The aims of the study are basically to examine the dynamics of international migration of traders
from Nigeria to other countries, and how these changes impact on the social, economic and
political conditions of individual migrant traders, their immediate community and Nigeria.
The aims of the study have not changed from the initial concept as contained in the proposal. The
underpinning reasoning behind the aim of the study is that international migrant traders qualify
as migrants of note, irrespective of their relative short duration of stay. In fact, the latter qualifies
them for study, as the IMI Project titled, “African Perspectives on Human Mobility”, covers both
mobility and migration. Moreover, the achievement of the aims would afford us an opportunity
of appreciating better the dynamics of international migration of traders from Nigeria, as we
study the transformation of their status from circulatory movers to more permanent migrants and
even a reversal of their status to non-migrants that depend on the network of traders that they
have built up over time. Whichever is the case, their mobility/migration is fundamentally
dictated by their perception of the profitability of their movements. This dictates whether or not
their movement can be classified as patterns, trajectories and or migratory flows, which is basic
to the central model/conceptualization of the study.

The study is, therefore, geared towards understanding the new mobility patterns that are
developing, in terms of the adaptation of new economic survival strategies, combined trips,
duration of stay and metamorphosing of migrants from visitors, tourists’, refugees, migrants in
transit, into temporal and permanent traders over time. Specifically, the aim of the study is
captured and examined under three main objectives namely:
• The dynamics of the processes, patterns and categories of international migration of
traders from Nigeria.
• The factors responsible for the dynamics of the processes, patterns and categories of
international migrant traders and of the goods traded in, in particular the last ten years,
and
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• The impact of the dynamics of international migration of traders on the livelihood of the
traders, their immediate community, in particular on non-migrant traders and on Nigeria.