₦airaland Forum

#perspective...

The absolute reality.
The native dwellers of these our so called dream destination countries are themselves victims of this programmed lifestyle, the negative effects it has on us the immigrants is further exacerbated by the hurdles we have to cross being in a strange environment.

DatIgalaDude:
If you Japa, you have failed your country.
Stay and make it work

You guys should stop all these dumb Instagram quotes abeg.

DatIgalaDude:
If you Japa, you have failed your country.
Stay and make it work

😂😂😂

Facts 101. I've subtly told them to keep their "been seen" and "being known" expectations to themselves. I'll do the barest minimum required...I don't need prsise. Only Jesus is worthy to be praised. It's only one life.

The write up above is total rubbish and overly exaggerated.
I will not gratify the stupid op with any explanation.

Remember, not everybody that's in the U. K that's doing OK.

We reject every japa to karoshi.

You made absolutely no sense, and I stopped reading at the beginning. Obviously, you've not travelled out this cesspit, so what would you know about another country.

Who works 100 hours of unpaid overtime as a programmer?
If a nurse decides to end her life what make you think its because she was exhausted and not mental illness?

csamii:
You made absolutely no sense, and I stopped reading at the beginning. Obviously, you've not travelled out this cesspit, so what would you know about another country.

Who works 100 hours of unpaid overtime as a programmer?
If a nurse decides to end her life what make you think its because she was exhausted and not mental illness?

They sit in Nigeria or Africa and write as they wish, blame Nigeria’s backwardness on others but themselves.
I worked in Nigeria for 8years before I ran for dear life. There was and still is nothing like ‘Work Life Balance’ in Nigeria and for less pay I worked minimum 12 hours everyday as a sales manager. No weekend rest, always on the road even at midnight.
The pay was less.
While here in UK, my maximum booked weekly hours is 37hours. Overtime or what we call ‘Rest Day Working’ must follow the rules of not more 13 consecutive days of working, not more than 70 hours a week and not more 12 hours per shift in compliance with ‘Hidden Rule’.
So I am not working today because it’s my Rest Day. From Friday next week to Tuesday I will stay at home as a long weekend.
If a person out of greed decides to do double jobs, why should the blame fall on the UK government?
Nigerians abroad come under more pressure from people back home than from the country they live in. Everybody wants to depend on you because you are abroad, and you want to be a good person or even show off to your kilts and kins.
Unlike Nigeria, where people work for peanut pay that can’t help them or their families and still do unpaid overtime, folks here doing overtime or double jobs get paid for it.
I don’t wish to even step foot into Africa, I am happier and safer here!

Extremely foolish post. Continue consoling yourself 😂😂😂

DatIgalaDude:
If you Japa, you have failed your country.
Stay and make it work

Tell this to our corrupt politicians whose kids are overseas.

Hmmmm

Quite scary.

MMempire:
We reject every japa to karoshi.

Amen 🙏

The travel section seems to be the most level-headed. You can't just come here and trash Japa without getting backlash. The community is passionate about their decisions. Kudos to Japa enthusiasts and the countries they're heading to.

People who don't have N20m needed to japa now are the ones always writing such rubbish.

OP just settled down and typed nonsense. The most hilarious one is that of Germany

malali:
JAPA. That sweet, delicious Yoruba slang that now echoes in the minds of every restless Nigerian youth. It means “to escape”, from joblessness, from chaos, from Nigeria’s eternal loop of policy somersaults. But what happens when you escape to a country that quietly works you to death?

Welcome to the global phenomenon called Karōshi—and the shocking reality that many Nigerians are now running toward it.

What is Karōshi?

Originating in Japan, Karōshi (過労死) literally means death by overwork. Think: a 36-year-old coder who collapses at his desk after 100 hours of unpaid overtime. A nurse in Osaka who takes her own life after back-to-back 16-hour shifts. Karōshi is state-recognized in Japan, with government payouts for families of the fallen.

But what if I told you: Japan is not alone, and many of the countries Nigerians japa to are walking this same dark path?


THE DARK SIDE OF JAPA: OVERWORK CULTURE IN ‘PROMISED LANDS’


🇨🇦 Canada – The Snowy Burnout Machine
• Nigerian nurses japa here en masse.
• Many work double or triple shifts to meet family obligations in naira.
• Despite friendly smiles and maple syrup, burnout rates among healthcare workers exceed 50%.
• Suicide among immigrant frontline workers has increased by 21% post-COVID.
• And yes—you can freeze and burn out at the same time.


🇬🇧 United Kingdom – The Queue of Overworked Migrants
• NHS doctors from Nigeria often clock 60–72 hours weekly, plus on-calls.
• Sleep? Optional.
• The “clinical excellence awards” often go to those who skip lunch for years.
• Migrant nurses in care homes die of strokes in their 40s, unpublicized.
• But hey, at least you can say “innit” now, yeah?


🇺🇸 United States – The Hustler’s Paradise
• Work-life balance here is a meme.
• 40-hour week is an illusion for Black and brown immigrants.
• Gig economy + student loans = Nigerians Uber by day, hospital by night.
• 1 in 3 US physicians report symptoms of severe burnout.
• You don’t die from overwork. You die from “pre-existing conditions.”
• Capitalism is the only god, and rest is sin.


🇩🇪 Germany – Efficient Until You Break
• Structured yes, but migrant healthcare workers face silent exploitation.
• Many Nigerian workers in elder care, logistics, and engineering find themselves in high-stress roles with zero mental health resources.
• Oh, and your German boss doesn’t do “empathy.”

🇯🇵 Japan – The Original Karōshi King
• Glamorous in brochures, toxic in reality.
• If you’re not ready to become a zombie in a suit, don’t japa here.
• Nigerian immigrants often end up in factory or delivery jobs, working 13+ hour shifts, sometimes 7 days a week.
• Suicide is often framed as “failure,” not fatigue.
• And society? Cold as a misfired sake.

The Problem Isn’t Work — It’s Invisibility

The global capitalist machine doesn’t just overwork people. It hides the deaths.
• Cause of death: “Cardiac arrest”
• Real cause: 100 hours of sleepless exhaustion
• Stigma: “He couldn’t cope”
• Reality: “He wasn’t meant to.”


WHY THIS MATTERS TO NIGERIANS

The JAPA dream is powerful, but if your new country treats labor like coal in a furnace, you’ve swapped dysfunction for slow-motion death.

You’re not escaping Nigeria. You’re escaping to another kind of cage.


Many high-IQ Nigerian migrants are masking ADHD, ASD, or anxiety under the radar, and working in systems that punish emotional honesty.
• No accommodations.
• No breaks.
• No humanity.
These are karōshi factories, masquerading as developed countries.

Japa wisely. Research ruthlessly. Don’t swap a broken Nigeria for a beautiful prison with perfect roads.

Success is not about crossing borders.
It’s about not dying with your dream unpaid for.

Na wa oh

This is beautifully written, evoked my feelings....thank you💯

Immatex:
They sit in Nigeria or Africa and write as they wish, blame Nigeria’s backwardness on others but themselves.
I worked in Nigeria for 8years before I ran for dear life. There was and still is nothing like ‘Work Life Balance’ in Nigeria and for less pay I worked minimum 12 hours everyday as a sales manager. No weekend rest, always on the road even at midnight.
The pay was less.
While here in UK, my maximum booked weekly hours is 37hours. Overtime or what we call ‘Rest Day Working’ must follow the rules of not more 13 consecutive days of working, not more than 70 hours a week and not more 12 hours per shift in compliance with ‘Hidden Rule’.
So I am not working today because it’s my Rest Day. From Friday next week to Tuesday I will stay at home as a long weekend.
If a person out of greed decides to do double jobs, why should the blame fall on the UK government?
Nigerians abroad come under more pressure from people back home than from the country they live in. Everybody wants to depend on you because you are abroad, and you want to be a good person or even show off to your kilts and kins.
Unlike Nigeria, where people work for peanut pay that can’t help them or their families and still do unpaid overtime, folks here doing overtime or double jobs get paid for it.
I don’t wish to even step foot into Africa, I am happier and safer here!

my brother you finish talk, nothing more to add.

Alaye everybody wan tear race you dey here dey cap nonsense... Wait! Na Nigerians u dey tell about working long hours? Naim be say u no understand Nigerian spirit.

Interestingly, I live and work in the home of "Karoshi" and work only allotted hours (8 hours 45 minutes) per weekday. Overtime is applicable. In most job openings, overtime earnings is included in the expected salary.

P.S. Salaries are clearly stated in almost every job advert. So, applicants know how much to expect.

For me, once I hit 8 hours 45 minutes, I clock out. There's a foreigner privilege in that aspect and I take full advantage of it. That said, Black foreigners rarely get delivery jobs except the person speaks very good Japanese. Also, those roles don't pay well and even if they do, you have to be a permanent resident to be employed in such roles. Any Black foreigner who is a permanent resident has better career options or as in most cases, they start their enterprises. Factory jobs are good as long as the person has a standard work visa (Technology/Humanities/Int'l Services). Anything aside that work visa leads to poor work conditions. For a Black person to hold that visa status and work in a factory/laboratory, such a person works for a good company and is well paid with all perks that come with the job just as they apply to a Japanese citizen.

Nevertheless, I give it to them for being disciplined at work, extremely punctual, largely very honest and ruthlessly efficient.

Hannania:
OP just settled down and typed nonsense. The most hilarious one is that of Germany

Interesting thing is that OP has studied, lived and worked in the UK for a long time. While there, he was able to raise funds that he now invests in Nigeria. So while the writeup is in order, the last paragraph is very hypocritical. Just like the one on TwitterNG who criticised high level Nigerians working at entry level roles at no-name companies in the UK when they could build $100m businesses in Nigeria. Only for him to be discovered to have pursued a PhD in the US and obtained a Green Card.

Whether that's is witchcraft or not is yet to be studied.

malali:
• Many work double or triple shifts to meet family obligations in naira

What is the wisdom behind working oneself to death for the sake of meeting family obligations in Naira?

Family members who are going to spend the money like water, since they don’t work for it?

Family members who are less inclined to put pressure on their local, state and federal government officials to employ workers who will create the environment for private companies to be more productive with higher employment opportunities for everyone.

Warmaterial:
Alaye everybody wan tear race you dey here dey cap nonsense... Wait! Na Nigerians u dey tell about working long hours? Naim be say u no understand Nigerian spirit.

What is the point of this Nigerian spirit when it doesn’t translate into a country that is good enough for the people to stay in and thrive?

What is the missing part of the puzzle

anonimi:
Neo-black Problem: Must Blacks Be Ruled by Whites in Order to Prosper?

In short, the neo-black dilemma may be framed as follows: is it better to live under white rule without political dignity but with basic life-sustaining standards for many;

or to live under black rule with illusory political dignity and without basic life- sustaining standards for the majority?
@
@
The path forward for Africa lies in cultivating higher and adequate levels of personal and communal agential integrity as well as full personal responsibility and productivity. Not to mention creativity (including epistemic creativity), productive justice (such as merit and freedom), harmony and reconciliation at local and international levels, and a proper domestication of capitalism and other related values and institutions.

Africa must stop wasting her time on dreams of socialism because it is a system of wealth distribution primarily. Whereas, capitalism is a system of wealth creation primarily, and wealth has to be produced before it can be distributed.

https://www.thisdaylive.com/index.php/2024/10/12/neo-black-problem-must-blacks-be-ruled-by-whites-in-order-to-prosper/

Gerrard59:
Interesting thing is that OP has studied, lived and worked in the UK for a long time. While there, he was able to raise funds that he now invests in Nigeria. So while the writeup is in order, the last paragraph is very hypocritical. Just like the one on TwitterNG who criticised high level Nigerians working at entry level roles at no-name companies in the UK when they could build $100m businesses in Nigeria. Only for him to be discovered to have pursued a PhD in the US and obtained a Green Card.

Whether that's is witchcraft or not is yet to be studied.

Its clearly a case of preaching cruelty to those knocking on a door you journeyed through by mercy. Pure Elitist traits