With so many graduates and qualified people in Nigeria, why do companies always seek to employ foreigners "expat'' to do jobs that Nigerians can do. Seems like we still have the colonial mind! My brother works in a hotel, where his manager used to work in the UK as a front desk receptionist, Why because he has managerial experience? He is white?

Do we have employment policies that protect jobs for Nigerians? For example, see this job ad, culled from: http://nigeriawhatisnew..com/2006/10/another-reason-nigeriaafrica-does-not.html

Job Title: IT Project Manager
Salary/Pay Rate: £1,050 - £1,300 pcm
Location: Lagos
Other Unique Job ID: 9466263
Ideal for candidates from Eastern Europe e.g. Romania, Ukraine, Belarus etc with the following profile:
IT Background:- Windows server and networking- SQL server
Telecom Background:- TCP-/IP, networking- WAN and CDMA, GPRS knowledge is good but not mandatory

Yes, my friend apparently got 'mosquito allowance' when he was there, apart from earning more than most of the people in his group

HSMP anyone?

I found this unbelievable comment from the post in that link - quite shallow, and remarkably shameful.
"Condoning prejudice against your own people is in deed a shameful thing. " - moi

Seun Osewa said, 
Oh please, let's be reasonable. Do you think Nigerian managers are fools who just like to spend money for no reason? Protectionism will not bring any benefits to the country as a whole. Why would any company want to offer a job to foreigners if Nigerian graduates can actually do the job? No economy cannot develop without importing something from outside. We can employ highly trained expatriates and then ask them to please train our boys and girls.

6:09 PM   

- The job opening is not seeking an astronaut, or rocket scientist. So why is it not open to the few Nigerians that have mastered the art. The ad did not even specify what level of experitise or years of experience needed. But the only thing precise about the ad was that it sort for "foreigners".

Protectionism will not bring any benefits to the country as a whole.

most countries- UK for example will never go out of the way to employ people from foreign countries, they only consider people from other countries if and when they can't get some people from their own country AND THEY DON NOT SPECIFICALLY STATE WHAT NATIONALITY THE PERSON MUST COME FROM or who the job is ideal for based on nationality, just bias from the onset!

Why do you think European countries like France are lagging behind the US economically? Too much protectionism.

_{the US last year rejected the offer of a dubai* company from buying a port basically because of the location
(cooked up stories of how they are linked with terrorism)}

countries like UK, Canada, australia are even more open to employees from different countries than America as long as they are 'highly skilled'

European countries are not lagging behind the US because of protectionalism, have you considered human capital, mineral resources, land size, history and even language?!?!?!

I don't think A US company will specifially state what country the 'ideal' candidate should come from. It just doesnt make sense! It's almost like saying programmers wanted would suite white people with scandanavian traits

The US is not so free, but when you compare it to France or other European countries, the difference is clear.
Somehow the US manages to retain market freedom in the most essential areas. They always leave loopholes.