The latest data released by UK authorities, on Thursday, indicated that 141,000 Nigerians relocated to the UK between June 2022 and the year ending June 2023.
Nigeria’s erratic academic calendar, characterised by frequent and protracted university strikes, economic woes and rising insecurity forced thousands of people to “japa,” a word in the Yoruba language that means “to flee.”
“In the year ending June 2023, the top five non-EU nationalities for immigration flows into the UK were: Indian (253,000), Nigerian (141,000), Chinese (89,000), Pakistani (55,000) and Ukrainian (35,000),” Office for National Statistics said on Tuesday.
The UK government changed its immigration policies earlier this year in an attempt to reduce the country’s rapidly increasing net migration.
The new policy prohibits family members from going with international students to non-research postgraduate courses starting in January of next year.
Many Nigerians hoping to relocate to the UK with their families may be forced to search abroad as a result of the limitation.
The number of Nigerian nationals enrolled in UK universities increased from 6,798 in 2017 to 59,053 as of December 2022, as reported earlier in the year by the UK’s Office for National Statistics (ONS).
