Abstract:
The sedentary bias that characterizes discourses on migra tions from and within the Global South has failed to inform
a consistent exploration of international migration from and
among global southern countries as normal, desirable and
impactful to migrants and their social networks at different
spatial levels. Migration-development nexus analyses are
predominantly framed around Global South-Global North
migration episodes whereby cash and social remittances
from the North to the South are expected to trigger de velopment in poorer global southern origin countries. This
approach neglects the possibility of similar outcomes ac cruing from south-south migrations. Drawing on qualitative
research methods among Ghanaian migrants to China, our
paper addresses the question how does south-south mi gration affect livelihoods and wealth inequality? We argue
that blunt global categorizations such as “Global South” and
“Global North” only serve to obfuscate what is a rather het erogenous bunch of countries, with divergent opportuni ties for migrants. We recommend that greater focus should
be on the contextual factors at the origin and destination,
the quality of return preparedness and the human capital
of the migrants rather than an arbitrary clustering around
a binary Global South-Global North trajectory as though
they are internally homogenous. We conclude that there s heterogeneity in the effects of south-south migration on
household livelihoods and wealth inequalities.
