Ghanaian Mobilities, Intersecting Inequalities and

Transnational Activities

By: Leander KandiligeSupported by the Royal Geographical Society (with the Institute of British Geographers) with a Postgraduate

Research Award

Research site

WHY?

• Research on movement from global South to North• Remittance-development nexus in sending states

(Testas, 2002; de Haas, 2003; Stark and Wang, 2002)• Why migrants are interested in transnational activities

(Manuh, 1998; Smith and Guarnizo, 1998; Vertovec and Cohen, 1999; Faist, 2000; and Itzigsohn, 2000)

• But no link between intrinsic inequalities, mobilities and transnational activities

Methods

UK

• Scoping exercise (20 respondents)

• 20 In-depth interviews• 120 surveys among two

communities• Ethnographic study (8

months)

GHANA

• 364 Surveys (247 in Eastern region and 117 in Upper East region) among head of households

• 20 in-depth interviews• Ethnographic study (3

months)• Secondary data from

BOG , GSS and GNA

Inequality and mobility

• Ecology and natural resources

• Colonial policies• Lack of political will• Poverty and illiteracy • Pattern of mobility

• Socio-cultural differences

• Established social structures and hometown associations

• Investment behaviour of migrants

Migration and livelihood outcomes

• Living standards

a) Education

b) Health

c) Employment

d) Electricity and Water

• Income distribution

a)Greater income inequalities in the Upper East than Eastern region

Geographic Scale of Analysis

• Whose development is it anyway?

The Housing conundrum

The Migrant Ghost Villas

General Housing arrangements, Upper East Region

Emerging migrant influence

Conclusions and missing links