The overwhelming motivation for millions of migrants is the hope of finding suitable employment, improving their own lives and the lives of their families. Migration is also a frequent response to situations where livelihoods are threatened by insecurity, institutional weakness, ethnic and religious discrimination and repeated disasters.
Over the last 25 years, the number of international migrants has doubled, bringing both challenges and opportunities for their host and home countries. International migrants numbered 191 million in 2005; 115 million lived in developed countries and 75 million in developing countries.
Ghanaian emigration has developed from a period of economic crisis in the country, occurring from the 1960s to the early 1990s, and has continued as the economy has started to recover (Van Hear, 1998). Although net emigration rates from Ghana are rather low in comparison with other countries in the region (Zlotnik, 1999) – partly as a result of both immigration from neighboring states and the return of around a million Ghanaian nationals from Nigeria following their expulsion in 1983 (Brydon, 1985) – as many as 10- 20 per cent of Ghanaian nationals were nonetheless living abroad in the 1980s and early 1990s (Pell, 1995).
Relevant statistics suggest that young people under age 30 today compose the largest group of international migrants (32-39 million). However, young people continue to remain invisible and neglected in this phenomenon, despite the multidimensional impact of migration on young people. Youth migration, in particular, has become the subject of great controversy. On the one hand, there is concern over the apparent ‘brain drain’ in the developing world, as well-educated young people leave their home countries, attracted by improved educational and career prospects in the West. However, according to a recent UNICEF report, while “children and young people are big stakeholders, little attention has been given to young people in the international debate on migration.”
International migration has enormous economic, social, and cultural implications in both origin and destination countries. As per a report of the Global Commission on International Migration and Development by the former UN Secretary-General, Mr. Kofi Annan, “Migration in the context of globalization has not only created challenges and opportunities for societies throughout the world; it has also underscored the ‘clear linkage between migration and development, as well as the opportunities for co-development.” The report further emphasizes that international migration should be an integral part of the national, regional, and global strategies for economic growth, in both the developing and developed world. It highlights the role of migrants and Diaspora associations in making financial and other investments in their homeland, thereby strengthening the economy, serving as conduits for new ideas, and enriching the understanding between both countries of origin and countries of destination.
Remittances, money that migrants earn abroad and send home, are a potentially significant force for poverty reduction. Recorded monies sent home by migrants from developing countries are estimated to be $206 billion in 2006. Unrecorded flows can add another 50 percent to this monetary amount. President John Agyekum Kufuor has acknowledged the significant contributions Ghanaians abroad are making towards the sustenance of the national economy through their remittances, which were estimated to have hit an all-time record of 7- 8 billion dollars at the end of 2006. The importance of migrants’ remittances in Ghana is demonstrated by the rapid increase and proliferation of money transfer institutions in the country.
In recent times, there has been an increasing concern over migration, remittances and development in Ghana. The recently cabinet-approved Migration Unit to be set up by the Ministry of the Interior to develop a migration policy framework is a clear indicator of this concern. The country has suffered especially from the brain drain in the health and education sectors. Migration is considered an integral part of livelihood strategies for most families and people in Ghana, yet information on migration flows are poor and unreliable. Knowledge of both the scale and the characteristics of migration are low.
It is argued that international migration, supported by the right policies, can be highly beneficial for the development of both host and sending countries. But it must be realized that these benefits are contingent upon the rights of migrants being respected and upheld. Many international migrants have had their rights abused. Usually, it is the unskilled and those without proper documents who suffer abuse while trying to remain calm for fear of being caught and deported at the least outcry or complaint.
On International Migrants’ Day, Young People We Care (YPWC) would like to acknowledge the contributions of migrants to their host and sending countries in the form of remittances and skills transfer, among others. YPWC would like to make the following recommendations to the government of Ghana, to young people, and to host and sending countries: Both sending and host countries must work in cooperation in designing effective temporary labour migration programmes that allow individuals to work in other countries for a fixed period and under agreed conditions.
The introduction of new measures to address the brain drain, whereby developing countries are losing the best educated and most entrepreneurial citizens trained in vital sectors such as health and education, is highly encouraged and should be practiced. A typical action is in the case of the Government of Ghana with the collaborative support of the International Organization for Migration (IOM) in making health workers take holiday jobs in the health sector of Ghana.
Furthermore, there should be a strengthening of the development potential of migration, for example, by making it easier and cheaper for migrants to transfer remittances to their communities of origin. Further priorities should include helping resolve the problem of migrants with irregular status (those who enter or remain in a country of which they are not citizens and are in breach of national laws) through better dialogue and cooperation between states, facilitating return or regularization for those who have already entered the country with irregular status, whilst ensuring human rights are respected.
With increasing competition for skilled workers, sending countries could also work towards providing education and skills training for youth, so as to better prepare their citizens for jobs at home, and, in turn, enrich the input into their own economy. This possibility echoes Millennium Development Goal 2: achieving universal primary education. To this end, governments, in collaboration with consulates, embassies and other concerned institutions, should adopt and promote the concept of “peer-led initiatives and encourage young people” in the Diaspora to undertake community-based initiatives promoting civic participation.
We are familiar with the abuses to which many migrants are subjected. While it is true that the human rights of migrants are also protected under the six core UN human rights treaties to which all states are bound by ratification, our studies show that the protection available in those instruments is not being used effectively. The specificity of the human rights violations of which migrants are victims still requires specific international protection, which is provided for by the UN Migrant Workers Convention.
We are of the opinion that the United Nations should remind all States that all human beings have human rights and that migrant rights are human rights. According to the recent past Secretary-General himself, human rights are the core values of the UN, without which neither security nor development can be achieved. International cooperation is also crucial in the struggle to protect people against the odious crime of human trafficking.
After monitoring reports on the alleged gruesome murder of some Ghanaians in Gambia and the latest report on the alleged ‘ritual killing’ of some Spain-bound Ghanaian immigrants in Senegal, it has now become evidently clear that the best way to deal with this canker is to encourage the youth to either travel through legal means or do their best to make the most of the opportunities at home. Through this release, we would also like to add our voice to calls by Civil Society Organizations, the media and institutions that are concerned with the powers that be to help unravel the circumstances surrounding the gruesome massacre of our cherished citizens in those two countries mentioned.
Young people, from sending countries like Ghana, are reminded to take advantage of educational, economic and employment opportunities in their home countries rather than embarking on journeys in which they have little idea about their chances for success. Intergovernmental cooperation in this field is also needed to create more legal opportunities for young people to migrate on temporary programmes. This will also reduce illegal migration. Professor Steven Vertovec, Director of the Centre on Migration Policy and Society (COMPAS) explains that “merely putting up higher barricades, creating tougher living conditions and wishing away migrants and asylum-seekers will certainly not stem the flows that are inevitable in today's interconnected world.”
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