Media practitioners equipped to project migration issues
Selected media practitioners from across the country have gone through a three-day training programme designed to enable them to understand and better appreciate migration issues.
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The training was organised by the Centre for Migration Studies, University of Ghana and the Migrating Out of Poverty Research (MOP) Programme Consortium.
Opening the workshop, titled: “Reporting on Migration in West Africa: Issues, Challenges and opportunities, Dr Delali Badasu, Director of the Centre for Migration Studies, said the centre recognised the role of the media in the dissemination of research results.
Dissemination of research
In her statement, Professor Awumbila, head of the West African team of MOP, said the focus of the workshop was to identify the role the media could play in disseminating information and how they could be adequately equipped to do that in Ghana.
She expressed great concern that there was very scarce information on migration in the public domain and said most of the time the presentation of migration in the media was negative.
“It is usually a response to a scare such as the spread of the Ebola through the movement of people across borders or response to a security threat such as the influx of Nigerians and Chinese into Ghana and its attendant challenges such as crime,” she noted.
She attributed this to media professionals’ limited understanding of key migration issues.
According to Prof. Awumbila, the workshop was initially planned to be regional in nature, however, this was disrupted by the spread of the Ebola virus.
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In an address read on his behalf, the Chief Executive Officer of the MOP, Prof. Alan Winters, said the research programme was a partnership involving six core partners including West Africa, funded by the UK Aid via DFID to investigate the link between migration and poverty in Africa and Asia.
Focus of MOP
The focus of the MOP, he said, was on internal migration because according to estimates provided by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), there were more internal migrants than international migrants.
Furthermore, internal migration is more relevant to the poor because it is cheaper and easier to arrange.
Each core partner, he explained, leads a programme research in their own region that emphasises local priorities within the consortium’s overall themes. The first phase of the research, which explored broad issues of rural-urban migration and urbanisation, migration policy issues and the ways in which migration impinges on women and girls, is just about ending.
The second phase of the programme, which will explore intra-household dynamics through the examination of remittances and youth aspirations, the migration industry with a focus on construction workers; the role of policy and the attitude of host communities to immigrants, among others, is being finalised, he added.
Prof. Winters emphasised the need for the media to assist the public to understand the complex issues in migration in order to stimulate good policies which would enhance the lives of the poor.
Getting research off the shelf
Ms Angela Haynes, Research Uptake Manager based at the University of Sussex, UK, explained that the MOP aimed at getting research off the shelf for use.
She pointed out that “the days of research remaining on shelves are over” and stated that the programmes employ a variety of communication outputs to ensure that research results are available for use.
These include policy briefs, film on domestic workers, photographs, slide shows, websites and posters.
Prof. Kwame Karikari of the School of Communication Studies, who was the main facilitator for the workshop said that the media reported on migration issues but they are most of the time not conscious of the fact that they are doing so.
He noted that migration issues cut across all sectors and, therefore, the workshop was intended to alert the professionals to do more consciously, what they were already doing on a daily basis.
“They should tease these issues out as migration issues and not just everyday occurrences. In that way, they can help stimulate good policies. This helps inform policy,” he added.
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