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

Labour migrants
Evidence to the fact that many immigrants are labour migrants are data
on the type of employment in which they engage.
Table 21 (see annex) shows the distribution of a sample of employed
persons in 4,652 establishments in December 2001 (National Manpower Board,
2004). The data are analysed by occupation and nationality; the non-Nigerians
are persons regarded as labour migrants. The majority of the labour migrants
were employed in the private sector of the economy. Non-Nigerians represented
0.14 per cent of the total number of the sampled people employed in 2001.
The prominent sectors for immigrant labour in the country were as follows:
general managers (2.73%); corporate managers (0.89%); physical, mathematical
and engineering science professionals (0.43%); and office clerks (0.34%). Other
occupations of note are labourers in mining, construction, manufacturing and
transport (0.27%); customer service clerks (0.21%); life science and health
professionals (0.18%); precision, handicraft, printing and related workers (0.18%);
sales persons, demonstrators and models (0.17%); metal and machinery trade
workers (0.16%); and agriculture, fisheries and related workers (0.16%).
Furthermore, the occupational groupings of persons arriving in the
country in 1991 according to their nationalities are used in examining the
type of employment in which foreigners arriving in the country (immigrants)
are engaged. The first four main occupation groups were clerical and related
workers; professional/technical and related workers; administrative and
managerial workers; and production/transport and related workers. Foreigners
from ECOWAS countries formed the majority (42.84%) of the clerical and related
workers group; followed by those from Europe (26.81%), other African countries
(10.49%), Asia (8.56%), the Americas (6.38%) and other countries (4.54%).
Also, foreigners from Europe dominated the professional/technical and related
workers group (47.37%) (NPC, 1991).
Some of these expatriate professionals work in the health sector, partially
filling the gaps created by the emigration of Nigerian doctors and nurses
abroad. In its 2006 draft policy document entitled “National Human Resources
for Health”, the Ministry of Health states that nearly three thousand (2,968)
expatriate doctors (out of 39,210 doctors) and 215 expatriate dentists (out of
2,773 dentists) were practising in the health sector in the country in 2006 (IOM,
2009a).
52 <strong>Migration</strong> in Nigeria: A Country <strong>Profile</strong> 2009