Rural-urban migrants receiving huge benefits – Report

Many youth who are migrating from the rural to urban arrears are receiving substantial benefits, according to the findings of a new research which looked at the economic and social status of migrants.

The research was conducted by ‘Migrating out of Poverty’, a research program consortium coordinated by University of Sussex in partnership with the Centre for Migration Studies at the University of Ghana with funding from UK’s Department for International Development.

The research surveyed 1,412 households in the Volta, Brong Ahafo, Northern, Upper East and Upper West regions.

It sought to establish whether or not migrants and their households have actually benefited from their current status.

The research revealed that the migrants are gaining in terms of real income as well as other social benefits.

These include marriage, child bearing, family formation and education.

Over 46 percent of the migrants admitted that their families would have been worse off if they had not migrated.

One of the migrants who sells khebab said he has built a five bedroom house for his family in the north and has acquired another plot to build in Accra.