In an era marked by Nigeria’s economic challenges and security concerns, a growing number of women are embarking on the journey abroad, seeking new opportunities and experiences. Moving to a different country is undeniably daunting; it’s a leap into the unknown, where the familiar comforts of home become distant memories. Yet, for many courageous women like Blessing, Onyinye, and Jane, the decision to leave Nigeria has been a transformative experience.
In this article, these 3 women offer a glimpse into the countries they moved to and their unique experiences so far. At the end of my conversation with them, they generously shared words of advice for women who are considering leaving Nigeria.
Blessing is a 25-year-old Medical Doctor living in the Caribbean. She’s also a blogger who talks about health, career development and life as a Black woman across all her social media pages
Why Did You Leave Nigeria?
I left Nigeria in 2019 because I genuinely wanted to experience something different in the medical profession.
Do You Ever Miss Nigeria?
I miss my home. I miss having a sense of community and I miss spending holidays with my family, sharing laughter, jokes and stories.
What’s Your Favourite Thing About Living in the Caribbean?
I think the favourite thing about where I live is having easy access to different beaches. I love the water and that’s my favourite place to be. I also like the fact that you don’t need to fear being kidnapped when asking questions and seeking directions, especially as a newbie.
What About Your least Favourite Thing About Living in the Caribbean?
The least favourite thing about where I live is the noise. It’s too loud for my liking. It’s so annoying that the bus drivers increase their music to the highest volume even when passengers are inside.
What Has Been Your Experience, Living Abroad for 5 Years Now?
Living abroad has taught me a lot about adulting and self-leadership. If I were to go back in time to make the decision I made to leave home, I would do it again. I feel like staying away from home helped me learn a lot about myself and it also helped me explore different things that broadened my mindset.
When it comes to making friends, it wasn’t a difficult process for me because I am extroverted, so I find small talk interesting and that’s how I made my friends. Yeah, friendship has been easy, but dating is a different narrative lol. Honestly, men are not the same everywhere and they don’t all have the same mindset when it comes to love, marriage and relationships so I find that dating away from home is difficult because of the clashing cultural views.
When it comes to work, I love that the Caribbeans take their public holidays and breaks seriously and what’s good is that they have a lot of them haha so that’s a good balance. They are actually so laid back and do not like stress.
Have You Experienced Racism in the Caribbean?
I have never had any issue of racism in the Caribbean. Most people in the Caribbean are Black so…
Any Advice for Women Seeking to Emigrate?
For anyone who intends to move to the Caribbean or anywhere abroad, my advice is that you keep an open mind. There are a lot of ideologies we hold back home that are not the same outside Nigeria so you need to keep an open mind to be able to unlearn, learn and relearn so many things.
I will say this too; Maintain your relationship with God because you will need it. I hear people say things like, “Oh when you move abroad you won’t have to pray that much” I completely disagree with this statement. Yes, your mindset towards your faith might evolve beyond religion but whatever the case might be, don’t try to do life overseas without God.

Onyinye Odita is a 25-year-old woman living in Calgary, the province of Alberta Canada. She is a lawyer, currently undertaking a Masters of Law in Artificial Intelligence and Copyright laws. Onyinye is also passionate about mentoring people on the various journeys of life she has been through.
Onyinye, What Made You Leave Nigeria?
I left Nigeria in August 2023 because I wanted to pursue a master’s and be more exposed to various opportunities that life could bring me. In a way, I also left because the larger part of my family doesn’t reside in Nigeria. So not having family there was a bit difficult for me.
Do You Miss Nigeria?
Oh definitely. About 2 days ago, I was looking at a picture of myself wearing an aso-ebi for a wedding I attended and I had my gele and makeup on. Seeing the video made me really miss Nigeria. I think what I miss the most about home is the freedom. For instance, back in Nigeria I could just get home from work, walk out of my estate and grab suya and a drink but how do I do that here? Especially with the cold. Canada is so cold. So before I go out here, I have to process, “Is it worth going out for?” “Do I really need it?” “Am I certain I’ll be able to find what I need? ”
Another thing I miss about Nigeria is the community. Prior to my migration, I had gotten to a point where I felt like I had started to build my community in terms of friendships. I really miss that you can call people at any time and just go out with them. Here in Canada, everyone is busy. Not everyone works a 9-5. At least within my strata of friends many work in shifts so having to fix a suitable time for everyone to hang out can be a bit of a struggle. It isn’t the same in Nigeria where most of my friends worked 9-5s.
What’s Your Favourite Thing About the Country You’re in?
It has to be the comfort and the structure. Things run very smoothly here. A lot of things we complain about in Nigeria, do not happen here. There’s also a lot of opportunities for everyone. Yes, it’s pretty competitive but there’s space for everyone to take up something. I also like the level of exposure the city has given me.
What About Your Least Favourite Thing About the City You’re in?
It gets pretty quiet and sometimes you feel alone. The thing is, you might not necessarily have a large friend group, especially when you’re just a new immigrant. That’s why it’s very important to be intentional about building your community when you arrive in a new country.
What’s Your Experience been Like in Canada?
In regards to friendships, I used to be that person who gets friends based on circumstances like, oh, we met here and we connected, great. Now, I’m learning to be very intentional. You can’t just wing friendships. If you meet someone that you feel like you connect with, it’s not a bad thing to say, ‘ Hey, I think we vibe and I think we should, you know, be friends’. Living in Canada has made me appreciate friendships more because everyone sort of keeps to themselves. You might not even realize that somebody coming out or opening their doors to you really means a lot.
It hasn’t been easy. I’ve made two friends or maybe one and it’s been like six months. Even in terms of my long-distance relationships and friendships, it’s been a hassle keeping them. At some point when I was moving, I had this fear that I might just lose all my current friends. But getting here, I unlocked a different level of intentionality. So to keep the friends you have, you have to be intentional.
What About School, How’s Your LLM Program Going?
I think when I first resumed, the system was a shocker for me because in Nigeria we were taught to listen, read and give it back to them exactly as we were taught. That was the cycle. But here, every class is interactive. It was a bit shocking because I was not very used to sharing my thoughts on issues. I just listened to the lecturer’s thoughts. Now I’ve moved from that to opening up my mind to have opinions about the things I’m reading.
Are You Working While in School?
Getting a job as an international student is a bit tricky, particularly because at the time I migrated, Canada had a 20-hour work restriction, but now it’s 40 hours, till April. However, employers want a level of stability. They don’t want a situation where you slack at work because you have school.
So people just get jobs in school. I currently work in my school and because of that, my employers know that I’m a student and they help accommodate that in my schedule. Of course, in the long run, international students can look out for internet-based internships and remote opportunities. It’s a gradual process of settling in and everything won’t happen at once.
So Far, Have You Had Any Racist Experience?
To be honest, I haven’t had any racist experience, maybe it’s because I’m unaware that someone is trying to be racist to me.
In my school, the University of Calgary, where I spend a lot of time, they are pretty diverse. I have Nigerian classmates and there is a professor in my faculty- Professor Gideon Christian, who is Nigerian. I also remember when the former Dean of Law at my school was speaking about how he travels to Abuja and Lagos a lot.
What’s One Advice You Will Give Women Planning to Leave Nigeria?
I would say to them; first, the thought of you wanting to move and leave your comfort zone is super bold. I’m proud of you and I would say go for it.
Recently, I read that the first black person to become a justice of the King’s Court in Canada is a Nigerian Igbo woman. I think about how if she didn’t make that step to travel, maybe we wouldn’t even be here today. So surround yourself with people who believe that you can move abroad, start again and build a life. Rather than people who push the narrative that moving abroad is hard.
When I came to Canada, I believed that I could do anything to pay my bills. I just needed to get a job, any job. Then, I met an amazing woman who has become a sort of mentor to me today. She said to me, ‘You don’t have to do what everyone did just because they did it to survive. You don’t have to start where everyone started. Open your mind to possibilities. You are great.’ That’s what she said to me.
I remember when I applied for a menial job and got it. I was desperate to take it because it was my only offer at the time but her words reminded me that I didn’t have to. I eventually didn’t take it and now I work 2 jobs that aren’t menial. In essence, I’m saying you should shoot high, if you fall, you fall. You’ll get back up again. Never shoot low.
Jane is a 29-year-old woman who has been living in The Netherlands for over 3 years now. She is a project manager in an international environmental firm.
When and Why Did You Leave Nigeria?
I left in October 2020 for my Masters Program.
Do You Ever Miss Nigeria?
Yes, I do. I miss the food…spicy food, meaty food, all kinds of Nigerian food. I also miss the weather because it’s really cold in the Netherlands and I don’t like the cold because it gets uncomfortable and then you have to wear so many layers of clothes to be warm and it just makes me feel very bulky.
I also miss my immediate family but not too much because I talk to them almost every day, and we’ve gone on vacations a couple of times since I moved out of Nigeria.
What’s Your Favourite Thing About the Netherlands?
It’s definitely how organized everything is, especially when it comes to commuting. You know your train will arrive at this time or your bus will arrive at this time, you know you’ll get to your destination at a certain time as well. So just that organization in transportation is really convenient. I also love that there is ‘light’ 24/7. There’s no case of, ‘they will take light for two minutes and bring it back oh!’ Throughout my schooling and working experience, there has always been light.
What’s Your Least Favourite Thing About the Netherlands?
Like I said, the weather is really disgusting. It is cold for the most part except during summer and it rains a lot in the Netherlands. No heavy rain though, just like a light drizzle. But it happens often, except during the summer.
How Has Your Experience Been So Far? Yours Seems Like it Will be Peculiar as Your Arrival Coincided with the Covid-19 Pandemic
It was actually lol. During the beginning of my MSC program, with the whole COVID situation, we weren’t really allowed to go out much and interact as classmates. So my coursemates and I took our classes online but I’m an introvert, so I didn’t mind at all. I was perfectly fine being indoors. You could go out now and then, but you couldn’t go out in big groups. So we didn’t really socialize in person as a class until maybe the eighth month when they started to lift the restrictions. My supervisor even tried to organize stuff for my classmates and I, just to make up for lost time. As I said, I’m not really an outside person anyway so even when they lifted the restrictions I was still indoors for the most part.
Did You Like Schooling in the Netherlands? Do You Like Working There Also?
I liked schooling here. My school was an international community so I never felt different because everyone was different in a certain sense. You literally could find at least one person from a country in the world at my school. That’s how diverse the community was. It was not predominantly Dutch, like some other universities or institutes in the Netherlands. It was a mix of so many people, blacks, Asians and Caucasians.
I also like working here. It’s a hybrid work arrangement and everyone is cordial. I’ve never felt left out or different, even by my Dutch colleagues. To be honest, I’m not really the best person to ask about friendships because I enjoy being alone. My friends are used to me not coming out so if they invite me for stuff. Most times, I would tell them no.
Have You Ever Had Any Racist Experiences in the Netherlands?
While I have never experienced racism, I know Black people who have and I’m grateful that it’s something I have never experienced.
Any Words of Advice for Women Planning to Move Abroad?
Hmmm…if you’re considering between a job in Nigeria that pays in naira and another one abroad, earning in good foreign currency will always be worth it, especially with what’s happening back in Nigeria. If you’re an extrovert, really consider schools or organizations that are big on diversity. Lastly, have fun! Unfamiliar environments may seem unsettling at first, but there is beauty everywhere and it looks different for everyone, find it in whatever city you’re in
*These interviews were edited and condensed for the sake of clarity and privacy.