Livelihood activities of migrants from Ghana’s northern regions resident in the Obuasi and Techiman municipalities

Abstract

With migration being one of the strategies adopted for poverty reduction, livelihood activities of migrants have become a topic of particular interest. One of the key issues relates to whether at destination migrants maintain the same livelihood activities of their places of origin or they engage in entirely different ventures. Using the DFID Sustainable Livelihood Framework, the paper examines the livelihood activities of Ghanaians who migrate from the northern parts of the country to two municipal areas in the south. Some 508 migrants who were heads of households (HH) participated in the study in two selected municipalities. The results indicated that prior to migration, the main livelihood activity of the migrants had been agriculture but at destinations they were mostly engaged in non-agricultural activities such as petty trade, employment in the civil service, and working in the mining sector. It emerged that the background characteristics of the migrants, to a greater extent, influenced their choice of livelihood activities at destination. The differences in terms of livelihood activities engaged in at the places of origin and those at destination could be attributed to differences in ‘livelihood capitals’ and levels of socioeconomic development between the northern and southern parts of the country. The findings of this paper have implications for population distribution, occupational mobility and patterns of socioeconomic development across Ghana. Keywords: Livelihood activities, north-south migration, occupational mobility, Ghana