Ghanaian Migration: Economic Participation

Abstract

This chapter explores the integration of Ghanaian migrants in the labour markets of the UK and the Netherlands, their economic investments back in Ghana, and their return and re-integration. It suggests that there are significant differences in the occupational trajectories of Ghanaian migrants in the UK and Netherlands, rooted both in different socio-economic characteristics of migrants moving to the two destinations, and in differences in the receiving contexts. Contrary to concerns expressed elsewhere about so-called `brain waste', data from the MAFE-Ghana survey suggests that in the UK at least, there has been some measure of occupational mobility over time, particularly amongst women. At the same time, as migrants have become more integrated, they have also increased their economic investments and ties with the home country. In contrast, the experience of return has been more ambivalent.