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.
