Migration, conjugal stability, and the endurance ethic among Nigerian immigrant families in the UK, US, and Canada

Abstract

Migration is one of the most consequential transitions a family can undergo, since it does not merely relocate individuals geographically but fundamentally restructures the social, relational, and cultural architecture of conjugal life. This study examines how migration shapes marital stability among Nigerian immigrant families in the United Kingdom, the United States, and Canada, using a mixed-methods design that combined survey data from one hundred and fifty Nigerian immigrant respondents with thematic analysis of ten in-depth interviews. Quantitatively, a statistically significant association between migration and marital stability was confirmed (chi-square = 24.67, p = .0001, Cramer's V = .41). Communication breakdown, financial stress, and emotional distance were the most commonly reported marital challenges; however, sixty per cent of respondents reported stable or very stable marriages, which points to the presence of meaningful protective resources within these families. Thematic analysis generated four themes, namely migration as simultaneous rupture and refuge, the endurance ethic as a gendered cultural framework, communication as marital currency, and adaptive resilience as a multi-source process. Drawing on ecological systems theory, the strengths-based perspective, and postcolonial feminism, the paper argues that the endurance ethic, understood as the asymmetric cultural norm that women must preserve marriages regardless of difficulty, is both a constraint and a stability resource that social work practitioners must engage with culturally and critically. Substantial implications for anti-oppressive social work practice with Nigerian immigrant families are discussed, including ecological assessment frameworks, culturally informed intervention during the transition period, and the development of social work education curricula that adequately reflect the complexity of Nigerian immigrant family life.