Social Networks and the Geographies of Young People’s Migration: Evidence from Independent Child Migration in Ghana

Abstract

Social networks play an important role in shaping major aspects of migratory decisions and outcomes. Adopting an approach, which focused on both before and after stages of migration, this paper examines the value of social networks to the migration of young people by drawing on the experiences of independent child migrants in Ghana. In this paper, we argue that, prior to migration, social networks significantly shape children’s migration trajectories largely through information dissemination on potential destinations and therefore may partly explain the clustering of migrants in certain urban spaces. Besides, through provision of financial resources, such networks account for who migrates and stays put. After migration, social networks by serving as a channel of information flows, enhancing access to jobs and providing informal insurance cover shape major outcomes of young people’s migration. Successful socioeconomic integration of young migrants is a product of membership of village associations. However, social networks do not always engender positive livelihood outcomes due mainly to composition and reciprocity characterising interactions among network actors.