GENDER, MIGRATION AND REMITTANCES IN GHANA: AN OVERVIEW

Abstract

Remittances have become an important source for socio-economic equalizing and leveraging for many households and nations of the developing world. The World Bank had estimated that remittances totaled $420 billion in 2009, of which $317 billion went to developing countries. The remittances received become important sources of family (and national) income of many developing economies, representing in some cases a very significant percentage of the GDP of the receiving countries (remittance prices worldwide). Although there is growing interest in the potential contribution of remittances to poverty reduction and community development, reflected in the formulation of policies and programmes to maximize their potential as well as anecdotal evidence on the increasing involvement of women, analysis of the gender dynamics of remittances remains poor. Amid growing evidence of independent female migration, studies in this emerging area of scholarship rarely disaggregate the data and analysis by sex in order to show how men and women participate and/or are affected differently. Using conceptual analysis as a framework that involved concept and content analysis, existing literature and statistical data were examined to establish the gender dimensions of migration and remittances. The analyses show that although men still lead in the migration business, women are becoming a significant part of the crowd and that independent women’s migration is on the rise while the women and men who emigrate do so for similar reasons. The analyses also show that the women who participate in the enterprise are vulnerable to various forms of discrimination such as human trafficking, sex harassment and unfair treatment. Hence, there is the need for policies and programmes that tackle women’s vulnerability during migration and to engender this emerging area of socio-economic interest of women, families, communities and nations of the developing world who face austere circumstances regarding their development financing.