Securitisation of Visa Regimes and Diplomatic Reciprocity: Socio-Economic Implications for Nigerians

This study examines how the securitisation of visa regimes and diplomatic reciprocity shape the international mobility and socio-economic opportunities of Nigerians. A structured qualitative critical review was undertaken using 20 scholarly sources published mainly between 2020 and 2026, supplemented by official visa and mobility statistics from the European Commission, the United Kingdom Home Office and ECOWAS. Sources were screened for direct relevance to visa governance, migration securitisation, diplomatic reciprocity, Nigerian or West African mobility, and socio-economic outcomes. The evidence was analysed thematically across six domains: security governance, diplomatic reciprocity, education, tourism, business and professional mobility. The review finds that security-based visa governance can differentiate access to legal mobility through nationality-based risk assessment, documentation demands, refusal decisions and policy changes. These effects may be amplified when visa policy becomes a tool of diplomatic response. Nigeria-specific evidence illustrates the scale of exposure: the Schengen short-stay visa refusal rate for applications lodged in Nigeria reached 45.9% in 2024, while UK policy changes were accompanied by a sharp decline in Nigerian sponsored-study visa grants between 2022 and 2024. The study argues for transparent, proportionate and evidence-based visa governance, stronger Nigerian migration diplomacy, and improved implementation of ECOWAS free-movement commitments.

visa securitisation; diplomatic reciprocity; international mobility; Nigeria; migration governance

1. Aniche, E. T. (2022). Borders, migration and xenophobic policies in West Africa: Contraventions of the ECOWAS free movement protocol, and the Ghana-Nigeria conundrum. Africa Review, 14(1), 24–47. [Google Scholar] [Crossref]

2. Avenda, B. T. (2025). Governance failure, Japa syndrome, and the Mediterranean migration crisis: A qualitative study of Nigerian migrants. Lead City Journal of the Social Sciences, 10(2), 45–60. [Google Scholar] [Crossref]

3. Bhanye, J., & Shayamunda, R. (2025). Migration, security, and the state: A critical review of the securitisation of migration in Africa. In S. Duma & R. Mashimbye (Eds.), Security-Development Nexus in Africa: Progress Towards the Agenda 2063 and Sustainable Development Goals (pp. 191–224). UJ Press. https://doi.org/10.64449/9781997468233-08 [Google Scholar] [Crossref]

4. ECOWAS. (n.d.). Directorate of Free Movement of Persons, Migration & Tourism. Economic Community of West African States. https://www.ecowas.int/directorate/directorate-of-free-movement-of-persons-migration-tourism/ [Google Scholar] [Crossref]

5. European Commission. (2025, May 20). Visa applications reach 11.7 million in EU and Schengen associated countries. Directorate-General for Migration and Home Affairs. https://home-affairs.ec.europa.eu/news/visa-applications-reach-117-million-eu-and-schengen-associated-countries-2025-05-20_en [Google Scholar] [Crossref]

6. Givens, T. E. (2025). The securitization of immigration policy in Europe and the United States—the end of the migration state? Political Science Quarterly, qqaf049. https://doi.org/10.1093/psquar/qqaf049 [Google Scholar] [Crossref]

7. Home Office. (2024a). How many people come to the UK each year (including visitors)? Immigration system statistics, year ending June 2024. UK Government. [Google Scholar] [Crossref]

8. Home Office. (2024b, January 2). Tough government action on student visas comes into effect. UK Government. [Google Scholar] [Crossref]

9. Home Office. (2025). Why do people come to the UK? Study. Immigration system statistics, year ending December 2024. UK Government. [Google Scholar] [Crossref]

10. Jimoh, M. Y., & Akinbami, B. S. (2026). Migration governance and the transition from irregular to regular migration pathways in Nigeria. PLASU Journal of Environmental Sciences, 2(2), 108–127. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.20568730 [Google Scholar] [Crossref]

11. Laube, L. (2021). Diplomatic side-effects of the EU’s externalization of border control and the emerging role of “transit states” in migration diplomacy. Historical Social Research/Historische Sozialforschung, 46(3), 78–105. [Google Scholar] [Crossref]

12. Mégret, F. (2024). The travel visa as the ubiquitous legal infrastructure of everyday global mobility arbitrariness. German Law Journal, 25(8), 1265–1289. [Google Scholar] [Crossref]

13. Natter, K. (2024). The il/liberal paradox: Conceptualising immigration policy trade-offs across the democracy/autocracy divide. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, 50(3), 680–701. [Google Scholar] [Crossref]

14. Ochogwu, J. P., & Babatunde, O. A. (2023). Migration and Nigeria’s external relations: A trend analysis of its nature and dynamics in the last 60 years. In Nigerian Foreign Policy 60 Years After Independence (pp. 327–353). [Google Scholar] [Crossref]

15. Obikaeze, C. V., Efanodor-Obeten, O. H., & Inah, E. M. (2023). ECOWAS Protocol on Migration, porous borders and dynamics of armed banditry in Nigeria. Journal of Contemporary International Relations and Diplomacy, 4(2), 757–771. [Google Scholar] [Crossref]

16. Obikaeze, V. C., & Iloh, E. C. (2023). Post-colonial Nigerian state and complexities of irregular cross-border migration. Journal of Contemporary International Relations and Diplomacy, 4(2), 787–804. [Google Scholar] [Crossref]

17. Omotuyi, S., Apeloko, D. O., Bello, M. A., & Chukwudi, C. E. (2024). Visa-on-arrival, ECOWAS-free mobility and the securitisation of the intra-African migration in Nigeria. India Quarterly, 80(3), 421–438. [Google Scholar] [Crossref]

18. Pastore, F., & Roman, E. (2020). Migration policies and threat-based extraversion: Analysing the impact of European externalisation policies on African polities. Revue européenne des migrations internationales, 36(1), 133–152. [Google Scholar] [Crossref]

19. Seyfi, S., Hall, C. M., & Shabani, B. (2023). COVID-19 and international travel restrictions: The geopolitics of health and tourism. Tourism Geographies, 25(1), 357–373. [Google Scholar] [Crossref]

20. Teye, J. K. (2022). Critical migration policy narratives from West Africa. International Migration, 60(4), 73–84. [Google Scholar] [Crossref]

21. Teye, J., & Oucho, L. (2024). Policies towards migration in Africa. In The Palgrave Handbook of South-South Migration and Inequality (pp. 609–630). Palgrave Macmillan. [Google Scholar] [Crossref]

22. Ullah, A. A., Chattoraj, D., & Kathy, A. A. (2024). Mobility in a globalised world: How countries regulate mobility with passports and visas. Journal of Public Affairs, 24(3), e2932. [Google Scholar] [Crossref]

23. Vigneswaran, D. (2020). The complex sources of immigration control. International Migration Review, 54(1), 262–288. [Google Scholar] [Crossref]

• Impact of Foreign Direct Investment in India
• Issues Involved in Digitalisation Special Reference to Indian Tourism Growth
• Relationship Marketing and Customer Loyalty in the Fast-Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG) Industry in Nairobi County
• Financial Literacy or Financial Inclusion? Which is Which, What is What—To Achieve Uganda’s 10-Fold Economic Growth By 2040
• Harnessing Natural Gas for Economic Transformation: Overcoming the Regulatory and Infrastructural Bottlenecks in Nigeria