₦airaland Forum

People returning from abroad, extravagantly spending money is not an exclusively Nigerian thing. It happens everywhere where people leave their poor home country for a rich country. They do it because they must convince everybody including themselves that it was worth it. The stories about life abroad they will tell will also be often exaggerated. It is often the case that in their new country they are relatively poor and not respected and they want to compensate for it when they come home and are relatively rich there. I do not say that it's not worth it, I'm just saying that you should be careful with believing in everything said by somebody who is showing off his money on a visit home.

As for your question, it depends, like everything. It doesn't pay to go abroad if you will be poor there. It's better to be poor at home in this case, with your friends and family around. I've seen these desperate guys sharing a flat with 10 other people, too exhausted to be able to enjoy themselves after work, suffering from loneliness. This is no life and if someone wants to go as an illegal and do lowest-paid jobs, it is better to stay at home, as long as you are not dying from hunger.

It can make sense to go if you have skills and education (and visa status) that will allow to earn decent money in the new place. But then you must think about your own attitude and open-mindedness. Are you able to embrace a new culture, mix with the local people, fight your way through the stereotypes and find joy in different things than at home? For some people it is easy and they gain new strength from such an experience and find it exciting, others will suffer and no matter how high their standard of living will be, they won't be happy.

So think what kind of person you are and remember that the most important thing is being happy. If you can't be happy when far from home, no amount of money is worth staying unhappy. If you can be happy abroad, good for you. It doesn't hurt to go for a short time to try how you feel, everybody should see other countries because this has educational value.