07/18/2022
By Jason Carter

The University of Massachusetts Lowell Global Studies Program invites you to attend a Doctoral dissertation by Esther Jack Vickers, titled: "Beyond National Borders: An Exploration of the Migration Experiences of Nigerians in the United States."

Defense Date: August 1, 2022
Time: 3 to 5 p.m.
Location: Dugan Hall, Room 204

Committee:

  • John Wooding (committee chair) Political Science
  • Mona Kleinberg, Political Science
  • Angelica Duran Martinez, Political Science

Abstract:
This dissertation examines the experiences of Nigerian immigrants living in the United States. Nigerians began to immigrate to the United States in the early 1900s, but this process continued through independence to present-day. Immigration from Nigeria to the US used to be strictly for education, followed by a return to Nigeria. Afterwards, Nigerians began to take up residency in the US through employment visa, marriage to US citizens, naturalization, and refugee and asylum (especially during the Nigerian civil war of the 1960s). Nigerians have since become an integral part of the US society, contributing to its social, political, and economic development. Despite the roles that Nigerians play in the development of the US, they experience all kinds of challenges in the country, including racial discrimination. But despite these challenges, Nigerians have continued to remain in the US, while engaging with their origin country through transnational activities. This dissertation investigates these issues using the theories of migration as an overarching framework for understanding Nigerian immigrants’ experiences in the United States, and how this can affect their participation in both the US and Nigeria. I use both quantitative and qualitative research approaches to explore these issues.

The study is organized as a three-article dissertation. Although the three articles function separately, they are related by one overarching framework, theories of migration. The first paper investigates the push and pull factors that influence the decisions of Nigerians to immigrate into the US, the challenges that they face in the US, and how these challenges affect their return intentions. The second paper investigates how integration in the US affects the way Nigerian immigrants perceive discrimination. In this paper, I argue that when immigrants increasingly integrate into the US society both structural and socially, their perceptions of discrimination will decrease. And that although identifying strongly with their national identity could increase the way Nigerians perceive discrimination, having a strong social network among the native population could decrease their perceptions of discrimination. In the third paper, I empirical tested several hypotheses to determine the relationship between successful integration on three dimensions of transnational engagements – political, economic, and sociocultural, and to find out if having family ties in the origin country increases the transnational participation of Nigerians. The goal of this paper is to find out how Nigerian immigrants simultaneously engage with both the sending and the receiving countries, and how integration in the host country, and having family ties in the home country could affect the contributions that they make to development.

Key Words: Migration, Development, Transnationalism, Integration, Discrimination