Independent north-south child migration as a parental investment in Northern Ghana

Abstract

North-south independent child migration flows in Ghana have gained increasing political and research interest. Parents and adult relations actively participate in the decision of their children to migrate. In view of this, this study uses a 2005 survey of 451 independent child migrants in Accra and Kumasi to assess the extent to which this relatively new wave of migration constitutes some kind of an economic investment by parents against poverty. A major finding of the study is that although parents, through remittances by their children, may meet their objective of sending their children as migrants to southern communities, in the long run, these gains may be eroded because of diverse social, economic, and reproductive health risks the children may be exposed to. © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.