RURAL-URBAN MIGRATION IN GHANA: FACTORS INFLUENCING FEMALE MIGRANT (KAYAYEI), USING THE LIFE COURSE PERSPECTIVE

Abstract

Rural-urban migration among adolescent girls (Kayayei) in Ghana has attracted a lot of public, government and non-governmental organizations (NGO's) as well as scholarly concerns regarding the unique issues of the phenomenon in the country. Despite the growing concerns of the 'Kayayei' among scholars and researchers, socio-economic livelihood, the push and pull factors, social theory and social structure have been used to examine adolescent girls' migration issues in Ghana's urban cities. This paper aims to understand the scale and nature of the demographic changes and the interconnections between urban development, socio-economic, political (institutional) and historical antecedent processes contributing to adolescents’ girl’s migration in Ghana affecting the life course of adolescents' girls in the migratory landscape. This paper is theoretical and explanatory oriented in nature. The article explores the dynamics of rural-urban migration, offering a clear rationale for the migration of rural adolescent girls' ‘Kayayei' in Ghana. The paper begins with a brief introduction of neoliberal policies (economic reforms) that have led to excessive urbanization, bringing about demography changes in developing countries and affecting the rural agricultural economy and household socio-economic composition. The paper attempts to draw a link between urbanization, historical regional development, and the new economic structuring (economic reforms) in Ghana's national economic space. Theoretically, the paper reviews the life course literature to critically appraise and examine the closely related dynamism of adolescent migratory patterns and economic reforms, environmental and institutional changes in developing countries like Ghana. Using literature review data source (Alatinga, 2019), the finding suggests that adolescent girls who migrate to the urban cities are overwhelmed by the predominance absence of alternative off-farm source of income and infrastructural development, which hinders educational attainment in rural communities.