Higher Education, Labour Migration, and Remittance Outflows: A Migration Lifecycle Analysis of Nigerian Migrants to the United Kingdom, 2021–2025

The United Kingdom–Nigeria migration corridor has expanded substantially since 2021, generating significant public and policy debate in both countries. Existing scholarship tends to evaluate the economic impact of this migration at a single point in time, focusing either on labour market contributions, tuition fee income, or remittance outflows without integrating these flows into a coherent temporal account. This article addresses that gap by proposing and applying a migration lifecycle framework to Nigerian entrants to the United Kingdom via study and work routes between 2021 and 2025. Drawing on human capital theory, the New Economics of Labour Migration, and balance of payments analysis, the framework identifies three analytically distinct stages: an entry stage characterised by substantial upfront inflows to the UK through tuition fees, visa charges, and the Immigration Health Surcharge; a transition stage in which migrants move from study to employment via the Graduate and Skilled Worker routes; and a settlement stage characterised by sustained remittance outflows to Nigeria. Integrating quantitative data from HESA, the Home Office, the ONS, the OECD, and the World Bank with published secondary sources, the article demonstrates that the UK is a net fiscal beneficiary of this corridor across the full lifecycle, while Nigeria bears formation costs that remittances only partially and indirectly compensate. The article further identifies a recursive dynamic in which settlement-stage remittances finance the education of subsequent migrant cohorts, rendering the corridor self-reproducing. Policy implications are drawn for both the United Kingdom's immigration framework and Nigeria's diaspora engagement strategy.