Emigration and education: the schooling of the left behind in Nigeria

ABSTRACT

The potential effects of migration on the welfare of the left behind consist in an important part of the debate around migration. In this paper, we use household survey data from Nigeria to examine the impact of family migration on educational attainment. Because migration status of households is endogenous, we use proportion of migrants in a local district and historical exposure to foreigners as proxied by distance to foreign missionary station in 1921 as instruments for migration of household member. We find that being in a migrant household increases the probability of completing secondary school and attending some postsecondary education. We also find that belonging to a migrant household increases the probability of own future migration. We further explore channels through which migration of family member affects education. We provide tentative evidence suggesting that anticipation of future own migration may be behind increased educational attainment.

KEYWORDS:

• Children left-behind
• human capital
• migration
• Nigeria

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank Mette Ejrnæs, an anonymous Referee and the Editor of the Journal for valuable comments and suggestions on earlier drafts.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. For example, the United States Diversity Visa program that grants 50,000 permanent residence visas annually via lottery requires winners to have attained a minimum of 12 years for formal schooling.

Additional information

Funding

This research did not receive any specific grant from funding agencies in the public, commercial or not for profit sectors.

Notes on contributors

Biniam Bedasso

Biniam Bedasso is a political economist with a research interest in a range of fields in economics and political science. He held research positions at the University of Oxford, Princeton University, and Economic Research Southern Africa. He has published widely in peer-reviewed academic journals and policy outlets. Mr. Bedasso received a Ph.D. in Public Policy from Maastricht University.

Ermias Gebru Weldesenbet

Ermias Gebru Weldesenbet is currently a Ph.D. candidate in Economics at the Department of Economics, University of Copenhagen. His research interests span development economics and applied micro econometrics,particularly in areas relating to poverty, the economics of education, health, and migration. He held research positions at the Rockwool Foundation Research Unit and the Policy Studies Institute, formerly known as Ethiopian Development Research Institute. 

Nonso Obikili

Dr. Nonso Obikili is an economist whose research primarily focuses on African economic development, macroeconomics, and political economy. He earned his Ph.D. in economics from theState University of New York at Binghamton in 2013 and has published numerous articles in peer-reviewed journals and has worked in academia and policy institutions around the world. He was chief economist at Business day newspaper in Lagos, a Policy Associate at Economic Research Southern Africa in Cape Town, and a Non-Resident Fellow at the Center for Global Development in Washington DC.