities that his stay in Canada had become illegal, he desperately sought for someone to marry.
“The desperation led me to a lady who was ill with terminal cancer,” he narrated. “In order to facilitate the marriage contract, I had to live with her in a room in an apartment left for her by her late parents. She stank as she did not bath for weeks but I had to endure that as I was desperate to rectify my stay in Canada.”
The Nigerian migrant lamented that his lingering fear that the lady might succumb to cancer before the marriage process was finalized came to pass.
“We were a few weeks away from concluding the legal requirements for marriage when she died,” he stated. “I was lucky that she went out to take a walk when she slumped and died after being taken to a hospital. I wonder how I could have handled the Canadian police and other law enforcement agencies if she had died while we were together in that stinking room.”
The Atrocious Canadian Cold Winter Weather
The experiences of Nigerians in Canada regarding the oppressive weather during winter are out there, and they are really, really scary. So scary that I vowed never to set foot in Canada during winter.
