Finding a home away from home: Housing choices of itinerant immigrant retailers in the Wa municipality, Ghana

Abstract

Globally, cross‐border migration has become a common phenomenon as people search for social and economic prospects and opportunities. Intra‐regional migration and trade, as espoused in several treaties, are expected to encourage the movement of people, goods, and services across national borders. Among those involved in intra‐Africa migration are itinerant retailers who have been variously studied, albeit with little attention to their housing choices when they arrive in destination areas. This study draws evidence from Wa to examine the residential choices of itinerant immigrant retailers using a qualitative research approach via in‐depth interviews with 22 immigrants, eight landlords, and four informal rent agents. The itinerant immigrants were contacted at the Wa central market as well as their popular networking and relaxation spaces in town. The responses obtained from the interviews were categorised into themes and presented in narrations and quotations. The study found that itinerant immigrants preferred low‐income residential neighbourhoods close to the Central Business District that they secure through friends and relatives and informal rent agents. However, the housing units were generally bereft of basic amenities, and they face tenant‐landlord and tenant‐tenant conflicts over the payment of utility bills and home maintenance, as well as overpricing of rent by the informal rent agents. Efforts to regulate the activities of informal rent agents and petty landlords to provide minimal protection for immigrants should be the way forward in dealing with the challenges.

Perceived risks, challenges and coping strategies among West African immigrant entrepreneurs in Ghana

“…According to Refs. [ 17 , 19 , 34 ], the above disturbances continue to aggravate over period due to the multifarious nature of the legal and policy contexts in Ghana and the ECOWAS region. Within the sub-regional context, for instance, the promulgation of the Protocol on free movement in 1979 permits all persons in the West Africa region to move freely to any country of their choice without visa and to participate in any commercial activity without any unnecessary limitations.…”

“…According to these authors, informal itinerant immigrant traders usually work in open-air spaces characterised by diverse occupational health hazards (e.g., respiratory infections) that put their livelihoods and wellbeing in jeopardy [ 1 , 19 , 40 ]. They further contended that many immigrant retailers usually live and work in overcrowded dwellings with limited sanitary facilities and resources such as potable water, toilet facilities, and waste collection systems [ 17 , 19 , 43 ]. Consequently, many immigrant entrepreneurs according to Refs.…”

“…A review of the literature in the Ghanaian context reveal no recent academic publications on the perceived risks, challenges and coping strategies among West African immigrant entrepreneurs. Meanwhile [ 5 , 17 ], and [ 18 ] have established that the immigrant population in Ghana is clearly dominated by those employed in the informal retail sector. Therefore, this study analysed the perceived risk/challenges and coping strategies among West African immigrant entrepreneurs residing and working in the Accra Metropolis, the nation's capital as itinerant retailers.…”