Envisioning ‘Eldorado’ in the ‘Western world’: The lures and expectations of training as a nurse in sub-Saharan Africa

Akachi C. Odoemene, Redeemer's University

This paper examines migration drive among student nurses and the sociological trends it has produced over time in the Nigerian society. It seeks to explain the exigencies of the ‘culture of exile’ among student nurses. It shows how a society’s significant population, especially the young females, with their families’ solid encouragement, take to nursing for the sole aim of migrating to the developed economies for better opportunities. It further reveals how the everyday living of the hopeful migrants become a life in transit – preparation for future travel. It is argued that in pursuance of this ultimate fantasy, diverse strategies, including illegitimate ones, have been contrived as means to the end. The paper also notes two important implications of this development: the further impoverishment of the society’s medical systems due to the continuous brain drain, and an emerging change in gender roles in the society.