Document Type
Article
Publication Date
12-1-2004
Abstract
Generation and transfer of capital by Nigerian immigrants to their homeland for development of their society and relatives seems to be the right things to do. From pure philanthropy concepts and theory, these goals should be easy to accomplish because of purposive benefits to the immigrants and their strong ethnic identity ties back home. Unfortunately there is a significant gap between existing theory and the actual practice. From personal experience and literature reviews, an individual immigrant's desire to transfer economic capital for assisting relatives and home communities have mixed results of success and failure with continuing frustrations and unintended consequences. The focus of this research work is centered on Nigerian immigrants in ethnic-based affiliations in the United States that embark on activities of creating and transferring capital for the development of their home communities. It is the belief of this author that the use of social capital and collective action concepts among immigrants coupled with transnationalism has the potential of helping the Nigerian immigrants to achieve their goals of giving back to their home communities. The research study is based on the following two overarching questions: What factors explain variation in creation and transfer of economic and social capital to home communities by Nigerian immigrants' sociocultural ethnic organizations? The second question is, how effective are these organizations in creating and transfer capital to achieve their goals? Why are some organizations more effective than others?
Keywords
immigrants -- Africa
Rights
© The Author(s). Kelvin Smith Library provides access for non-commercial, personal, or research use only. All other use, including but not limited to commercial or scholarly reproductions, redistribution, publication or transmission, whether by electronic means or otherwise, without prior written permission is strictly prohibited.
Recommended Citation
Ogundele, James B., "Nigerian Immigrants Utilizing Ethnic Affiliation to Create and Transfer Social and Economic Capital to Develop Their Home Communities" (2004). Student Scholarship. 316.
https://commons.case.edu/studentworks/316