Socio-Economic Realities of Returned Immigrant Reintegration in Ghana: A Systematic Review

Aaron Nartey ORCID iD

Issue: Vol.3  No.12 November 2022  Article 8  pp.613-635
DOI: https://doi.org/10.38159/ehass.20223128 |   Published online 28th November 2022.
© 2022 The Author(s). This is an open access article under the CCBY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).

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Scholars have observed that in the face of wage differentials that favor destination countries, an increasing number of presumably rational Ghanaian migrants in developed countries choose to return to Ghana.1 To explore this phenomenon, a systematic literature review methodology was employed in collecting, sampling and analyzing migration literature in general, and Ghanaian migration literature in particular to ascertain the dominant mechanisms that surround the return and reintegration of returned Ghanaian immigrants. The paper shows that (un)favorable social, economic and political conditions in Ghana and destination countries are the critical underlying conditions that influence the return of Ghanaian immigrants — suggesting that Ghanaian immigrants are rational actors who perform a cost-benefit analysis of the contextual realities that circumscribes the economic landscape of Ghana and destination countries. The paper identifies that the challenges associated with returnees’ reintegration in Ghana have social, economic and institutional aspects. Against this backdrop, the paper recommends the formulation of a comprehensive return migration policy that emphasizes the sociocultural context of immigrants. The paper advocates for an individual, community and structural intervention to facilitate the mobilization and effective use of returnees’ socio-economic capital.

Keywords: Returnees, Immigrants, Reintegration

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Aaron Nartey, President and Executive Director of Mainland Community Services Society in British Columbia, Canada and a graduate of the Master of Arts Geography program of Brock University, Canada. Currently interested in social justice, migrant resilience and intersectionality.

Nartey A. “Socio-Economic Realities of Returned Immigrant Reintegration in Ghana: A Systematic Review,” E-Journal of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences 3, no.12 (2022):613-635.  https://doi.org/10.38159/ehass.20223128

© 2022 The Author(s). Published and Maintained by Noyam Publishers. This is an open access article under the CCBY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).

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