Migration of humans is referred to as any movement by them from one place to another, often over long distances or in large groups.
Migration happens within regions, countries or outside countries. In Ghana like any developing country, there is internal migration by rural dwellers to urban centres despite its attendant problems.
In the past, males dominated the migration trend flowing from their traditional roles as breadwinners, now that has changed. I
t is said that relative economic prosperity in the 1960’s in Ghana, made her a destination country for nationals from neighbouring countries.
Yet, by late 1970s and 80s, economic decline and stagnation compelled Ghanaians to move out. It was aggravated by bad governance, particularly under military regimes. By 1980s migration had become a coping strategy for individuals and families.
Majority of Ghanaians migrated to countries within the sub-region such as Nigeria. Others also found themselves in Europe.
Men who were supposed to be heads of families migrated for years, leaving children and wives behind.
But as both men and women began sharing economic roles the trend changed.Approximately 175 million people, or 2.9% of the world’s population, currently live temporarily or permanently outside their countries of origin.
This figure includes migrant workers, permanent immigrants, and refugees and asylum seekers but it does not account for the growing irregular or undocumented movement that characterizes migration.
Female migration has important implications for development but still receives little attention in developing countries like Ghana.
It involves both the unskilled and semi-skilled from rural to urban areas mainly for economic reasons.
Increased poverty, deterioration and inadequate social services such as health and education, imbalances in development, distribution of social services and infrastructure have often been cited as determinants of migration.
Others include lack of employment opportunities and employable skills.The different types of migration include temporary, permanent, illegal, labor and conflict-induced migration.
A United Nations report on women and migration argues that the impact of women’s status and roles on their tendency to migrate must be considered at three levels: individual, familial, and societal.
Individual factors include age, birth order, race/ethnicity, urban/rural origins, marital status (single, married, divorced, widowed), reproductive status (children or no children), role in the family (wife, daughter, mother), position in family (authoritative or subordinate), educational status, occupational skills/training, labor force experience, and class position.
Family factors include size, age/sex composition, life-cycle stage, structure (nuclear, extended, etc.), status (single parent, both parents, etc.), and class standing. Societal factors include community norms and cultural values that determine whether or not women can migrate and, if they can, how (i.e., labor or family reunification) and with whom (alone or with family).
Immigration laws and regulations of the country of destination also influence the migration of women and men. T
hese policies can influence the ability of women and men to migrate in three ways. First, the migration policies of many receiving countries totally assume a “dependent” status for women and an “independent” migrant status for men. Women are often classified by their relation to men (e.g., wife or daughter) with whom they migrate regardless of their own, independent status.
Traditional sex roles regarding the place of women in society influence the type of work for which migrant female labor is recruited.
Women admitted as workers are generally concentrated in “female” occupations, such as domestic service or nursing. Domestic workers and workers in the sex trade, for example, may enter countries under the auspices of organized intermediaries, although not part of the policies of the countries of origin and destination.
Men and women may be treated differently in a receiving country. While migration has lead to an improvement in the social status of women, it has not change their relative position within the family.
Gender is deeply rooted in determining who moves, how those moves take place. Migration in Africa is described as dynamic and extremely complex.
The traditional pattern of migration within and from Africa, which was male-dominated, has increasingly become feminized.
This is reflected in the diversification of migration destinations and brain drain from the region. Now there is an increase in migration by women, who had traditionally remained at home while men moved around in search of paid work. Now women move independently to fulfill their own economic needs.
They are not joining a husband or other family members. Ghanaian women now engage in international migration and often leave their spouses at home to care for the children.
Female nurses and doctors have been recruited from Ghana are taking advantage of the better pay packages in the United Kingdom and United States to accumulate enough savings to survive harsh economic conditions at home.
The emigration of doctors and nurses from Ghana is occurring at a time when their services are urgently needed in the overstressed health sector and the implementation of the National Health Insurance Scheme, (NHIS).
It is important for policy makers concerned with migration to focus not only on the demographic, but also on the economic and social consequences of this trend on the productive sectors.
The relatively new phenomenon of female migration constitutes an important change in gender roles for Africa, creating new challenges for public policy.
The 2004 International Labour Conference noted that despite the positive experiences of migrant workers, a significant number face undue hardships and abuse in the form of low wages, poor working conditions, virtual absence of social protection and are denied freedom of association and workers’ rights. African migrants involve in risky ventures to gain entry into Europe.
They pass through Senegal to Spain by way of the Canary Islands. Others engage in life-threatening trips by hiding aboard ships, (stowaways) destined for Europe.
Unscrupulous agents exploit these desperate migrants with promises of passages to Italy, Spain, and France. However, most of these people end up stranded in Dakar, Libya and Morocco for years.
Most end up living in shacks, and some women give birth under these poverty-stricken conditions. Others loose their lives during dangerous attempts to cross the sea to Spain in rickety boats.
Among benefits of women migration include remittances to families left behind for subsistence, education and health as well as reduction in traditional division of labour.
A major negative consequence include increased vulnerability due to lowincomes for the unskilled in particular as they engage in menial and insecure jobs including sex work.
African policy makers face the urgent task of resolving the unemployment crisis in order to productively engage their teeming educated but unemployed young people.
This can only happen, when all stakeholders make concerted efforts to eliminate obstacles to sustainable development and political instability.
Furthermore, the role of migration in spreading HIV/AIDS should be re-examined critically. International organizations, human rights advocates, governments and NGOs are increasingly giving attention to the human rights aspects of migration, especially rights of migrants other than refugees and asylum seekers.
The appointment of a UN Special Rapporteur on the human rights of migrants is a manifestation of this new attention.
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