One of those mornings where the lack of premiership soccer or lets say quality football is compelling the old man to wander cyberspace in search of fascinating facts. Firstly , if the statistics as provided are indisputably accurate, we would like to commend our colleagues from West Africa for keeping the academic pendulum swinging. While we may not want to discredit the report, I think from a theoretical standpoint, the author of this finding perhaps never factor in the ratio of Nigeria immigrants to that of other ethnic immigrants from Africa. Yes Nigeria has a significantly large concentration of immigrants to the United States and considering the sum, it is predictably wise to suggest this could be a reason such a high number do well in obtaining ccollege degrees. Another factor perhaps not acknowledged in the reports, is the presence of armed conflicts in most of Africa. Unlike other parts of Africa, Nigeria have ethnic and religious conflicts on a scale that is of a much smaller scale in terms of the destruction, and impact on immigration. What this mean is, Nigeria despite those challenges are still able to send thousands of immigrants monthly abroad in search of better opportunities, versus countries plagued by bloodshed and unimaginable horror that immigration is an elusive dream. Here is another fact, and while we would not want to lend credence to reluctance and being lackadaisical, many immigrants after landing on these shores have a harder task navigating these parts, whether it in the language barriers, impacting communication, job opportunities, lack of financial potency to enable resettlement and starting life afresh , it is an arduous task to start let alone seek college education; and the cost associated with obtaining a college degree is immeasurably colossal versus just obtaining a job and raising a family! Nigerians, unlike most of my colleagues that are third and even fourth generation immigrants are hard working and determined group of people, despite the negative portrayals attributed to by a few of their kinsmen. They will cohabit, seek odd jobs, multiple jobs, leave other families back home, and get established, and reunite, which explains why you would see 5 to 6 living in clusters and doing fine until they are privileged to afford the mansions. Unlike some of us, upon arrival to these shores, we would want the latest brand name shoes, clothes, cars, and the luxurious but seemingly unaffordable items, prompting the need to obtain a job or multiple thereof, which in turn hinders the ability to seek higher education, a situation which in most cases, makes obtaining a credit card more compelling versus the 2 to 4 year degree! The subtlety from a cultural and societal perspective are facts often unnoticed by statisticians who focused on numbers, but beyond that other issues are at play. As a native of Liberia, these numbers sink to the core, and we commend many of our colleagues who survived genocidal wraths, rape, amputations, being forced into combats at early age and have had to grow up with those traumatic experiences, and despite the perceivable insurmountable odds, arrived on these shores and were able to obtain Associate,Bachelors, Master and even Doctorate Degrees in varying disciplines, to you ...we applaud and send our commendations. To our immigrants from other parts, Asia , Europe, South America, the Caribbean, Australia and the Soviet Empire our commendation to you for the recognition!
Posted on: Sun, 01 Jun 2014 15:18:04 +0000
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