AN EVALUATION OF THE LABOUR MIGRATION POLICY FOR NIGERIA

Ikechukwu Anthony Kanu; Mike Boni Bazza; Immaculata Olu Omojola

Ikechukwu Anthony Kanu Department of Philosophy and Religious Studies Tansian University, Umunya Anambra State
Mike Boni Bazza Department of History and International Relations Veritas University Abuja (The Catholic University of Nigeria)
Immaculata Olu Omojola Department of Business Administration and Management Villanova Polytechnic Imesi Ile Osun State

Keywords: Labour, Migration, Nigeria, Policy, Governance, Immigrants

Abstract

Nigerian migrant workers have continued to play a key role in the development of their home country. With remittances, Nigerians in the Diaspora have shown their importance as a viable economic force. Nigeria receives the largest inflow of remittances in Sub-Saharan Africa with 65% of its total and 2% of global inflow. In 2012, Nigeria was ranked as the 5th largest remittance receiving developing country with an estimate of 21 billion US dollars. With the increase of the number of Nigerian abroad to a number beyond 17 million, it is without doubt that the sum of inflow for Nigerians living abroad would have increased as well. With this development, it became necessary for the Federal Government of Nigeria to develop a labour migration policy to promote good governance of labour migration, to protect migrant workers and promote the welfare of their families back hoe in Nigeria and optimize the benefits of labour migration for national development while developing measures to stand against its negative implications. The policy document on Labour Migration for Nigeria was drafted by the Federal Ministry of Labour and Productivity in view of the perspectives of the International Labour Organization’s Multilateral Framework on Labour Migration of 2006, the Sri Lanka Labour Migration Policy of 2008 and the Tanzanian Labour Migration Policy in process. Inputs also came from several social partners. The document is divided into three parts. The first part deals with facilitating rights protection and achieving equitable social and economic outcomes; the second part focuses on the protection of Migrant Workers and Promotion of their Welfare, which includes that of members of their families, and third part concerns itself with how migration contributions can be mainstreamed into national development plans. However, the burden of this piece is the evaluation of the policy document with the purpose of advancing in a more effective way the place of the government in labour migration. This paper, using the critical method of inquiry has evaluated this document with the purpose of advancing a better optimization of the benefits of labour migration for national development.