Rural - Urban migration not all negative - Study
A study, conducted in the Volta and Northern regions, has shown that persons who migrated from rural to urban areas as migrant construction and domestic workers have succeeded in addressing poverty in their homes and bettered their lives.
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The study has recommended that migration from rural to urban areas must not be seen as totally bad since it afforded opportunity for the poor migrants to provide useful services and in return, earn some income to enhance their well-being and those of their families.
The research, which was conducted by the Centre for Migration Studies of the University of Ghana, involved the collection of qualitative data from migrant domestic and construction workers at urban destinations and members of their households left behind at their various places of origin, and thus provided rural-urban linkages.
At a dissemination forum organised by the Centre, one of the researchers, Dr Joseph Kofi Teye said these categories of workers provided valuable services to urban dwellers and some expatriates.
He said the research also ascertained that even though remuneration in the two occupations were low, the people were able to accumulate resources that bettered their lot.
Dr Teye, however, added that the temporary nature of employment of construction workers in Ghana meant that many did not have job security.
That, he said, was against the backdrop that the country’s labour laws required that employment relationships were formalized with a written employment contract between employers and employees.
No benefits
“However, most of these employees are recruited by sub-contractors and so they do not have any formal agreements which then lead to loss of employment benefits, namely, access to social security, training, access to paid holidays, sick and maternity leave and free and subsidized medical care,” Dr Teye said.
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He, therefore, called for relevant state agencies to scale up public education on the rights of domestic and construction workers.
The research pointed out that the expansion of towns in Ghana in the process of peri-urbanisation had created opportunities for migrant construction workers from Ghana and neighbouring countries especially Togo.
It said even though it was initially seen as a job with poor remuneration, the economic changes and the high volume of construction in the bigger cities of Accra and Kumasi, had transformed the sector into a gold mine depending on the specialised skills possessed by the migrant.
“Understanding the conditions that determine construction workers’ income and level of success in meeting aspirations and objectives is key for an assessment of their role in poverty reduction for the migrant construction worker,” the research report said.
It also underscored the fact that migrants worked under poor conditions without social security, freedom to join organized labour and enjoy other employment benefits.
It, however, added that despite those difficulties, migrant workers were expected to be of good and loyal behaviour at the construction site irrespective of ill treatment, otherwise, they were threatened to leave their jobs.
“This notwithstanding, labour contractors provide new opportunities for migrant workers to access jobs in the urban labour market, receive wages and improve upon their standards of living,” the report said.
Discrimination against women
The report said wage discrimination against female workers at construction sites was a common phenomenon since women were unable to negotiate with employers on their wages as males did, thereby leading to the situation where males earned better wages than females.
Women, the report said, were mostly employed to provide support to their male counterparts, offering services such as cleaning the project site, fetching water and others which were mere extension of their traditional roles.
The report indicated that in general, domestic workers tended to migrate from poorer homes than construction workers and that female domestic workers received lower salaries for working for longer hours because their work was undervalued.
Dr Teye, in addressing this issue said the situation was so because of the transference of patriarchal gendered norms into the domestic work market.
“Migrant women employed into domestic and construction work are mostly affected by the poor conditions of service because they lack negotiation skills compared to their male counterparts. Although some conventions in the case of domestic work and laws exist, the streamlining of these into national policy processes and practices is limited,” the research report observed.
In prescribing a solution, the researchers said “the gaps in the literature on domestic and construction workers in Ghana indicates the need for a more nuanced and context-based analysis of these two work sectors”.
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A senior lecturer at the School of Communication Studies, Professor Kwame Karikari who chaired the function appealed to policy makers to standardise healthcare insurance for all categories of migrant workers such that households and people who these workers work for paid for their health insurance.
Writer’s email: victor.kwawukume@graphic.com.gh