Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-dzt6s Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-22T15:40:06.217Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

International Labor Migration Patterns in West Africa*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 May 2014

John A. Arthur
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

There is strong evidence that labor is highly mobile in many developing countries, especially in Africa. The history of the African continent is rich in accounts of various forms of movement across and within national boundaries—promoted by trade, warfare, pastoralism, slaving, natural disasters, and evangelization. Evidence, of fact and in myth and legend, indicates the occurrence of large-scale migrations in the past. The dispersion of Fulani-speaking peoples throughout the northern parts of West Africa is well documented. In addition to such movements, there are the age-old seasonal wanderings of herders seeking water and pasture for livestock. During the present century, the migration of labor to centers of mineral, oil, and industrial production has become one of the most important demographic features of West Africa and the continent as a whole (Adepoju, 1977, 1978; Zachariah and Conde, 1981; Addo, 1974; Little, 1974; Mabogunje, 1972, 1980). The migratory movement of population in Africa is very dynamic and complex; its general features are not well understood, and hence are rarely studied.

This paper is an attempt to understand the economic and sociocultural factors that have influenced the character of the international migratory flow of labor in West Africa. The hub of the investigation is to provide an understanding of the patterns of labor migration in West Africa and evaluate the models utilized in the explanation of international migratory trends in the region.

Type
Articles
Information
African Studies Review , Volume 34 , Issue 3 , December 1991 , pp. 65 - 87
Copyright
Copyright © African Studies Association 1991

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

*

The author expresses gratitude to Jackie Stewart, Coordinator of Institutional Research, Augusta College for her thoughtful and insightful reviews of earlier versions of this paper.

References

Addo, N. O. 1974 “Foreign African Workers in Ghana.” International Labor Review 1: 23–40.Google Scholar
Adepoju, A. 1977 Migration, Agricultural Activity and Socioeconomic Change in Ife Division of Southwest Nigeria. Dakar: IDEP.Google Scholar
Adepoju, A. 1978 New Conceptual Approaches to Migration in the Context of Urbanization: Case of Africa South of the Sahara. Belgium: IUSSP.Google Scholar
Allen, J. 1979 The Growth of Ghana's Cities. Legon: University of Ghana Press.Google Scholar
Amin, S. 1974a Modern Migrations in Western Africa. London: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Amin, S. 1974b Colonialism in West Africa. New York: Monthly Review Press.Google Scholar
Amin, S. 1977 Imperialism and Unequal Development. New York: Monthly Review Press.Google Scholar
Arhin, R. 1978 Cocoa Production in Ghana (1960-80). Legon: University of Ghana Press.Google Scholar
Beals, R., Levy, M., and Moses, L. 1967 “Rationality and Migration in Ghana.” Review of Economics and Statistics 4: 480–486.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bhattacharyya, B. 1985 “The Role of Family in Internal Migration: The Case of India.” Journal of Development Economics 18: 51–56.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Brown, M. L. 1989 “Nigeria and the ECOWAS Protocol on Free Movement and Residence.” Journal of Modern African Studies 27: 251–273.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Byerlee, D. 1974 “Rural-urban Migration in Africa: Theory, Policy and Research Implications.” International Migration Review 8: 543–566.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Caldwell, J. C. 1969 African Rural-urban Migration. Canberra: Australia National University Press.Google Scholar
Census of Ghana. 1960–1975 Accra: Government Printing Office.Google Scholar
Census of the Ivory Coast. 1970–1985 Abidjan: Government Press.Google Scholar
Census of Nigeria. 1970–1984 Lagos: Government Printing Office.Google Scholar
Corden, W. M. and Findlay, R. 1975 “Urban Unemployment, Intersectoral Capital Mobility and Development Policy.” Economica 2: 59–78.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Crawford, C. O. 1966 “Family Attachment, Family Support for Migration and Migration Plans of Young People.” Rural Sociology 31: 293–300.Google Scholar
DeJong, G. and Fawcett, J. 1981 “Multi-disciplinary Frameworks and Models of Migration Decision Making.” In Migration Decision Making, edited by DeJong, G. and Gardner, R., 18–58. New York: Pergamon.Google Scholar
DeJong, G. and Gardner, R., eds. 1981 Migration Decision Making. New York: Pergamon.Google Scholar
Ecevit, Z. 1983 “International Labor Migration in the Middle-East and North Africa: Trends, Effects and Policies.” In Global Trends in Migration: Theory and Research on International Population Movements, edited by Kritz, M. M., Keely, C. B., and Tomasi, S. M., 259–278. New York: The Center for Migration Studies of New York.Google Scholar
Economic Commission for Africa. 1970-1975 Labor Statistics. Addis Ababa.Google Scholar
Federal Ministry of Labor. 1970-1980 International Labor Statistics. Lagos.Google Scholar
Fields, G. S. 1975 “Rural-urban Migration, Urban Unemployment and Underemployment, and Job Search Activity in LDCs.” Journal of Development Economics 13: 165–187.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Goldscheider, C. 1971 Population, Modernization, and Social Structure. Boston: Little, Brown, and Co.Google Scholar
Hallet, R. 1966 People and Progress in West Africa: An Introduction to the Problems of Development. Oxford: Pergamon Press.Google Scholar
Horvath, R. J. 1969 “In Search of a Theory of Urbanization: Notes on the Colonial City.” East Lakes Geographer 5: 69–82.Google Scholar
International Labor Organization. 1970-1980 Labor Statistics. Geneva.Google Scholar
Isard, W. and Bramhall, D. F. 1960 “Gravity, Potential and Spatial Interaction Models.” In Introduction to Regional Science, edited by Isard, W., 493–569. Cambridge: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Johnston, R. J. 1971 “Resistance to Migration and the Mover/Stayer Dichotomy: Aspects of Kinship and Population Stability in an English Rural Area.” In Geografiska Annaler Series B. Human Geography, 16–27. Stockholm.Google Scholar
Kritz, M., Keely, C. and Tomasi, Silvano. 1983 Global Trends in Migration: Theory and Research on International Population Movements. New York: Center for Migration Studies.Google Scholar
Lee, E. 1966 “A Theory of Migration.” Demography 3: 47–57.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Little, K. 1974 African Women in Towns: An Aspect of Africa's Social Revolution. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Lloyd, P. C. 1972 Africa in Social Change. London: Penguin.Google Scholar
Mabogunje, A. L. 1970 “Systems Approach to a Theory of Rural-urban Migration.” Geographical Analysis 2: 1–17.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mabogunje, A. L. 1972 Regional Mobility and Resource Development in West Africa. Montreal: McGill University Press.Google Scholar
Mabogunje, A. L. 1980 “Objectives and Rationales for Policies Concerned With Regional and Rural Population Redistribution.” In Population Redistribution Policies in Development Planning, 19–30. New York: UNDP.Google Scholar
Ministry of Labor. 1980-1985 Foreign Workers Statistics. Abidjan, Ivory Coast.Google Scholar
New Nigerian. 1983 16 February.Google Scholar
New York Times. 1983 2 February.Google Scholar
Olsson, G. 1965 Distance and Human Interaction: A Review and Bibliography. Philadelphia: Regional Science Research Institute.Google Scholar
Porter, G. 1983 A Continent Gone Wrong. Canberra: Australia National University Press.Google Scholar
Pryor, R. 1983 The Motivation of Migration. Canberra: Australia National University Press.Google Scholar
Ravenstein, E. G. 1885,1889 “The Laws of Migration.” Journal of the Royal Statistical Society 48: 167-235; 52: 242–305.Google Scholar
Riddell, J. B. 1981 “Beyond the Description of Spatial Patterns: The Process of Proletarianization as a Factor in Population Migration in West Africa.” Progress in Human Geography 5: 370–391.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Sahota, G. S. 1969 “An Economic Analysis of Internal Migration in Brazil.” Journal of Political Economy 2: 76–92.Google Scholar
Sender, J. and S., Smith. 1986 The Development of Capitalism in Africa. London: Methuem.Google Scholar
Sell, R. and DeJong, G. 1978 “Toward a Motivational Theory of Migration Decision Making.” Journal of Population 1: 313–335.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Simmons, A. B; Diaz-Briquets, Sergio, and Laquian, Aprodicio. 1977 Social Change and Internal Migration: A Review of Findings from Africa, Asia, and Latin America. Ottawa: International Development Research Center.Google Scholar
Sinclair, S. 1978 Urbanization and Labor Markets in Developing Countries. New York: St. Martin's Press.Google Scholar
Sjaastad, L. A. 1962 “The Costs and Returns of Human Migration.” Journal of Political Economy 70: 80–93.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Snowden, R. and Hewitt, M. 1979 Multi-national Corporation and Third World Development. Leeds: University of Leeds Press.Google Scholar
Speare, A. and Harris, J. 1986 “Education, Earnings and Migration in Indonesia.” Economic Development and Cultural Change 34: 223–244.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Swindell, K. 1979 “Labour Migration in Underdeveloped Countries: The Case of Sub-Saharan Africa.” Progress in Human Geography 3: 239–257.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Szereszewski, T. 1976 Male Out-migration in Northern Ghana. Legon: University of Ghanam Press.Google Scholar
Todaro, M. 1969 “A Model of Labor Migration and Urban Unemployment in Less Developed Countries.” The American Economic Review 59: 138–148.Google Scholar
Todaro, M. 1971 “Income Expectations, Rural-urban Migration and Employment in Africa.” International Labor Review 5: 104–120.Google Scholar
Todaro, M. and Stilkind, J. 1981 City Bias and Rural Neglect: The Dilemma of Urban Development. New York: Population Council.Google Scholar
Turnham, D. and Jaeger, I. 1970 The Employment Problems in Less Developed Countries. Paris: Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.Google Scholar
Uhlenberg, P. 1973 “Non-economic Determinants of Non-migration: Sociological Considerations for Migration Theory.” Rural Sociology 38: 297–311.Google Scholar
Wallerstein, I. 1965 “Migration in West Africa: The Political Perspective.” In Urbanization and Migration in West Africa, edited by Kuper, H., 148–159. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Zachariah, K. C. and Conde, J. 1981 Demographic Aspects of Migration in West Africa. Washington, DC: World Bank.Google Scholar
Zelinsky, W. 1971 “The Hypothesis of the Mobility Transition.” Geographic Review 61: 219–249.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ziph, G. K. 1946 “The P1 P2 Hypothesis on the Intercity Movement of Persons.” American Sociological Review 11: 677–686.CrossRefGoogle Scholar