ABSTRACT
The study examines the transnational practices and activities of Nigerian immigrants in Ghana. Specifically, the study explores factors that influence their migration, economic activities they engage in as well as the effect of transnationalism on the host country. The research design that was adopted was a mixed method. The sample size was made up of 70 respondents selected through stratified sampling procedure. Instruments were questionnaires and in-depth interview guide. The quantitative data were analysed using SPSS and the qualitative through the use of thematic analysis. The results show that most of the respondents were engaged in the trade sector with businesses such retailing, restaurant and hospitality industry. Its effect was positive since section of the respondents were able to acquire properties back home and remit to their families. In terms of integration, the outcome was positive since most rely on associations. The overall effect on the host country was largely positive since it created employment and contributed to the tax system. It is concluded that transnational activities and practices of respondents in Ghana brought variety for consumers and provided avenue in the trade sector. Based on the findings, it is recommended that policymakers should formulate policies that would position Ghana in a way to explore the benefits these immigrants bring to the trade sector without any future repercussions.
CHAPTER ONE
Introduction
Migration is an enduring theme of human history and is considered one of the defining global issues of the twenty-first century. In Ghana, as in other parts of Africa, migration is largely informal and undocumented, making accurate data on the phenomenon extremely scant. Despite this lack of data, the literature points to a long history of population mobility with migration playing a central role in the livelihood and advancement strategies of both rural and urban populations.
Migrant’s identification has changed over time, which is facilitated by technological advancement as well as globalization, generational researchers saw migrants as people who left home and country and found it difficult to integrate into the new environment (Handlin 1973). The earlier conception of migrants does not hold at the contemporary era, rather immigrants’ diary life and activities are dependent on multiple states, and across the national border to which modern researchers termed it transnationalism (Glick Schiller et al., 1992).
Studies have shown that for many decades, a country of net immigration, where the number of people entering far surpassed the number leaving, the country saw a reversal of migration trends from the late 1960s with a decline in the economy, coupled with political instability and Ghana became a country of net emigration. Since the last two decades, however, new migration dynamics have emerged in Ghana with globalization, shifts in the global political economy, as well as from the economic and political stabilization of the country. These have brought about increasing diversity and complexity not only in internal mobility patterns but also in international movements, thus making Ghana to simultaneously experience internal migration, immigration, transit migration and emigration both within and outside Africa.
Ghana is located in West Africa and shares boundaries with three countries, Cote d’Ivoire in the West, Burkina Faso in the North and Togo in the East. It shares a frontier in the South with the Gulf of Guinea. The country’s population in 2000 was 18,845,265 (GSS, 2002). It was estimated to be 23 million in 2007 (PRB, 2007) and currently stands at 23.9 million (PRB, 2008). With a land area of 238,537 sq. km, Ghana is administratively divided into 16 regions as of February 2019 and sub-divided into a total of 230 districts. In line with the decentralization policy of the government, district assemblies were established in 1988 and charged with the implementation of national policies related to governance, education, health and agricultural development at the local level, contextualized to suit local priorities and needs. The country has had both military and civilian Administrations since independence and is currently under a democratic government.
Such migrations led to socio-economic change. According to Addo (1968) over five decades ago, migrants influenced socio-economic change by making their skills available where they were most needed, by bringing new sense of values and new modes of economic behavior into established enterprises, by introducing new skills into the economic life of the receiving areas, and sometimes by opening up the possibility of profitable investment in the areas where they lived. Addae-Mensah (1983) added migrants’ influence is effecting change in their destinations. He suggested in the case of farmers in Wassa-Amenfi district that, they commanded control over property especially of large farms of cash crops and other foodstuff in the area.
Ghana and Nigeria have strong Diplomatic ties and bilateral trade between Ghana and Nigeria have been on-going for the past 50 years, specifically the trading in various goods and services. However, the relationship between the two countries has, in some instances, been volatile despite close cultural ties and diplomatic relations mainly due to immigration-related issues. However, according to Otoghile and Obakhedo (2011), it is argued that the foreign policy
direction of Nigeria toward Ghana has been a reflection of the preferences of the ruling elite. There has been a lack of consistency in the application of trade laws between the two countries leading to trade-related problems arising. A related recent study has shown that the cordial relationship between Ghana and Nigeria suffered a setback from 2007 to 2009 and again in 2012 when some of the businesses owned by Nigerians in Ghana were closed by the Ghanaian authorities for alleged non-compliance with the 1994 investment laws, which place restrictions and prohibits non-Ghanaians from engaging in retail trade and related business. The reason behind these trade-related problems is the constant protest of local businessmen (Ademola, 2016).
Statement of the problem
Transnationalism refers to the diffusion and extension of social, political, economic processes in between and beyond the sovereign jurisdictional boundaries of nation-states (Robbins, 1998). Transnationalism has attracted attention in the field of scholarship ranging from migration studies, social movement studies, feminist sexuality studies, as well as diaspora studies (Derya & Ozkul, 2012). A lot has been done on transnational practice around different geographical locations including Caribbean and Filipino whom process of settlement at the new home foster transnational practices (Nina Glick Schiller et al) let alone transnationalism in a refugee context whereby Iraq Arabs and Assyrians in the UK are practicing transnationalism through the refugee relationship with their origin country (Ellen & Wight, 2000).
Despite the obvious dominance of internal migration in the early period, international migration also occurred, albeit at a minimal level. While migration out of Ghana involved few people, mostly students and professionals to the United Kingdom as a result of colonial ties (Anarfi, et al. 2000; Anarfi, et al. 2003) and other English-speaking countries such as Canada (see Owusu, 2000), migration to Ghana was visible and clear and its documentation dates back
to the pre-colonial period. Rouch (1954) for instance mentions Wangara migrants in Ghana in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries while Peil (1974) also highlights migrant labourers and workers who came into the country with the development of cocoa farming, mines, and railways in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Peil also contends for instance that ‘at one period, British boats stopped regularly on the Kru coast of Liberia to pick up workers for the Gold Coast harbours and mines’ (Peil, 1974: 368). The result of these was that, in the case of commerce, traders of foreign origin were well established in market centers of Ghana’s north and in Kumasi by the beginning of the colonial era. Sutton (1983) corroborates Peil’s assertion and argues that, with very little from the north of Ghana and virtually none from the south, much of the labour force in Ghana’s mines in the early twentieth century were from neighboring West African countries of Liberia, Sierra Leone and Nigeria (See also Beals and Menezes, 1970; Harvey and Brand, 1974).
After its independence, Ghana’s relative affluence compared to her neighbours continued to attract migrants (Antwi-Bosiakoh, 2008). A rise in employment opportunities, the development of industry and higher wages, especially in urban areas, made the Ghanaian economy attractive and therefore induced not only rural-urban migration but sub-regional migration as well. This migrant-receiving status was strengthened by Nkrumah’s foreign policy, which, among other things was geared towards the promotion of Pan-Africanism. This made Ghana conscious of her role in the independence of the rest of Africa (Brydon, 1985).
According to Brydon, a number of African freedom fighters and Pan-Africanists entered the country, describing it as ‘a haven’ and ‘Nkrumah’s promulgation of a country-wide policy of universal primary education at that time earned the country a reputation as a civilized state’ (Brydon, 1985:569). In the 1960 census, for example, immigrants accounted for 12 percent of the enumerated population.
Migrants from other African countries constituted 98 percent of the foreign-born population (Anarfi, et al., 2000; 2003). Some sources suggest that, by 1969, when many ‘aliens’ were expelled, Ghana’s alien community constituted about 2 million out of its population of about
8.4 million (cf. Antwi Bosanko, 2008). Clearly, Ghana had assumed the status of a net immigration country and they impacted in the Ghanaian economy. It is also a cross-sectional study in which one-shot data were used for analysis and to understand the subject matter and the main theme of this study. Additionally, the study was mainly a quantitative one. However, some open-ended questions were included to qualitatively understand some issues concerning the subject matter under study. Thus, the study is pure research for academic purposes but the findings are of immense importance to the organization studied. It is a non-experimental study. In the migration literature, a little has been researched of transnational practices among Nigerians living in Ghana especially their cultural practices and socio-economic dimensions that constitute transnationalism and activities that are applicable for operating between more than one nation-state, and I will research that.
Objectives of the study
The study seeks to examine the transnational practices and activities of Nigeria immigrants in Ghana.
Specific objectives
The specific objectives of the study were to:
- Explore their migration processes and factors that motivated them to choose Ghana as a destination country
- Explore the economic activities that Nigerian immigrants in Ghana engage in
- Assess the effects of transnational practices on the host country (Ghana)
- Find out how Nigerian immigrants in Ghana navigate their way to live in Ghana.
Research Questions
The nagging questions that translated into the main research questions were:
- What are the motivating factors that influence migrant’s choice of destination?
- Which economic activities do Nigerian immigrants engage in?
- What are the effects of transnational practices on the host country (Ghana)?
- How do Nigerian immigrants in Ghana navigate their way to live in Ghana?
Significance of the study
This study will help the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ghana Immigration Service and other stakeholders in Ghana understand the factors that cause the high rate of migration of Nigerians to Ghana. This will help them formulate policies that will control this influx but will not contravene with international treaties on the free movement of goods and services between Nigeria and Ghana. The study will also help profile the activities of Nigerian immigrants in Ghana (Madina, in the Greater Accra Region) and know how to streamline these activities so they will not break international protocols and national laws in Ghana. Additionally, the study will unravel the processes Nigerians pass through to come to Ghana, and how they live in the country, as well as brought to light the mutual benefit between Ghana and Nigeria which is facilitated by transnationalism.
