Symbols of success: Youth, peer pressure and the role of adulthood among juvenile male return migrants in Ghana

Abstract

Independent youth migration is socially embedded in many African societies. While it is often exclusively perceived of as a process of intergenerational negotiation which leads to higher social positions after returning home, this article points out that peer influences play a major role in the process of decision-making of leaving and returning among young northern Ghanaian males. Juvenile migrants make little effort to generate means to enter into adulthood but struggle to return with modern goods. Rather than being a means of achieving adulthood, enjoying youth and gaining recognition among friends are the prevailing motives for going and returning.