Diversity, Ethnicity, Migration and Health in a Developing Country — The Case of Nigeria

Following our discussions of the United Kingdom and United States and their shared organizational characteristics including a shortage of skilled labour and reliance on migrant labour, we now turn our attention to one of the sending countries of that migrant labour — Nigeria. In order to enhance our understanding of health migration from developing countries, we explore the aspect of the triad introduced in Chapter 1, that is the social sphere of the national-states and hint at how affiliation is maintained through a series of social, economic and cultural ties, an aspect we develop later in the book. The chapter first explores Nigeria’s history and, in particular, how various governments have grappled with the challenges of managing Nigeria’s vast ethnic diversity. We then assess existing diversity policies and initiatives aimed at engendering a diverse and representative bureaucracy or workforce in the country. Finally, we turn our focus on the Nigerian health service sector and examine how Nigeria’s diversity policies have impacted on the workforce there.