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Class Formations and Inequality Structures in Contemporary African Migration
Evidence from Ghana
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2014
Summary
This book examines the influences of social class and inequality structures on migration in Africa using information from Ghana. As the country achieves moderate to significant economic gains driven (in part) by the country’s diaspora communities, the desire to migrate has intensified. Migration is now synonymous with social mobility and self-improvement. It has been found that existing class and status inequalities are analytically inseparable from the social and cultural processes underpinning the motivations behind Ghanaian migration. Migrant class and socioeconomic attributes are closely intertwined, reinforcing and operating at every level of the migration decision-making to influence the motivation to migrate, the type and form of migration, the direction of the migration, its timing, and ultimately the outcomes and expectations that migrants associate with their decision to migrate.
From a historical and contemporary perspective, this book argues that power and class-based structural relationships are significant components in understanding how migratory diasporas shape and are shaped in turn by social class and inequality. The social class identities that Ghanaian immigrants manifest in the United States are often based on immigrant formulations and importation of class dynamics from the home country. These identities are then transformed in the countries of destination and replayed or relived back home, thereby creating multiple class identities that are powerful forces in inducing social changes. In essence, migrant social class attributes formed before and post-migration is significant because it holds the possibilities of transforming the social structures of migrant-sending countries. As migrants return home and seek reintegration into the body polity of the home society, conflicts emanating from changes in their class dynamics may hinder or promote sociocultural and economic development. Hence, the imperative of the central government is to understand and incorporate into national development planning the social class characteristics of its citizens who are leaving, as well as those who are returning.
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Bibliographic data
Copyright year
2014
ISBN-Print
978-1-4985-0383-9
ISBN-Online
978-1-4985-0384-6
Publisher
Lexington, Lanham
Language
English
Pages
277
Product type
Book Titles
Table of contents
ChapterPages
Contents No access
Preface No access
Acknowledgments No access
1 Social Class and Inequality Structures in Contemporary African Migration No access Pages 1 - 22
2 The Layers of Social Class Formations and Class Consciousness in Ghana No access Pages 23 - 72
3 Class Inequalities in Internal and Regional Migration in Ghana No access Pages 73 - 106
4 Class Profiles of Ghanaian Immigrants No access Pages 107 - 142
5 Economic Conditions of the Ghanaian Immigrant Underclass No access Pages 143 - 184
6 The New Black Immigrant Elites No access Pages 185 - 230
7 Influences of Class and Inequality Structures on African Diasporas and Homeland Development No access Pages 231 - 258
