Over the last couple of years, more and more Nigerians have packed up their bags and moved on in search of greener pastures and settled in better countries like the United States, Canada and so on.
Also it isn’t uncommon to meet Nigerians who were born in the states doing well in all fields from Medicine to sports and so on.
In fact according to the Migrations Policy Institute, 29 percent of Nigerian-Americans over the age of 25 hold a graduate degree, compared to 11 percent of the overall U.S. population.
According to an article on Medium by Molly Fosco which looked at the lives of a number of Nigerian-American families, Nigerians are used to a work ethic which brings them success and fame.
“I think Nigerian-Americans offer a unique, flashy style and flavor that people like,” said one of the featured families in the article.
And Nigerians aren’t going anywhere if anything, they are increasing, in a survey by the Rockefeller Foundation–Aspen Institute taken in 2015, the number of Nigerians in the United States was 376,000 with an average household income of $62,351, compared to $57,617 nationally, and they are doing amazing things.
There are great personalities such as forensic pathologist Dr. Bennet Omalu whose discovery on chronic traumatic encephalopathy in American football players caused a huge stir. There is also Dr. Jacqueline Nwando Olayiwola who is a family physician, the chief clinical transformation officer of RubiconMD, a leading health tech company, an associate clinical professor at University of California, San Francisco, instructor in family medicine at Columbia University, and an author. Meanwhile, Anie Akpe works full time as vice president of mortgages at Municipal Credit Union in New York City, but she’s also the founder of Innov8tiv magazine, African Women in Technology (an education and mentorship program) and an app called NetWorq that connects professionals.
The message is clear: Due to upbringing and the unique experiences faced as a Nigerian, the immigrants and those born there tend to do much better in the United States and we now stand as the most successful ethnic group in the United States.