Graduate job imaginaries and labour precarity: The promise and limits of higher education and social mobility for rural Nigerians

This research contributes to the global understanding of employability debates, specifically, why graduates from rural and disadvantaged communities in Nigeria struggle to secure employment despite earning university degrees meant to enable social mobility. Drawing on 30 interviews and guided by Mamdani’s (1996) account of decentralised despotism and Bourdieu’s concepts of capital and habitus, it examines how place, social connections, and labour-market imaginaries of “success” shape who gets hired. Findings show that a degree alone rarely opens doors because opportunities are tied to proximity to cities, professional certifications, and informal networks that structure recruitment and referrals. Many rural graduates relocate, pursue extra credentials, and rely on “who you know” to compete, efforts largely invisible in education and employment policy. Rather than a skills gap, graduate precarity reflects spatialised inequalities that advantage urban and well-connected candidates. The article argues for spatial justice policies that widen pathways beyond metropolitan centres, reform recruitment transparency and redefine what counts as graduate work.