If you scan through the CIA’s World Factbook (a website open to the public) entry on Nigeria, you find data that paints an interesting picture of the emerging African nation. It has a very young population with low life expectancy rates (for men, life expectancy is 52 years, for women it’s 54.) Compare those rates to the U.S., where life expectancy is 77 for men, 82 for women. The Gross Domestic Product per person there is about $5,000. In the U.S., it is about 11 times as much.
So there are perhaps a number of reasons why a person might want to move from Nigeria to the U.S. Although we don’t know why a Louisville restaurateur moved from Lagos, Nigeria, to our city, we do know from a WFPL report that she is happy as an immigrant entrepreneur and that Funmi’s Cafe is doing well.
Owner Funmi Aderinokun talks about she and her husband have found a home here in Louisville after moving to Kentucky from the Nigerian capital back in
Aderinokun is far from the only immigrant entrepreneur in the commonwealth. According to think tank New American Economy, there are more than 7,000 immigrant businesspeople in Kentucky who generated more than $300 million in income in 2014.
On March 21, immigrants and communities across the U.S. celebrated Cities’ Day Of Immigration Action, in which mayors observed the contributions of immigrants to urban areas nationwide.
Aderinokun says she will mark her seventh year of business this December. She and her husband’s journey to American business life began back in 2003 when he won “a visa lottery” back in Nigeria. The couple first moved to Houston, Texas, but said the much bigger metro area was not to their liking.
She says they have fallen in love with Louisville and that the warm receptions she, her husband and her business have received have made them feel like they are part of a big family.
It’s the kind of glowing success story that so many immigrants want to be a part of. Contact Vickerstaff Law Office to discuss your immigration hopes and dreams and how we can help them come true.
