OLUWATOSIN OMONIYI 
Things are no longer at ease with some of those in the Diaspora, especially those in the United Kingdom and students in the United States of America. OLUWATOSIN OMONIYI-SOLANKE in this report, examines mounting challenges being faced by Nigerians and others
No doubt, it is not easy for them across the border but most who left for greener pastures are not really finding it easy. That is apart from the difference in the hard currency or better standard of living, where they enjoy uninterrupted Power and Gas supply and steady regulated food prices plus organised way of living including transportation; life broad is not totally not void of chaos and uncertainties.
With the decision to Japa in other word, come other attendants unpalatable issues that are not bargained for. Yet, Nigerians prefer to stay put with whatever they face in the Diaspora than coming to Nigeria to face the ‘unfavourable’ conditions at home.
However, things began to fall apart when the United Kingdom government made some radical changes to its immigration rules in favour of their citizens to the discomfort of those, who were there for greener pastures.
According to the Immigration White Paper, the new rule as stated is to restore control over the immigration system, tighten up the visa rules to safeguard border security, reduce migration levels further and to introduce a link between UK immigration policy, skills and training.
On March 12, 2025, the UK government announced its ban on international recruitment for social care roles and announced a dramatic cutback on “low-skilled migration,” declaring that “skilled must mean skilled.”
The hard line document detailed in a new 82-page Immigration White Paper released May 12, formed the immigration reset. The paper, titled “Restoring Control over the Immigration System,” marks a decisive shift toward reducing net migration, which the government says has spiralled out of control, quadrupling from 2019 to 2023.
“We will close social care visas to new overseas applications,” the Home Office stated, adding: “This route has been exploited and overused in ways that damage public confidence and do not support long-term workforce sustainability.”
Break down analysis
End Line for Care Worker Visas
According to UK government, the decision to block new overseas applications for social care roles takes immediate effect.
Existing care workers already in the UK will only be able to extend or switch their visas until 2028, pending the rollout of a new domestic workforce strategy.
It read further: “The health and social care sector must move away from reliance on low-wage overseas recruitment. We will instead support long-term workforce planning and training within the UK.”
Skilled must mean skilled
At the heart of the reforms is a redefinition of ‘skilled work’ under the points-based immigration system.
The government is raising thresholds on salary, qualifications, and English language across most routes, removing what it calls “loopholes for low-skilled migration under a skilled label.
“We are tightening the definition of skilled work-skilled must mean skilled,” the White Paper insists.
“Work that does not meet the bar will not be eligible for a visa, no matter the sector.
“The controversial Immigration Salary List which allowed employers to hire workers below the general salary threshold will be abolished.
“We will remove the Immigration Salary List to prevent undercutting of UK wages and to ensure that migration supports, rather than suppresses, the labour market,” it declared.
Shifting burden to employers
In future, employers would be required to demonstrate domestic recruitment efforts before turning to foreign labour, particularly in sectors previously reliant on overseas workers.
“No employer should be allowed to default to migration. We are rebalancing the system to reward training, not reliance,” the Home Office said.
Home Secretary, Yvette Cooper, called the plan, “a bold, necessary reset.”
“We are acting to bring numbers down and restore control. We must rebuild public trust and end the perception that immigration is a substitute for skills planning,” Cooper said.
The White Paper’s tone was uncompromising throughout: “We will not allow temporary migration routes to become permanent.
“Our reforms will restore integrity and ensure immigration works for Britain — not the other way round.”
The five key changes
Social care workers are no longer allowed to bring dependants (that is, partners and children) on their visa.
The baseline minimum salary to be sponsored for a Skilled Worker visa increased from £26,200 to £38,700, while the ‘going rate’ minimum salary specific to each job also went up significantly.
A list of jobs for which it is possible to sponsor someone for a Skilled Worker visa at a reduced minimum salary was made shorter and renamed the Immigration Salary List.
The minimum income normally required for British citizens to sponsor a spouse/partner visa rose from £18,600 to £29,000.
An independent committee was asked to review the Graduate visa, a two-year unsponsored work permit for overseas graduates of British universities, to check for possible abuse of the system.
Not only the UK, some European countries too have started tightening their boarders against foreigners and began cancelling work permits or work permits with dependents. Poland for instance, gives work permits but wouldn’t allow the workers to come in with dependents immediately until about six months to one year later when the worker would have been deemed fit for renewal and able to prove good conduct.
Sunday Telegraph learnt that some of the European countries have even reduced their ‘after study duration’ from 2 years to 9 months. All these new arrangement seem like global conspiracy against Africans, especially Nigerians, according to most reactions that Sunday Telegraph gathered.
Also, the United States of America on May 28,2025, announced suspension of students visa issuance across the world, consequently affecting Nigerians and other foreign applicants.
This change is due to a new directive from the US government, which plans to introduce more checks on applicants via their social media activities.
The instruction came from the US Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, who sent out a message to American embassies and consulates globally.
What it means is that, people seeking to study in the US, including many Nigerians applying for the popular F-1 student visa, will not be able to book new interview appointments as of now. But interviews that have already been scheduled would still go ahead. It also means no one can proceed with the visa process without the interview step, hence the temporary pause.
The US says it is preparing to roll out a tougher screening system that would include reviewing what applicants post or do on their social media accounts.
Further instructions about this are expected soon.
The move comes as the US government claims some international students have encouraged a tense atmosphere in American universities.
In response, the government has taken steps such as canceling student visas and cutting off university programmes that host foreign students.
Just last week, Harvard University lost its approval to enroll international students after reportedly refusing to provide behaviour records of some visa holders.
This action followed the freezing of over $2 billion in government funding for the school.
The US has also canceled the visas of hundreds of international students in the past few months, with many facing legal challenges.
The announcement came days after the Trump administration moved to block Harvard University from enrolling any international students, a decision that has been put on hold by a federal judge, pending the determination of a lawsuit. Trump said last Wednesday that Harvard, whose current student population is made up of more than a quarter of international students, should limit that percentage to about 15 per cent.
“I want to make sure the foreign students are people that can love our country,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office.
As it is, Sunday Telegraph learnt that there is growing panic among African students, especially Nigerian students across Universities in the US.
They worry as the schools are rolling out measures to check their persons/character through their Social Media handles. They are already regretting applying for schools in the US. As a matter of fact, some of the students believe it is mere discrimination against the African students.
Nigerians react
Adegoke Akorede, 17, who applied for Criminology in one of the universities in the US, said his premonition finally came to pass. “I had this haunch that there is an air of uncertainty around the schools in US or I had a dream, I can’t really remember but something in me was not in support of applying to an American university. I told my parents to allow me apply for a school in Turkey or Europe but they refused. Now, see what has come out of their American choice. I am confused now. I don’t know where I currently stand. As it is, no more visa appointments at the American embassy for now which could result to me losing that scholarship,” he lamented.
Fred Omatase, a student applicant told Sunday Telegraph that with the sudden development in the US, even if his application to a university in the US had scaled through, there was no assurance that he would be allowed to stay back. “It’s obvious there is a crack down on blacks and it’s so scary. After study now, there may be another new law to flush us out of their country. I will look elsewhere to go study with assurance and peace of mind,” he said.
Doris Ubale, a student of the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh, told Sunday Telegraph that she was preparing to come visit Nigeria during the summer holiday, to see her family members and renew her Nigerian passport. She is now scared of doing so because she might end up getting stuck in Nigeria with the new policy.
“Nothing to be left to chances anymore in the world right now. I don’t know how possible that will be, especially now that visa appointments are suspended.
“I honestly don’t feel safe leaving the U.S. as of now. Even when appointments resume, anything can happen,” she said.
Aki Samuel, a student of the Arizona State University, also told Sunday Telegraph that, “I don’t think I have enough trust in the system anymore and at this point.” Samuel explained that he came to the US from Eastern part of Nigeria as an exchange student in high school and stayed for college to complete his grade and hope to complete his educational dream in the US.
And this, he was already pursuing gradually with the support of his people back home but as it stands now, it seems that his dream may not come to fruition with the new announcement from the Department of State.
Olushola Odesola, a Nigerian based in Poland told Sunday Telegraph that Nigerians were responsible for their woes. “They too are not helping situation. They do not comport themselves very well and they just don’t know how to lie low, stay calm and cool headed in a foreign land. They either want to show off or get involved in unnecessary competition with indigenes. When they get abroad, they tend to forget where they were coming from and for what purpose they were abroad for. They are so full of negativity that they just lost how to behave properly. They are the reasons for most of these changes in immigration rules that are flying across the Globe,” he said.
He added that it was not only the UK and US that are closing their borders and he doesn’t believe it is targeted at the Blacks. He said Poland schools are no more giving admission to applicants. “In fact, no visa appointment for now. Nigerians shouldn’t be fooled by all the advertisements they see online. The European countries, who believe they could gain from the loss of UK and US would soon wise up and go same way,” he said.
Olaniyi Bakare, a Technology Instructor, who spoke to Sunday Telegraph termed it bad luck emanating from both bad governance and village people, who don’t want the progress of their citizens unlike the Western and European world, who would bend everything and rules possible just to favour their own.
Panic takes over
The panic is more gripping in the UK than anywhere in the world.
Sunday Telegraph learnt that with the new immigration rules comes serious fear of the unknown, fear of what becomes of their fates in foreign lands.
According to Adebola Lasisi, a Nigerian based in London, the new UK immigration rules have just birthed treachery, betrayal and desperation among Nigerians here(UK).
“It’s as bad as Nigerians over here are no longer friendly with each other, afraid to even relate freely with one another for fear of getting dragged into trouble.”
Bunmi, a registered nurse and a street sister to Lasisi in London, is on the verge of being deported back to Nigeria for an offence that was used as a set up for her. She lamented to Sunday Telegraph that she lent her boyfriend £2,500 for a period of four months. Unfortunately, the new immigration rule got announced and her boyfriend suddenly changed towards her, behaved like he cared less about her anymore. Bunmi said she sensed something was fishy with her boyfriend and started aggressively demanding for her money.
“My boyfriend, who had no intention of refunding that money nicely set me up using my temper as a perfect excuse. On that fateful day, I went to his place to demand for my money but he deliberately got me angry and was the first to flash a scissors to my face, ready to harm me with it and just directly in front of me was a jack knife laying on the table. I didn’t think twice but grabbed the knife and headed towards his direction in self defence; I just heard ‘hands up’. My boyfriend had already called cops, who came in just in time. I tried to explain myself but all fell on deaf ears,” she narrated.
Bunmi said upon interrogation and investigation, she was discovered to have just one month of expiration of 2-year post study permit, which was renewable. “But it has been cancelled and I am currently facing deportation threat while Kunle (her boyfriend) is smiling and satisfied with the trap he set for me and joy of not paying the money he is owing,” she narrated.
Sunday Telegraph also learnt that some ladies are running after those with ‘Status’ in the UK, (meaning those who have full legal right to stay in the UK).
Lasisi told Sunday Telegraph that about eight ladies are after him, begging him to impregnate them or do arrangee marriage, so that they can escape deportation or cancellation of their Certificate of Sponsorship (COS)-a legal permit to work.
“My sister, even though I look forward to settling down with a Nigerian lady, I refuse to go for the ladies I am seeing here. They have not only lost the fear of God, they have lost their real identity in terms of culture and proper home training. So, seeing them chasing me with the guise that they love me is a blatant lie! What they want is my status and that to me, is deception wrapped in desperation and treachery,” he said.
Fatimah Omoh, mother of five girls, who has spent six years in the UK told Sunday Telegraph that she is really on the search for those with ‘Status’ or ready to be considerate with price (monetary offer to help her with legal paper framework) to marry her daughters, so that they would not be deported to Nigeria. The youngest of the daughters according to her is 21 years old.
“Witnessing my daughters deported to Nigeria would kill me fast. I am a widow, who has faced a lot back home since my husband died 12 years ago. We have managed to structure and organised our lives in line with the UK system. So, coming back home while we are not prepared is really something not to imagine,” she said.
She added that she is on aggressive search for who will help her with legal papers that will legalise her resident permit along with those of her children.
Meanwhile, the new immigration rules ensures that migrants already living in the UK will wait longer to qualify for permanent settlement under government plans.
IOM reacts
The International Organisation on Migration (IOM), as the leading intergovernmental migration agency, Coordinator and Secretariat of the United Nations Network on Migration, stated that it supports and advises governments, at their request, on migration policy and the enhancement of their migration governance systems, so as to enable them achieve the objectives of the Global Compact.
It explained that; “as the international community strives towards the realisation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and implementation of the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration, there is growing recognition of the need for strengthened policy capacities in the field of migration and mobility in order to advance towards good migration governance.”
It added: “IOM in its own right, as the leading United Nations migration agency and as the Coordinator and Secretariat of the United Nations Network on Migration, advises governments, at their request, on migration policy and the enhancement of migration governance systems to reach these shared goals.”
However, in response to growing diplomatic friction, Sunday Telegraph learnt that due to security concerns, and demands for equal treatment, Brazil has joined Russia, Egypt, China, India, and Cuba in ending visa-free travel for U.S. citizens, while Jamaica, the Bahamas, and the Dominican Republic are tightening entry rules across the Caribbean through new screening and documentation requirements. Once considered hassle-free destinations, these nations now require full visas before entry, underscoring a broader global recalibration of how U.S. travelers are treated.
Meanwhile, in the Caribbean, Jamaica, the Bahamas, and the Dominican Republic—though still visa-free—have begun quietly tightening their entry rules, increasing documentation checks, screening solo travelers more aggressively, and enforcing new pre-arrival requirements that together mark the end of frictionless border crossings for Americans in the region.
