Internal Migration and Poverty Reduction: Rethinking the Debate on the North-South Movement in Ghana

Abstract

In the past few years the nexus that link internal migration and poverty reduction has been a subject of interest among researchers and policy makers. Internal movements constitute a major coping mechanism in poverty stricken areas although the evidence supporting this claim is equivocal. This paper critically examines the extent to which internal migration could acts as an important route out of poverty in areas where conventional poverty reduction policies have failed by drawing on empirical literature on the north-south movement in Ghana. We argue that internal migration may not be a silver bullet in the fight against poverty. This position is premised on two strands of thought. First, migrants may not always be able to improve upon their livelihood, earn income and leap-out of the malaise of poverty and the impact of remittances may not also be straightforward. Secondly, the very poor in the places where conventional development efforts have had limited success may not always have the wherewithal to move as migration is shaped inter alia by institutional, market and financial resources.

Analysis of livelihood activity amongst itinerant west African migrant traders in the Accra metropolitan area

“…These communities were Abeka, Ablekuma, Abossey Okai, Agbogbloshie, New Fadama, Lartebiokorshie, Sukura, Nima and Mamobi. (Antwi-Bosiakoh, 2009;GSS 2014;Serbeh et al, 2015). The snowballing technique was employed to generate a sample frame of 842 itinerant traders in the nine communities.…”

Assessing the Motivations for Migration Among West African Immigrants in Itinerant Retail Trading in Ghana

“…These communities were Abeka, Ablekuma, Abossey Okai, Agbogbloshie, New Fadama, Lartebiokorshie, Sukura, Nima and Mamobi. The role of these communities as major residential locations of itinerant West African migrant traders has similarly been confirmed by a number of studies (GSS, 2014;Serbeh et al, 2015;Yendaw et al, 2019). Considering the complexities in generating representative samples of mobile and hard to identify populatio ns like immigrants, the snowballing technique was adopted to create a sampling frame of 842 itinerant traders from the nine study sites outlined.…”

The prevalence and distribution of risk factors for depression and emotional mental disorders in the elderly in Indonesia

“…In traditional communities, family and kinship are important sources of social support for people to survive. According to Awumbila and Ardayfio-Schandorf (2008), a family's ability to survive depends on the ability to overcome social and economic limitations, such as living close to relatives and requiring children to help with work (Serbeh et al, 2015). Living with or close to the extended family has a high probability of receiving assistance.…”