Geographical analysis of complex educational and forced migration tendencies: The case study of Nigeria

Abstract

Current trends of global migration show that the absolute number of international migrants is expected to increase in the forthcoming decades. Africa is not an exception of this process where, forced migration also plays a significant role along with voluntary outflows.
Therefore, the study aims to reveal these different characteristics of migratory flows from Africa to other regions by focusing on Nigeria as a case study. This state is the most important source country on the continent of both asylum seekers and tertiary-level students for Europe. Africa's ‘giant’ is characterized by many social and political conflicts, and - partly because of this -, by both notable internal and international migration. After a brief introduction to these internal conflicts and to the international migration from Nigeria in general, available statistics on the migration of refugees and tertiary-level students, so both voluntary and involuntary flows from Nigeria, will be analyzed. The paper includes an empirical research carried out in Debrecen, Hungary. As a result the study demonstrates that the Nigerian students having significantly better financial conditions than the Hungarian students make a notable contribution to the economy of the city by their overall spending