ABSTRACT
Linkages are the social and material links and networks that
connect migrants to their places of origin. Linkages are employed by migrants
to sustain relations as well as improve the socio-economic status of their
places of origin. It is against this backdrop that the study sought to assess
origin-destination linkages as livelihood strategy among migrants from the
Northern, Upper East and Upper West regions of Ghana who are resident in the
Cape Coast Metropolis. To accomplish this, a descriptive cross-sectional survey
design involving quantitative and qualitative approaches were adopted for the
study. The study was grounded in four theories: The New Economics of Labour
Migration (NELM), Migration Networks Theory, Migration Systems Theory and
Social Exchange Theory. A sample size of 297 was derived from a population of
1,287 using Raosoft Calculator. A self-developed interview schedule and
interview guide were used for the data collection. The data were analysed with
both descriptive and inferential statistics such as frequencies and Chi-square.
The study revealed that majority of the migrants had some form of linkages with
their families at their places of origin. Some of these linkages included
attending funerals, cash remittances, non-cash remittances, communication and
child fostering. Further, the results showed that origin-destination linkages
influence migrants’ livelihoods both positively and negatively but the
positives influence far outweigh the negative ones. It was, therefore,
recommended that the various forms of origin-destination linkages be encouraged
among migrants.
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
Background to the Study
Human migration has existed since time immemorial (Bhawana,
2013). According to the 2015 Migration Report of the International Organisation
for Migration (IOM), there were 232 million international migrants and 740
million internal migrants in the world (IOM, 2015). This mobility can be
attributed to people’s quest for better and more secured livelihoods
(Waddington, 2003).
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural
Organisation (UNESCO) 2017, defines migration as the permanent or temporal
change in the usual resident of an individual from one geographical area to
another (www.unesco.org/shs/migration/glossary,
2017). For migration to take place, there should be a migrant (the
individual engaging in migration), an origin (where the individual is migrating
from) and a destination (where the individual is migrating to). Depending on
the characteristics of the origin and destination, migration patterns could be
classified as rural-rural, rural-urban, urban-urban and urban-rural. The
movement could be either voluntary (migrants) or involuntary (refugees, asylum seekers
and internally displaced persons). This movement is either within a country or
across international boundaries. Research has shown that more people migrate
within borders of their countries than across them (King, Skeldon, &
Vullnetari, 2008).
Livelihood, according to Chambers and Conway (1992),
comprises the capabilities, assets (including both material and social
resources) and activities required for a means of living. In simple terms,
livelihood is a way in which people make a living and build their worlds
(Whitehead, 2002). Migration serves as an important livelihood strategy for
most households in developing countries (Ellis, 2003; Mcdowell & Haan,
1997; Tanle, 2010; Tanle, 2015). For example, international migration to India
serves as a livelihood strategy for Nepalese through remittances from Nepalese
migrants (Poertner, Junginger, & Müller-Böker, 2011). Ghanaian health
professionals and other professionals emigrate to Europe for economic
improvement and educational attainment and this is also a form of livelihood
strategy since they are able to improve on their human as well as their
financial assets (Anarfi, Quartey & Agyei, 2010).
In addition, households may engage in migration through
putting together their resources (financial, advice, care-giving to migrants’
family left behind) so as to sponsor the migrant in order to increase their
access to assets and mediate risks (Ellis, 2003; Tacoli, 2002; Waddington,
2003). For instance, De Haan (2002) found that migrants in Bihar, India,
migrate to reduce the uncertainty of family income, and provide investment
funds.
Migration, thus, can be considered as a means of compensation
for lack of employment opportunities; reduction of pressure on household food
stocks; reduction in seasonal income variability, especially in the dry
seasons; and a means to raise food security through remittances in cash and in
kind, educational opportunities and availability of infrastructural development
(Goh, Arlini & Yen, 2016; Qin, 2016). This is probably through the linkages
migrants establish with their origin (Akkoyunlu, 2015).
Linkages are the social and material links and networks that
connect migrants to their places of origin (De Haas, 2007). Linkages could be
socio-cultural, economic (Akkoyunle, 2015) and political. Economic
linkage is conceptualised as any support (monetary and non-monetary) rendered
to migrants’ households or the migrants themselves. It includes remittances of
cash and non-cash from migrants to relatives or from relatives of migrants to
migrants and child fostering. Among the Moroccan migrants, for instance,
migrants build houses and settle in the urban centres and later bring in their
family members (who largely reside in the rural areas) to settle with them in
the urban centres (Jonsson, 2009). The most popular form of migrants’ linkages
with their places of origin is remittances (Ambrosius, 2016; De Haan &Yaqub,
2010). Sending remittances home by migrants increases their social prestige and
improves the wellbeing of their households (Poertner et al., 2011).
Social linkages involve belonging to social groups so that
migrants at destinations may still be committed to their places of origin in
many ways (Castles, De Haas, & Miller, 2014). Household and kinship
networks shape the movement of individuals by providing them with some
independence while at the same time retaining them within these networks (De
Haan et al., 2002; Waddington, 2003). Social networks make new migrants feel
like they are still at their places of origin though at a destination
(Waddington, 2003). In Surma Devi Samas (India), Bajhangi (Nepal) immigrants
provide services and security to the Bajhangi community in India and arrange
rituals to maintain and unite Bajhangi networks. Also, these immigrants have a
published document of all their households’ location in India (Poertner et al.,
2011).
Culturally, migrants attend funerals, marriage ceremonies and
festivities as a form of linkages. During these ceremonies and festivities,
migrants bring with them ‘life’ at the destination to their places of origin.
This is shown in their dressing, the type of food they eat and new
and improved ways of doing things (Akkoyunle, 2015; Cassiman, 2010).
The flow is not always from the destination to the origin
because there are also material and money transfers from families of migrants
from places of origin to migrants at destinations either within or across
national boundaries (Frayne, 2007; Mazzucato, 2009). But migrant linkages to
their places of origin include much more than these material exchanges from
destination. Other writers explore a variety of discrete behaviours beyond
remittances that link migrants to their places of origin. These discrete
behaviours are social, political, or economic in nature and they include
activities located both in the destination and the homeland (Gugler 2002;
Portes & Sensenbrenner 1993; Smith 2008; Trager 1998). Families of migrants
also remit cash and non-cash items to migrants at destination (Tanle &
Abane, n.d)
Some researchers have attempted to expand the definition of
remittances to include “social remittances,” which is the exchange between
migrants and sending communities of ideas, skills, and social obligations (Adam
& Page, 2005; Levitt 1998; Newland & Patrick, 2004). Researchers have
also studied more temporary aspects of migrant linkages, such as identities and
social spaces (Bryceson & Vuorela 2002; Wiles, 2008).
In Ghana, various patterns of migration have existed from
pre-colonial times through the colonial times and now to the post-colonial
time. However, rural-urban has been identified as the commonest form of
north-south migration (Anarfi & Kwankye, 2003; Cassiman, 2010). The
pre-colonial times saw crop farmers venturing into new farm lands and trade
activities between the north and the coastal regions. Migrating for trade
became popular during the colonial periods. Also, gold mines and farms in
the south attracted migrants from the Northern Territories. Currently, factors
that influence migration in Ghana include shortage of fertile land, emergence
and expansion of industries in the urban centres, urban-biased policies,
attractive wages and provision of transport and communication networks (Anarfi
& Kwankye, 2003; Awumbila & Ardayfio-Schandorf, 2008; Cassiman, 2010).
This study seeks to investigate origin-destination linkages as livelihood
strategy of migrants from the three northern regions (Upper East, Upper West
and Northern) resident in the Cape Coast Metropolis.
Statement of the Problem
Ghana is usually divided into a North–South dichotomy based
on development and for purposes of spatial comparison (Vanderpuye-Orgle, 2008).
The Greater Accra, Central, Volta, Western, Brong Ahafo, Ashanti, and Eastern
regions constitute southern Ghana while the Northern, Upper East, and Upper
West regions form Northern Ghana. North-South migration appears to be the most
visible and perhaps the most studied. This movement is triggered by factors
such as scarcity of fertile land, famine, social demands, unfavourable weather
conditions, ethnic conflicts, and under development of the northern sector
which can be traced to the British colonial policy of making the northern
sector a labour reserve for the south (Anarfi, Kwankye, Ababio, &Tiemoko,
2003; Awumbila & Ardayfio-Schandorf, 2008; Tanle & Awusabo-Asare,
2012).
Social networks, that is the presence of kinsmen in the
south, to some extent influence north-south migration. This makes integration
at destination easier and faster, confirming this assertion, Van De Geest
(2011), stated that one in every five people born in the north resides in the
south.
Over the years, studies on North-South Migration in Ghana
focused on causes, benefits, implications associated with migration, local
perception on migration, and livelihood status of migrant’s family at the
origin (Anarfi, et al, 2003, Tanle, 2010; Tanle & Awusabo-Asare, 2012; Van
Der Geest, 2010). For instance, a study conducted by Edwin and Glover (2016)
concluded that chronic poverty, inability of parents to play their roles,
increasing population and inadequate jobs in the rural areas as well as the
collapse of the extended family support system that served as a cushion against
disaster and odds serve as the motivating factors for north-south migration.
Other causes outlined by this study included lack of social amenities like
portable drinking water, paved streets and modern toilet facilities, and early
marriages for females especially.
similar study conducted by Anarfi, Awusabo-Asare and
Nsowah-Nuamah (2000) also identified that more females are pushed to the south
because of reasons such as early marriages. On the other hand, males are pushed
to the south in other to find means by which they can pay the dowry of their wives
(Anarfi et al, 2003).
Not many studies have been done on linkages that exist
between migrants at destination and their relatives at their places of origin.
A study by Tanle and Abane (n.d) concluded that there is some form of
interaction between permanent migrants from the three northern regions who are
resident at Obuasi and Techiman Municipalities and their close relations in the
north, and these forms of interactions have the potential of reducing poverty
and vulnerability in the Northern parts of the country.
Geographical distance also shapes patterns of mobility in
Ghana and, to some extent, can influence origin-destination linkages. Migrants
from Upper West and Upper East regions more often go to relatively nearby
regions of Brong Ahafo and Ashanti, rather than to the far distant regions of
the coastal belt (Ackah & Medvedev, 2012). The traditional destination
communities of migrants from the three northern regions are Greater Accra
(Accra) because it is the capital of Ghana, Ashanti (Obuasi) and Brong Ahafo
(Techiman) which can be traced to the colonial times for farming and mining
purposes (Ackah & Medvedev, 2012). Also, Greater Accra and Ashanti Regions
are the two most developed regions in Ghana noted for all modern
infrastructural facilities (GSS, 2012; Yendaw, Dakyaga, Tanle, &
Tampah-Naah, 2016).
The Central Region (Cape Coast) is noted for its crucial role
during the colonial times in the history of Ghana. It was once the capital of
the then Gold Coast until 1877. It had a long exposure with European trade and
it is also the hub of education. This has attracted and continues to attract
migrants from all over the country (GSS, 2013). With this background, the
current study sought to assess origin-destination linkages as livelihood
strategy of migrants from the northern sector of the country who are resident
in the Cape Coast Metropolis.
For more Population & Health Projects Click here
===================================================================
Item Type: Ghanaian Topic | Size: 133 pages | Chapters: 1-5
Format: MS Word | Delivery: Within 30Mins.
===================================================================
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.