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

Richard Serbeh,Prince Osei-Wusu Adjei,Thomas Yeboah

doi:10.3844/jssp.2016.42.54

Richard Serbeh, Prince Osei-Wusu Adjei + Show 1 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3844/jssp.2016.42.54

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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.

Highlights

Migration and poverty reduction have become one cardinal policy issue in developing countries
While making generalizations of the levels of internal migration is complicated on the basis of few case studies from developing countries on internal migrants, there is compelling evidence to suggest that neoliberal stabilisation and adjustment policies that were implemented in the 1980s under the auspices of the Bretton Wood institutions has engendered high mobility flows of people living in rural economies who seek to diversify their livelihood portfolios and move to nearby trade and buoyant economies (Deshingkar and Grimm, 2005)
There is a persuasive argument for analysing the nexus of internal migration and poverty reduction in specific local context

Summary

Introduction

Migration and poverty reduction have become one cardinal policy issue in developing countries. Internal migrants far outnumber international migrants, scholarship in the migration field seems to have focused much attention on international migration This is perhaps due to the increasingly huge amount of remittances from international migrants to their home countries and its implications for poverty and human development. While making generalizations of the levels of internal migration is complicated on the basis of few case studies from developing countries on internal migrants, there is compelling evidence to suggest that neoliberal stabilisation and adjustment policies that were implemented in the 1980s under the auspices of the Bretton Wood institutions has engendered high mobility flows of people living in rural economies who seek to diversify their livelihood portfolios and move to nearby trade and buoyant economies (Deshingkar and Grimm, 2005). There is a persuasive argument for analysing the nexus of internal migration and poverty reduction in specific local context

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