By Jeph Ajobaju, Chief Copy Editor
Nigerians are the most educated group in the United States, with 59 per cent of them aged 25 years and older possessing at least a Bachelor’s degree.
In the second place are South Koreans (56 percent); third, Chinese (51 per cent); followed by the British (50 per cent), and Germans (38 per cent).
Only 33 of American citizens themselves have first degrees, according to Migration Policy Institute tabulation of American Community Survey (ACS) data of US Census Bureau.
The analysis by the ACS buttresses report by the World Bank that Nigerians in the diaspora belong to the most educated immigrant group representing every professional field.
There are an estimated 15 million Nigerians in all parts of the world. The average of them holds at least a Bachelor’s degree with an annual median income of about $65,000.
CNN recently made the case that, based on the ACS analysis, President Donald Trump should not have included Nigeria among the countries on which visa restrictions were imposed on January 31, which took effect from February 21.
Also on the latest visa ban list are Eritrea, Sudan, Tanzania, Kyrgyzstan, and Myanmar.
Nigerians can no longer get US visa that may lead to permanent residency; they can still get tourist and business visas, but even the rules for those are now tighter.
Washington said the new curb was imposed on Nigeria because it failed to fulfil information-sharing agreement, especially on terrorism.
On February 25, an officer in the US consulate in Nigeria, Ross Conroy, explained in Lagos that the ban is to prevent Nigerians migrating to the US and not a blanket ban on all Nigerians.
His words: “A study was conducted in 2018 among sample-size Nigerians and it was discovered that 45 per cent of Nigerians claimed that they wanted to leave Nigeria in the next five years, but I do want to say that the travel ban is a very specific and targeted action only looking at the immigrant visas.
“It only impacts people immigrating to the United States through links with family members.
“It is not a complete ban, people are getting their visas once they have their interviews and this is not a permanent type of arrangement, it is something that was borne out of the failure to meet certain security and information-sharing criteria by the Nigerian government and once that is met as the ambassador made it clear last week, this decision will certainly be reviewed.”
Announcing the ban on January 31, Washington had justified the restriction on the basis of national security concerns, claiming the affected countries have gaps in their security protocols surrounding travel which exposed the US to terror threats.
But the report by CNN cited CATO institute to argue that four of the six countries listed in the ban – Nigeria, Myanmar, Tanzania, and Eritrea – had no records on terror-related deaths caused by foreign-born attackers between 1975 and 2017.
“The argument does not really make sense,” CNN insisted.
It countered that that Nigerians are the most educated immigrants from Africa in the US, noting that “according to the Migration Policy Institute, 59 per cent of Nigerian immigrants aged 25 and older hold at least a Bachelor’s degree, that is nearly double the proportion for Americans born in the US [33 per cent].
“It is also more than the proportion of immigrants from South Korea, China, the United Kingdom and Germany.”
If the US was truly worried about security from those countries, CNN argued, it would ban all visas, not just immigrant visas, adding that the decision to target only permanent visas, leaving temporary visas, suggests something else is going on.
54% of Nigerians in high skilled jobs
The broadcaster recalled that when Trump unveiled the new immigration plan in 2019, he said he wanted high scale well educated English-speaking immigrants who could assimilate easily and give back to the US.
CNN said if that is what Trump wants, Nigerian immigrants who make up the largest group of Africans in the US as of 2017 “check all those boxes. They are some of the most educated immigrants in America.
“Nigerian immigrants tend to work high skilled jobs, 54 per cent are in largely white-collar positions in business, management, science, and the art compared to the 39 per cent of people born in the US.”
This, according to CNN, means that Nigerian immigrants have significant spending power.
It also cited a new report by the New American Economy which states that Nigerian immigrants in the US in 2018 made more than $14 billion and paid more than $4 billion in taxes.
The report also says Nigerians in the diaspora around the world sent back almost $24 billion in remittances, contributing to the Nigerian economy that is “more dynamic than many people, including Trump himself, realise.”
CNN cited a report by the Centre for Global Development that Nigeria is a country where the middle class is increasing in education and aspiration.
Nigeria is also America’s second-largest trade partner and the US plans to double its investments and trading in Africa.
