Dodeye Williams, University of Calabar
Migration aspirations of young people have largely been shaped by a combination of structural hardships, transnational connections, and cultures of migration. While these factors hold for Nigerian youth they intersect with specific contextual realities. In Nigeria, like most of Africa, the values, social lives, and political perspectives of youth tend to be influenced by religion. This is even more so at a time when economic frustrations tend to be forcing what appears to be a resurgence of faith among these youth as they are finding innovative ways to find meaning. One of the ways that Nigerian youth deal with these frustrations is to seek international migration within Africa, Europe, and other parts of the world by any means necessary – a phenomenon that has come to be known as japa. With religion being a strong and pervasive societal force, the overt and covert roles of religious clerics in encouraging migration aspirations among Nigerian youth have increasingly come to the fore. As one of our respondent shares, “Many preachers are very skillful at delivering motivational sermons that can shake your roots and stir a strong desire to “japa” (migrate) without a second thought.” (FGD respondent, Lagos, male, 30, Christian).
Pulpits are flooded with sermons and teachings that encourage the idea that the blessing of God is directly equated with material wealth, and so it is the responsibility of an individual to ensure that he/she is blessed by God. Again, this is captured very succinctly in a statement by one of our respondents. She states that “…when you go to church these days, most things that are preached are based on prosperity. They will even use an adage in Yoruba that says “láìsí òwó, òkú ní ìgbàgbó” which translates as: ‘without money your faith is nothing.’ (FGD respondent, Lagos, 33, Female, Christian).The economic frustrations in Nigeria tend to hinder the actualization of these so called ‘blessings’ for many youth, leaving them with very limited options, one of which is to seek migration opportunities abroad. A Catholic priest who participated in recounted how a young lady cried out in frustration during a counselling session saying, “Father, I have done all that I needed to do as a Christian. I have prayed, paid my tithes, fasted, given offerings, and a lot of other things, but it appears God is not granting my heart desire of making my visa applications successful.” Many religious spaces are flooded with prayer, praise, and fasting programs to seek the blessing of God on travel documents of intending migrants to facilitate visa approvals and smooth settlements abroad. Handkerchiefs, wristbands, oils, crosses, pictures, rosaries, beads, etc. are blessed by clerics and are said to carry supernatural power to ensure that those who carry them are guaranteed divine advantage and protection on their migration journey.
While religious spaces provide counselling services that discourage irregular routes for youth migration, in many cases, they already embolden them, stir up their faith, and challenge them to dare the impossible via these practices, making them ready to face whatever comes their way. This ironically encourages irregular migration that exposes young people to travel via dangerous routes, especially for those who encounter difficulties getting visa approvals or have the financial means to go through legal processes. While some die during their journeys, those who succeed give their testimonies in these religious spaces, further encouraging those aspiring to take their chances. The provision of these spiritual resources and capabilities to enhance intending migrants’ chances of success shows the active role of religion in migration processes in Nigeria, in particular, and Africa as a whole. These practices are said to encourage young people to take that bold step to ensure they fulfil a destiny that does not include ‘suffering’ in Nigeria.
While the involvement of religious clerics could suggest that young people are being influenced and guided in their decisions to migrate by responsible authorities, not all of them adhere to sound counsel as their ambitions, in most cases, are fueled by desperation. One would hope that religious clerics would take advantage of the respect and trust bestowed on them by young Nigerians, as spiritual authorities, to provide a balanced perspective of immigration realities. Not everyone who travels out of Nigeria has a success story to tell, but these stories do not make it to many pulpits! If only they did!!
Implications
1. Religious leaders are key players in shaping migration narratives among young Nigerians and so can no longer be ignored.
2. By centralising religion in the japa migration landscape in Nigeria, scholars, policy makers and analysts have to seriously consider religion in migration as critical force and not a peripheral one.
3. The instructions and messages from the pulpits have to be clear, balanced and without assumptions because when success stories are more emphasized than failed attempts at migration or the attendant difficulties, young people make uniformed decisions.
4. The lack of government development projects or initiatives in various communities is putting a lot of pressure on young people, forcing them to make these migration decisions, hoping for the best in other countries. When bad leadership persists, development is no longer a priority and poverty and hardship increase.
5. More emphasis should be placed on making public the dangers of illegal migration routes to deter young people from taking them.
