Trump’s travel ban, any hope for Nigerians? 

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 By Rosemary Moribirin
 Robert and Pauline had already been apart for a year long after their marriage, Pauline is in Nigeria, her husband went immediately after their wedding ceremony to the USA; before the ban, she has been trying the US visa lottery in order to start a new life with her husband in California.
Pauline’s hope got shattered after the news of President Trump’s travel ban broke on various media platforms. she called her husband to inform him about the news; the duo broke in tears following Trump’s administration expansion of its controversial travel ban  saying it would add immigration restrictions on citizens from Nigeria, Myanmar, Eritrea and Kyrgyzstan who want to live or work in the U.S. permanently.
It also bars citizens from Sudan and Tanzania from the U.S. diversity visa program, also known as the “green-card lottery,” which aims to diversify the immigrant population in the United States by selecting applicants from countries with lower rates of immigration.
All these happened before the outbreak of Covid-19 pandemic which forced countries including USA, Nigeria to be on lockdown remedy.
Trump’s government cited security as the reason for expanding the travel ban to those countries, saying they had deficiencies in sharing terrorist, criminal or identity information.
However, it is justified by the administration, barring Nigerians from traveling to the U.S. will be counterproductive. Nigeria may be associated in many Americans’ minds with terrorism, kidnapping young girls and internet scammers posing as temporarily inconvenienced princes, yet the Nigerians living in the U.S. is actually much more educated than the American population as a whole.
A 2015 study found that of the estimated 376,000 Nigerian immigrants in the U.S., 29 per cent had an advanced degrees, compared with 11 per cent of the general populations.
Then, there is the demographic, economic and political weight of Nigeria itself. With nearly 200 million people and a GDP of almost $400 billion, the highest in Africa on both measures—Nigeria’s global importance is undeniable.
Its population, which is set to double by 2050, may well overtake that of the U.S. sometime this century. Nigeria would seem to be an indispensable partner and even peer of America.
The most likely effect of the travel ban for Nigerians will be to impose a huge set of burdens on families. The ban will also have an economic impact, potentially disrupting the more than $6 billion in remittances that flow from the U.S. to Nigeria each year and obstructing numerous other forms of commerce and economic exchange.
To make matters worse for Nigerians, the ban, which covers immigrant visas, comes on top of existing, de facto restrictions on their travel to the U.S.
Nigeria had one of the highest denial rates of any country for short-term, non-immigrant U.S. visas in 2018, and last year the Trump administration raised fees for Nigerians’ visa applications.
Why, then, has the Nigerian government reacted with conciliation rather than condemnation? One reason is that President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration is keen on preserving cooperation with the U.S. on other front.
The Nigeria Diaspora team on the 25th of February 2020, visited the U.S. State of Delaware to campaign against the recent immigrant visa restriction on Nigeria and seek development cooperation.
The delegation, led by the Chairman/CEO, Nigerians in Diaspora Commission (NIDCOM), Hon. Abike Dabiri-Erewa as well as the Chairperson, House of Representatives Committee on Diaspora, Mrs Tolulope Akande-Sadipe.
At separate meetings with top officials of the Delaware state government, the Nigerian delegation denounced the immigrant visa restriction on Nigeria by the administration of President Donald Trump.
Dabiri-Erewa said Nigeria ought not to be on the list, citing the enormous contributions of its nationals to the development of the U.S. economy, a fact acknowledged by her host.
In a more practical sense, Nigeria’s muted response to the travel ban listing may simply reflect the government’s lack of bandwidth. Throughout his presidency, Buhari has confronted a range of sometimes distinct and sometimes interlocking challenges.
The challenges include not only longstanding problems like poverty and insecurity, but now the threat of the Wuhan Coronavirus tagged Covid-19 spreading to Nigeria with about 100 confirmed cases with only one death thus far.
 Policymakers in Abuja likely feel that this is the wrong time to be dragged into a war of words with Washington.
The travel ban will prevent thousands of people from moving to the United States, and will likely have the most impact on Nigeria, the most populous nation in Africa.
In 2018, the United States approved nearly 14,000 green cards for citizens of Nigeria, compared to 8,182 for Burma, 2,428 for Eritrea, 908 for Kyrgyzstan, 3,658 for Sudan, and 3,186 for Tanzania, according to data from U.S.
Twitter users, particularly Nigerians, expressed their disdain for the move.
@ceejayesq tweeted: “anyone who didn’t realise from the beginning that the ban was mostly about race, rather than security, has got to win an award for naiveté.”
@iamcrisshekinah was determined not to be discouraged, tweeting: “I am proudly Nigerian. Wow. We are the most educated immigrants in the #UnitedStates. God bless the Federal Republic of #Nigeria. We are so talented and hardworking and the world is scared of us even @realDonaldTrump himself.”
Trump wants a different kind of immigrant; highly skilled workers who speak English and have good job offer; and Nigerians deserves more because we have the educational skills.
This ban has led some to question the administration’s justifications for the ban while pointing out the diplomatic and economic fallout that could ensue. Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, responded to the proposed updates and the inclusion of Nigeria; stating “Nigeria has committed a lot of resources to fight terrorism. Any travel ban cannot but be inimical to the growth of the country.”
Although the U.S. Supreme Court ruled the grounds for the ban to be legitimate,
civil rights groups continue to challenge the ban and more arguments will likely emerge as the ban is expected to take effect.
Whatever the outcome, should the new travel ban take effect, the data show substantial social and economic costs are likely. Shutting the door to similar immigrants from these countries, especially Nigeria, would effectively shortchange the Nigeria’s economy in the future and disrupt hundreds of thousands of lives and livelihoods today. END.
 *Rosemary Moribirin is a Corps Member serving in the Media and Public Relations Unit of NIDCOM Abuja.*

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