Ghana

Abstract

This chapter looks at Ghana's immigration policy in the light of its economic situation. It characterizes Ghana's immigration policy as geared toward using immigration to attract critical foreign investment and transfer of technology and human resource capital/skills for socioeconomic development. Running concurrently is the policy to prevent illegal immigration, transnational crime, economic exploitation, and social corruption. When the economic situation of Ghana was buoyant in the 1960s, it attracted many migrants especially from neighboring West African countries; however, when the country's economy saw a downturn, immigrants were used as a convenient scapegoat and many were expelled. The irony though is that while the current poor economic situation of Ghana has made Ghanaians emigrate to other countries, the political stability of the country does attract other West Africans and non- Africans and it is affording the country the opportunity to streamline its immigration and citizenship laws. © 2010 by Oxford University Press, Inc. All rights reserved.