Cross-Border Migration of Itinerant Immigrant Retailers in Ghana

Abstract

A few studies in West Africa describe the state of borders, particularly their poorly governed and porous nature. This study strove to add to the scant literature by assessing the cross-border migration patterns (modes of travel and routes of entry) of seven hundred and seventy-nine (779) West African itinerant immigrant retailers in the Accra Metropolitan Area of Ghana. The study was cross-sectional and adopted the concurrent nested mixed methods research approach. Interview schedule and interview guide were used to collect the data for analysis. The Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) version 21 was used to analyse the quantitative data. The results show that most of the immigrants travelled to their destination (Ghana) by land, using buses and mostly through unapproved routes. Immigrants without travel documents and those who regarded border officials as extortionists were amongst those who mostly travelled through unapproved routes. Statistically, significant relationships were found between routes of entry and key demographic variables such as country of origin, gender, and marital status. It emerged that immigrants who were unmarried men and those from Togo, Burkina Faso, Niger, and Nigeria have the highest odds of migrating to the destination through unapproved routes. The study recommends that government through the Ghana Immigration Service should roll out effective border surveillance to ensure the orderly and regular migration of immigrants into the country. Also, any migration management policy which aims at stemming the current migration trend should be contextualised by taking into account the background characteristics of the immigrants involved.