Contribution of Remittances to the Care of the Elderly in Ablekuma South

Abstract

Africa like the rest of the world is ageing. The number of elderly people on the continent is rapidly increasing. This increase in the number of older people who require care is occurring at the same time when the resources of Africa is getting depleted and the traditional social welfare system that is the extended family has begun to decline. This has resulted in the shift of care responsibility away from the extended family to the nuclear family where adult children have to care for the elderly by sending remittances in the form of cash to assist in their upkeep. While there is a lot of academic and policy attention to the linkage between international migration for work and the economic development of a specific country through remittances that result from this pattern of migration, the influence of remittances on migrants own family members who stay home especially the elderly is seldom explored thus this research aims investigate the contribution of remittances to the care of the elderly in Ablekuma South. The methodology used for data collection and data analysis comprised both qualitative and quantitative research methods. A total of 65 survey questionnaires were administered as well as conducting in-depth face-to-face interviews with 10 elderly persons. Descriptive statistics were used to analyze quantitative data, which was complemented by qualitative data. The findings in this study suggest that the formal support mechanisms available are inadequate to cater for the needs of the aged. Also informal support systems in the form of the extended family has broken down which has shifted responsibility of the care of the elderly to adult children who respondents felt had the moral obligation to take care of them. Furthermore the study showed that remittances received by the aged were inadequate to take care of their needs with a majority of them spending a large proportion of the money they received on food rather than on investments or savings.