Nigerian immigrant women’s entrepreneurial embeddedness in Ghana, West Africa

Abstract

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to highlight the role of female immigrant entrepreneurs generally and more specifically Nigerian women entrepreneurs in Ghana, West Africa. Design/methodology/approach This is a qualitative research that draws on a broad-based research on Nigerian men and women immigrants’ entrepreneurship in Ghana. Face-to-face interviews with six women in the study are analysed here to provide insights into their motivations for and embeddedness of their entrepreneurship activities in Ghana. Findings The women’s entrepreneurship activities lend themselves to the mixed embeddedness argument in two ways: first is their ethnic embeddedness, and second their embeddedness in informality and policy framework. Also, all the women work in very trying circumstances and thus display what can be described as a “daring entrepreneurship” drive. Practical implications This paper is positioned at the intersection of ethnic embeddedness, informality and daring entrepreneurial drive by migrant women. Originality/value The paper provides an unprecedented and a refreshing account on the entrepreneurship and operational pathways of women in the margin of the global economy.

Nigerian Immigrants as ‘Liminars’ in Ghana, West Africa: Narratives on Mobility, Immobility and Borderlands

“…The bigger research project sought to qualitatively investigate the embeddedness dimension of Nigerian immigrant entrepreneurs in Ghana, in the sub-regional economic community structure ECOWAS, and in the transnational context both within West African states and others. The fieldwork lasted 7-months in 2015, and was intensive and multi-sited (Antwi Bosiakoh, 2017b), employing a range of qualitative data gathering strategies including in-depth interviews, observations and market conversations with 41 Nigerian entrepreneurs about their entrepreneurial activities in the country. The choice of a qualitative approach in this article is a reflection of the larger project’s methodological concern to make participants become narrators of their lived experiences.…”

“…Though there is a long history of Nigerian presence in Ghana (Antwi Bosiakoh, 2009; Arhin, 1979; Eades, 1994; Peil, 1974), there is no uniformity on the existing statistics, just like their counterparts around the world. Nonetheless, it suffices to note that the Nigerian immigrants in this study are an important part of the growing Nigerian presence in Ghana (Antwi Bosiakoh, 2017a,b; Akinyoade, 2015) and a key part of the estimated 5.2 million Nigerians living in other countries around the world (Orozco and Mills, 2007). According to some sources (see for example Olatuyi et al, 2013) as many as 5% of all Nigerians in the diaspora live in Ghana, making Ghana the third top destination for Nigerian migrants in the global south following Sudan and Cameroon, and the fifth destination in the world including the US and UK (Antwi Bosiakoh, 2017b; Olatuyi et al, 2013).…”

“…Nonetheless, it suffices to note that the Nigerian immigrants in this study are an important part of the growing Nigerian presence in Ghana (Antwi Bosiakoh, 2017a,b; Akinyoade, 2015) and a key part of the estimated 5.2 million Nigerians living in other countries around the world (Orozco and Mills, 2007). According to some sources (see for example Olatuyi et al, 2013) as many as 5% of all Nigerians in the diaspora live in Ghana, making Ghana the third top destination for Nigerian migrants in the global south following Sudan and Cameroon, and the fifth destination in the world including the US and UK (Antwi Bosiakoh, 2017b; Olatuyi et al, 2013). The migration of these Nigerians to Ghana is predicated on the sub-regional economic governance structure; that is, the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), with protocols and regulations seeking to engineer free movement of people and goods.…”

Guest editorial

“…While Orser et al ’s (2018) paper has been reprinted specially for this special issue, the remaining papers offer original research that collectively demonstrate the remarkable range and depth of the women’s entrepreneurship research field. Antwi Bosiakoh and Williams Tetteh (2019) explore the experiences of Nigerian women entrepreneurs in Ghana, positioning their detailed qualitative analysis within the mixed embeddedness framework. While interest in migrant entrepreneurship has grown in recent years, research studies have often focused on the experiences and adaptations of migrant men from the global south moving to the developed economies of Europe and North America.…”

“…While interest in migrant entrepreneurship has grown in recent years, research studies have often focused on the experiences and adaptations of migrant men from the global south moving to the developed economies of Europe and North America. Antwi Bosiakoh and Williams Tetteh (2019) subtly invert migration stereotypes while demonstrating that mixed embeddedness can be applied with great effect to migrant women moving from one part of the global south to another. Shifting the lens of global migration toward a gendered, globalsouth immigrant entrepreneurial reality, their in-depth accounts reveal both the vicissitudes endured and the daring entrepreneurial drive of female migrants "on the margin of the global economy."…”