Canada has been described by many as a heaven on earth while some other persons have a different experience.

Justice Okamgba gathers from Omotayo Fakinlede, a professor at the University of Lagos his experience and thoughts about Nigerians living in Canada.

I was a student in Canada more than 35 years ago. Much of what others have written here could have been predictable and Nigerians need to watch out because the stories of a Canada (or any other nation) where there are no problems is an exaggeration. Everywhere in the world, people struggle to survive.

In the UK, for example, apart from a certain Charles and some other members of his family, most people struggle to survive month to month! Canadians manage every month to balance their family budget (pay heating bills, clearing snow, taxes, transportation, mortgage/rent, settle various other bills, etc.)

In the US, in addition to these, they also dodge bullets (it is their constitutional right to keep dodging bullets), forest fires and “migrant invasion”; realize that a major sickness can ruin their finances all the while “saluting the flag” and watching out for the next joke Trump will pull on them! Nigerians must know that their expectations in Canada or any other place in this world must be realistic and benefit from learning about differencesin the culture and systems they are entering. Perhaps a little story may help. It is the experience of two of my colleagues in Alberta between 1980–85.

Let’s call the first man Andrew. Andrew was born in Calgary. His father was a plumber and he had training in plumbing and was working with his late father since he was old enough to do so.

He earned a PhD in Chemistry at the University of Alberta but could not find a job as an academic. He found out that the hourly wage for a plumber was more than $40 an hour. He eventually kept his PhD on the shelve and went to work as a plumber. He made a comfortable income and had no regrets! Please note that Andrew is a white Canadian “Anglo Saxon” or “WASP” if you know what I mean.

Next comes Nnamdi (not his real name, but a Nigerian person known to me). Nnamdi came to Canada with MSc Chemistry from UNN and was admitted to the PhD program at the University of Alberta. He was here with his family and had sufficient assistantship to live on for the five years it took to get the PhD. He never planned to go back to Nigeria. Upon graduation, he worked initially as a Post Doctoral Fellow. That provided more money than the Graduate Assistantship but was not the level of living he looked forward to. Eventually, even that ran out.

Nnamdi found out that he could earn a more stable income if he taught Chemistry in secondary school. He went back to take the required Teacher’s certificate and was eventually employed as Chemistry teacher. He too went on to live a simple quiet life and had no complaints. He was happy he could put his children in better schools than Nigeria could provide for him.

Analysis:

One of these people was an immigrant from Nigeria, the other, a Canadian from several generations. It was already happening 35 years ago! If you assume that advanced education will automatically place you in a White-Collar job and middle class life in Canada, think again! The opportunities, culture, expectations and society are completely different from what you are used to in Nigeria! That is probably why their system works! It is primed to be efficient. You can be sacked from your work even though you have been working very hard, simply because the economy is slow and your boss thinks that the company will benefit from laying you off, or by closing your section of the company.

This does not necessarily have anything to do with your face or colour! In fact, while you have a job, I think it is mandatory to have Unemployment Insurance so that the time needed to find another job will not send you down into homelessness when you lose a job!

My children, who presently live in Canada, offered me a perspective recently. I think Nigerians need to study how Asians, in one or two generations, climb to the middle class in these Western Countries while Nigerians can keep receiving assistance for several generations.

One of my daughters, while at University in Canada had a friend, an Indian. They talked enough for her to notice that that girl’s parents came to Canada around the same time she herself was born in Canada. They (the girl’s parents)had only high school education compared to me in a PhD program at that time. All they were able to do were menial jobs and lived prudently until they were able to own a Corner Shop. The children grew up helping their parents and going to school.

By the time these children reached university, the same parents could pay their fees while my own children needed school loans to get by. In a single generation, Indians with relatively lower education had arrived at Middle-Class status while we Nigerians are busy amassing degrees and boasting to be doing so well, ipso facto! Newsflash! Degrees are not paid for in Canada! Even with your PhD, you keep quiet at work and perform! If another person with a lower level of education does better than you, he could be paid more!

I will conclude with the story of another Nigerian in the United States. Again, this is a true story:

Musa, a Nigerian, with PhD in Chemical Engineering, works for a high-end manufacturing company in Michigan. He joined the company as a junior engineer before he went for his PhD at University of Michigan. After completion, he was employed to work in the research arm of the same company and was on a six figure annual income. Then the economy went into recession. As a senior member of staff, he was well briefed about the company’s fortunes.

Then there was, again, this happy Indian foreman who did his daily routine joyfully as if everything was OK! Musa called him one day and asked if he was aware that the company had less than six months of work left and would be folded up. Rajiv (let’s call him by that name) smiled and told Musa he was fully aware of the state of the company. Then why was he so joyful?

Musa had the shock of his life when Rajiv explained that he already knew the company was not doing well two years previously. He had already made a down-payment for a 7–11 store that he was ready to move to and operate. Surprisingly, he found he could continue to work for nine more months, he therefore put his brother at that particular store while he was earning the income to work for the down-payment of another store! Instead of him running a single store with his brother, each will run a store and will help each other to complete payment!

The examples here are about certificate-piling Nigerian immigrants under performing compared to lower educated Asians. When you now bring in highly educated Indians – that are by the way multiple of times the number of Nigerians, the story becomes even more interesting. Nigerians, abroad, often do not cooperate as easily as Asians do. Four or more Pakistani IT workers can be so helpful to one another, share apartment and contribute to sustain an unemployed member until they all move ahead in Western society. Nigerians in the same situation are more likely to engage in unhealthy competition. The Koreans, Vietnamese, Thai, Indonesians etc., move into middle class much faster than Nigerians do no matter how fast we start. If there is an Olympic medal for the number of degrees acquired, Nigeria will win! If it is a matter of entrepreneurship, upward mobility, social integration, etc., it is a different game! When a Chinese sets up a restaurant, he aims, not only at other Chinese people, but the entire Western population. The same can be said about Thai, Vietnamese, Koreans, etc. The few Nigerians who set up Bukas are targeting other Nigerians or Africans like themselves – 0.1 – 2% of the population! We already failed in the competition from inception!

Conclusion.

There are opportunities in the Western countries for Nigerians and many have done well. There are also hundreds or thousands of Nigerians (doctors, engineers, lawyers, other professionals) living at the margins of those societies but will NEVER tell the truth to their families and friends at home. This can mislead many who get to know the truth too late and simply add to the number. Nigeria, (for several reasons: poor infrastructure, safety, opportunities, etc. ) is a difficult place to live. The Western nations that look attractive to us are also (for a different set of reasons: competition, culture, weather, etc.) difficult places to live. The effort required to succeed in these countries can easily be as great as the effort needed to succeed in Nigeria. In fact, it is my private opinion that, if you are not an “Okada” or “Maruwa” driver in a Nigerian city, your effort to succeed in most of these countries will be sufficient to make you succeed in Nigeria also.

It is with stunning perplexity I hear about young Nigerians with very good jobs, some even already owning their own homes, selling off and going to start at the end of the queue in Canada or America! I still cannot understand what they really think they will get over there! The fact is that you are probably more highly motivated to work when you are abroad than you would have been willing to work here in Nigeria. That is just my personal opinion!