CMS Technical Paper Series, No. 3

Socio-Cultural Dimensions of Migration in Ghana

By

Mariama Awumbila

Osman Alhassan

Delali Badasu

Thomas Antwi Bosiakoh

Ernestina K. Dankyi

Globalization, enhanced by new communication technologies has intensified the global movements of not only people, but also goods, ideas and cultural practices in the last few decades. These movements have generated various forms of adaptation to new economic, political and socio-cultural environments, including relations that are forged with the existing populations. As migration has undergone a transformation suggesting a "new era of mobility", it has brought about changes in the lives of people in both source and destination countries with attendant risks and opportunities provided to the individual, places of origin and the host cities. From what used to be seen as a local phenomena, links between source and destination countries have resulted in a transnationalism in which migration is no longer seen as only a localized process.

Migrants are increasingly leading transnational lives, impacting the institutions that shape local economies and the environment both in their place of residence and in their home communities. However although many studies have been undertaken on migration in Ghana, missing from much of the debate has been the socio-cultural linkages including the social context within which migrants live, the complex dynamics of the social relationships among immigrants, their home and host societies, as well as the social safety networks in the migration process. In the light of these gaps, this technical paper provides an overview of the literature on the socio- cultural transformations brought about by the global movement of peoples from and into Ghana. The aim is to contribute to a trans-cultural and transnational understanding of migration, and the socio-cultural imperatives migration engenders. The paper focuses on three key aspects of the socio-cultural dimensions of migration, namely, migration, changing family relations and child care; youth migration, citizenship and integration and social capital and social safety networks in migration and how these have facilitated the migration process in Ghana.