ABSTRACT
Development disparities between
the three northern regions of Ghana and their southern counterparts remain an
issue of grave concern since independence. The colonial administration promoted
the northern sector as a labour basket for the rich southern cocoa and timber industry
and mineral resources. Undoubtedly, this situation resulted in seasonal and
sometimes permanent migration of young people from the three northern regions
to the southern sector. Though the north-south migration in the country has
received much scholarly attention with respect to the causes and patterns of
these movements,
it is yet to be critically
examined in terms of its effects on the socio- economic well-being
of migrants and their dependants. Thus, the thesis investigates how migration
affects migrants‟ well-being.
The main objective of the study
is to determine the effects of migration on the well-being of migrants and
their dependants in Agbogbloshie. The specific objectives are to examine the effects of
migration on the income, education, housing and employment conditions of
migrants; to determine the effects of migrants‟ absence on their households in
their areas
of origin, to gain insight into the migration decision making process of these
young migrants and to explore the experiences of migrants in terms of the
challenges and successes from migrants perspective.
A mixed research design involving both quantitative and
qualitative methods of analysis was used in finding answers to the research
questions. The study found that the determinants of well-being; income,
education, employment, health, and housing have improved for migrants after
migration. The survey results revealed that migrants lived in congested and
unhygienic environments, whilst the work they engaged in posed a lot of risks
such as carrying very heavy loads and maneuvering between vehicles. On the
consequences of migration on source communities, the study found that migration
had a mixed effect on Yendi Municipality. Remittances were cited as the main
positive effect on migrants‟ households since it served as a source of
additional income that cushioned relatives in the lean season (June-July). Some
of the negative effects included the return of migrants with diseases and loss
of moral values on the part of the returned migrants.
The study recommends that the
development gap between the northern and the southern part of the country be
bridged so as to limit migration.
CHAPTER ONE
1.0 BACKGROUND TO THE STUDY
1.1 Overview of migration
Migration is a topic that every
individual has an opinion about whether a politician, artisan or the newspaper
vendor on the street, partly because the issues of migration are in the news
every day. People are also interested in migration issues because they affect
all aspects of lives ranging from socio-economic, cultural to political. The
consequences of migration could be direct or indirect on everybody and both
sending and recipient communities are affected by this in diverse ways. This
makes the analysis of migration very relevant and complex as well
(Hagen-Zanker, 2010).
Migration is defined broadly as a
permanent or temporary change of residence irrespective of the distance of the
move or the voluntary or involuntary nature of the act across administrative or
political boarder (International Organization for Migration (IOM), 2005).
According to Malmberg (1997), migration is a dynamic concept and should be
defined within the context of distance and time. In the case of international
migration, one has to cross a state‟s border. The measurement of international
migration as opposed to other forms of mobility like tourism is usually pegged
at one year in the recipient country (Malmberg, 1997; Cwerner, 2001; King, 2013).
In the case of temporal migration, the migrants eventually return to their
countries of origin, whilst permanent migrants may only pay visits to their
home countries. In a given country, a number of migration typologies may exist:
urban-urban migration, rural-urban migration, rural-rural migration,
urban-rural migration and these could be seasonal, temporal or permanent.
Migration therefore involves a
temporal or permanent change of residence from one geographical location to
another. Flowing from the above, migration can be categorized
into the following types: internal
versus external migration; voluntary versus involuntary migration and permanent
versus temporal migration (King, 2013). In this study, migration is used to
mean those movements which occur in a given country usually from the rural
areas to the urban centers. Specifically, the movement of people from the three
northern regions in Ghana to Agbogbloshie is the focus of this study. These
movements could be permanent or temporal, voluntary or involuntary. Who then is
a migrant in Agbogbloshie?
This study adopts the definition offered by Ghana Statistical Service (GSS).
According to GSS (2012), an internal migrant refers to an individual who leaves
his or her place of residence in a geographical location to another place
beyond six months.
Ever since the seminal work of
Ravenstein (Grigg, 1977), scholars from the disciplines of Economics,
Geography, Demography, Anthropology, Sociology and recently Development
Economics have explored various aspects of migration. Many have addressed the
issue in relation to the rationale for migrating (Sjaastad, 1962; Todaro, 1969;
Lucas and Stark, 1985), migration patterns (Lee, 1966), the determinants of
migration (Caldwell, 1968) and still others have looked at the welfare impacts
of these population movements (Falaris, 1987; Litchfield and Waddington, 2003;
Boakye-Yiadom, 2008). Also, the role of migrant remittances in poverty
reduction and economic development has been extensively explored (Deshingkar
and Grimm, 2005; Rosenzweig, 2005; Skeldon, 2008). It is not surprising that
Simmons, Diaz-Briquets and Laquian wrote four decades ago that:
The movement of people in
developing countries has been intensively studied, and in recent years the
results of these studies have been thoroughly reviewed. One needs good
justification for preparing yet another review... (Simmons et al, 1977: p5)
The abundance of research in the
field of migration has mainly focused on mobility between countries usually the
movement of people from developing countries to developed countries. This is
due to the perceived importance of the issue by richer countries with
significant attention on international remittances sent by migrants to
developing countries (Kapur, 2003; Ratha, 2003; Skeldon, 2008). In 2006, a
report by the United Nations (UN) on International Migration and Development
aptly captured the growing interest in migration and its role in economic
development in the following words:
The potential for migrants to help
transform their native countries has captured the imaginations of national and
local authorities, international institutions and the private sector. There is
an emerging consensus that countries can co-operate to create triple wins for
migration, for their countries of origin and for the societies that receive
them (UN, 2006, p6).
In the ensuing discussion, I
explore the general question of why people migrate from a theoretical point of
view.
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