Migration Profile on Nigeria - IOM Publications - International ...

Foreword
Over the past three years, the International Organization for <strong>Migration</strong>
(IOM) has prepared <strong>Migration</strong> <strong>Profile</strong>s for 32 countries in different parts of
world, including Eastern Europe, the Black Sea region, South America and Africa.
<strong>Migration</strong> <strong>Profile</strong>s were first proposed by the European Commission in
the Communication on <strong>Migration</strong> and Development in 2005. According to
this document, <strong>Migration</strong> <strong>Profile</strong>s should be statistical reports that provide
information on a range of issues related to migration in the European Union’s
partner countries and be considered as a tool for the European Commission to
provide information to community-assistance programmes for third countries in
the field of migration, as well as poverty-reduction strategies.
In western and Central Africa, IOM takes the original <strong>Migration</strong> <strong>Profile</strong>
concept further. In the IOM <strong>Migration</strong> in West and Central Africa: National
<strong>Profile</strong>s for Strategic Policy Development project, <strong>Migration</strong> <strong>Profile</strong>s are
conceived as being more than just statistical reports: they are also intended to
be government-owned tools for facilitating policy development.
The main objective of this research and capacity-building project is to
enhance the governmental capacities of ten target countries in West and Central
Africa to promote a coherent and proactive policy approach to migration by
developing national <strong>Migration</strong> <strong>Profile</strong>s as a framework for data collection and
analysis in support of strategic policy planning at the national and regional levels.
With the financial support of the European Commission, the Swiss Federal Office
for <strong>Migration</strong> and the Belgian Development Cooperation, IOM is implementing
this project in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana,
Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Nigeria and Senegal, while <strong>Migration</strong> <strong>Profile</strong>s are also
prepared in Cape Verde and Cameroon.
The national <strong>Migration</strong> <strong>Profile</strong>s are a key result of this project. They bring
together existing information from different sources in a structured manner and
provide a comprehensive overview of key international migration and socioeconomic
development trends in the target countries. They also identify data
gaps and potential strategies to improve data collection for policy planning
purposes.
It is important to note that the preparation of these national <strong>Migration</strong>
<strong>Profile</strong>s went beyond mere information collection. Data and information
relevant to migration are often stored in many different locations, both inside
and outside governmental structures. Each target country therefore established
<strong>Migration</strong> in Nigeria: A Country <strong>Profile</strong> 2009
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