Post-Migration Poverty Structures and Pentecostal Churches’ Social Services in Nigeria

Abstract

Many migrants who are pulled from their culture and traditional homes for the purpose of getting 'greener pastures' end up without realizing such motives. They become poorer, as they lose their old means of livelihood and, are also unable to find the desired better alternative. This is a ubiquitous experience in Nigerian cities. The teeming population of post-internal-migrant Nigerians makes the society vulnerable to low human development index and deviant behaviours. This is part of what makes poverty a social pathology of society. Apart from government programmes churches, especially the Pentecostal paradigms respond to poverty conditions of their followers through social services heralded in the wholesome presentation of the Christian message. In specifics, the churches' programmes towards poverty alleviation are the provision of education and healthcare facilities and services, Pentecostal empowerment, skills development through prosperity ministry and business seminars, charity and welfare schemes, religious networking of members, corporate investment and employment, loan facilities etc. These social services and social ministry contribute in no small measure to ameliorating poverty hassles of Christians, especially in the urban centres where the post migrant poor fall back on such facilities for survival and adaptation.