YOUTH AND DESPERATE MIGRATION: IS THERE SOCIAL PROTECTION IN NIGERIA?

Abstract

The economic down turn which began in the early 1980s in Nigeria rather than declining exacerbated from the Mid-1980s as a result of the adoption of Structural Adjustment Programme (SAP). This has had a lot of dislocating effects on social and economic life especially for the poor who constitute majority in the society. The youth have reacted to the social dislocation by migrating to different parts of the world in search for greener pastures. However, while Europe and America have tightened the process of accessing visa, most young people have become daring in the phase of stiffer entry requirements to adopting hazardous and dangerous risks of venturing through the Sahara Desert and the Mediterranean Sea in desperation to migrate to Europe. It is against this backdrop that this paper examines the desperation of the Nigerian youth to migrate out of the country in the bid to access better life in Middle East, Europe and America. The paper further examines the social protection programmes available in Nigeria that are aimed at addressing unemployment, poverty and reducing the youth vulnerability to desperate migration. This, the paper argues is the uninformed decision to embark on migration which continues to claim lives, in the bid to cross the Mediterranean Sea. This situation has become a national embarrassment. The paper therefore calls for a review of social protection programmes and policies in order to stem desperate youth migration. Its argument is anchored on the Push and Pull Theory of Migration by Everett S. Lee and the Dual Labour Market Theory of Michael J. Piore.

Keywords

• migration
• desperate migration
• youth
• social protection
• nigeria