The Atlantic

The Migration Driven by Developed Countries

Migration can be driven both by a richer country’s doing, as well as a poorer one’s undoing.
Source: Sunday Alamba / AP

LAGOS—About a year ago, Dolapo Oni appeared to have it all. He was the head of energy research for a pan-African bank in Nigeria’s biggest city, had a healthy (and growing) amount of savings and investments, and ran an e-commerce business on the side. He even liked his local gym.

Then he resigned and moved with his family to Canada, eventually getting a job as an investment associate in a wealth-management firm in Calgary. His previous employer in Lagos promoted someone to replace him soon after, but, like Oni, he quit and moved to Calgary. This time, rather than search for another replacement, the bank disbanded the energy-research team.

In some ways, Oni’s story (and that of his successor in Lagos)

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