Migrant associations in Ghana: a preliminary review of their roles in integration into host communities and negotiation of labour market conditions

This paper examines the role of migrant hometown associations in migrant integration and the negotiation of labour market conditions in Ghana. Drawing on survey of literature on migrant associations, the paper first examines the history of migration in Ghana and the emergence of migrant associations in the process. References are made to colonial times, but the discussions on migrant associations dwell on two main migration epochs avis from independence to the late 1960s, and from 1990 to the present. Different aspects of migrant associations are discussed with focus on how the associations help their members integrate into Ghana and also participate in the Ghanaian labour market.