ABSTRACT
The North –South internal migration pattern in Ghana has been ongoing for decades. Presently, there are more young girls involved. This study attempts to investigate the sort of social network involved prior and following migrations from Northern Ghana to Agbogboloshie, a suburb of Accra. It also looks at the reasons /factors that lead to high numbers of female child migrants moving to the South from the North and the implication of migration on their lives.
In this study I used Social Network theory and the concept of strong and weak ties to discover the type of social ties female child migrants use prior and following their movement to the urban centres and how those ties were used. Since the reasons for migration are diverse I employed the Neo- classical Economic theory and New Economic of Labour Migration theory for analysis in addition to the concept of the child “being and becoming”. The positive implication of migration was also viewed under the lens of the concept of the child “being and becoming”. I examined the negative implication of migration using the concept of vulnerability to analyse their housing, feeding, health care and work challenges at their place of destination.
A total of 19 female child migrants from the three Northern Regions of Ghana who are living and working in Agbogboloshie were interviewed. The study found out that female child migrants were very actively involved at the prior migration stage with strong ties (kinship relations) also playing a role. However, upon arrival at Agbogboloshie weak ties (ethnic relations, friends and other social ties they develop) significantly assisted them in integrating into their new social setting. Those social ties helped female child migrants in getting housing, jobs and other necessities. Although economic factors mostly accounted for their reasons of migrating, other socio-cultural factors existing at their place of origin influenced their decision to voluntarily travel. They exercised their agency as social actors. In spite of the diverse vulnerability female child migrants’ face, they are able to save, remit and accomplish some of their aims for migrating. There are further discussions on the above and related issues in this study.