Internal Migration, Socio-Economic Status and Remittances: Experiences of Migrant Adolescent Girl Head Porters in Ghana
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.14426/ahmr.v5i3.889Keywords:
Capabilities-aspirations, Human transport, Kayayoo, Females, Adolescents, GhanaAbstract
This paper examines the relationship between internal migration, socioeconomic status and remittances, drawing on the experiences of migrant
adolescent girl head porters in the cities of Accra and Kumasi in Ghana.
Through an explanatory sequential mixed methods research design involving
503 individual surveys and 24 in-depth interviews, the paper established that
61% of adolescents studied migrated from the north to the south to escape
poverty while 29% migrated to work and raise money for school fees. The
kayayoo business does not seem to capacitate the adolescent girls to live the
kind of lives they have reason to value because only 36% of them remitted to
their families. A logistic regression model showed that older adolescents, 15-
19 years, (AOR=7.32, p<0.05, CI= [1.999-26.802] number of years spent
working as head porter, 3-years, (AOR=3.97, p<0.05, CI= [1.633-9.677] and
socio-economic status – not poor (AOR=8.63, p<0.001, CI=[4.761-8.435])
significantly influenced remittances. Remittances capacitated recipient
families to invest in human capital development and also improved household
food security.
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