ABSTRACT

There is a dearth of literature on return migrants from the Gulf region and their migration experiences while abroad. Anecdotal evidence indicates that the experiences of migrants from the Gulf region have been characterised by a lot of abuses and inhumane treatment on the  part of the employers of these migrants. Therefore, the objective of the study was to explore the migration experiences of return migrants from the Gulf region. The research design that was adopted for the study was the mixed methods design. The sample size was made up of 50 respondents selected through the snowball sampling technique. Instruments used for the study were semi-structured questionnaires and in-depth interview guide. The quantitative data was analysed using SPSS version 20 and the qualitative through the use of thematic analysis. The results show that more than half of the returnees prior to migration seek for assistance from travel agencies with funding of migration done by migrants and their immediate families (spouse and sibling). The findings indicated that, after migration, three-quarters of the respondents spent 1 to 3 years at the destination, depending on the type of contract signed. Again, it was evidential that abuses such as denial of food and unpaid extra allowance for extra work done were the immediate abuses encountered which were more associated with family and company employers. The type of work at the destination that came with good salary was domestic work (household chores), ranging from 1100 to 1600 Ghana Cedis. In spite of the negative perception about migration to the Gulf region, some of the respondents‟ status improved economically. It is concluded that return migrants came back to their origin country unprepared with no significant funds, and this had effect on their ability to  reintegrate economically and socially.The study concludes that the negative experiences of migrants while abroad pose challenges to returnees upon coming to the home country. This supports Cassarino‟s (2008) explanation of the structural approach which suggests that a social, economic and political condition at destination determines the migrants‟ ability to mobilise both tangible and intangible resources for final sojourn. Recommendations are made for governments and other stakeholders to create awareness about the dangers of domestic work in the Gulf region and the need to seek the right information at the appropriate quarters.

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.0 Background to the study

Migration has become a global topical issue due to the unprecedented increase in the flow of human capital across borders (O‟Neil, 2007). For some years now, migration has been a matter of great concern among various stakeholders in the society, namely the academic community, policy makers and virtually every member of the society (Kofman, 2014). Though globalisation is spreading at a fast pace, some parts of the world are yet to benefit from this trend. This has created a disparity among nations in terms of their socio-economic status thereby causing people to aspire to migrate to nations with better economic opportunities. In some cases, people just migrate to escape conflicts, exploitations and other climate-induced reasons (Imerion, 2017;Modarres, 2010) Thus, inequalities in  wealth, income as well as security all serve as both push and pull factors in migration.

Return migration is a central part of the on-going migration process in this development, implying that it is no longer seen as the closure of the migration cycle, but rather as one of many steps within a continued movement (King, 2000). Migrants returning home could be as a result of either being forced or returning voluntarily. Raveinstein (1885), over a century ago, observed that every migration stream generates a counter-stream, which suggests that return migration is taken for granted with any migration. This may explain the initial silence over the issue in the literature until the global economic crisis of 1973 (Ammassari and Black, 2001).

An International Labour Organisation (ILO) document, for instance, indicated how in late October 1990, amid the Gulf Crisis, thousands of Yemenis began to return home from Saudi Arabia. Saudi Arabia had placed new restrictions on Yemenis residing in the kingdom, which

triggered this mass exodus. Although the exact number of Yemenis who returned from Saudi Arabia is not known, it has been estimated to be approximately 800,000 (ILO, 1991).

Also as result of the political and economic climate that changed in Yemen due to the discovery of oil and the prospects for employment that this would bring to Yemen, 4.5 percent of migrants returned. Another 38.1 percent returned because their work ended, and

56.9 percent stated other reasons (ILO, 1991). These reasons fall into On-Jook’s(1980) category of “affective” reasons for a migrant family returning back to one’s country. It can be argued that what these reasons really represent are the majority who actually did not plan out their return, but who on a visit home decided to stay there.

Migration is not merely the movement of people from one country to another; rather, it is an unending process which entails a series of decision-making between the migrants and their families during the pre-migration, migration and post-migration process. There are several categories of migrants, including refugees, academic and economic migrants, and these categories of migrants are affected differently by the migration process. Thus, economic migrants have a peculiar experience in terms of the migration process compared to a refugee or academic migrant (Jamie&Tsega, 2016; Kofman, 2014). Accordingto the IOM World Report 2018, there has been an increase in international migration from 222 million in 2010 to 243 million in 2015(representing a third of the world (UN, 2016). This number further increased to 258 million in 2017 (World Migration Report, 2018).

Migration provides socio-economic benefits such as improvement in standards of living, better jobs for better incomes, access to quality education among others. There has been increasing movements of both documented and undocumented migrants to developing countries due to the perceived benefits of migration (Adepoju, 2006b). The United Nations (2009) reported that about 210 million of the world‟s population, representing three percent,

live outside their countries of origin or birth (United Nations, 2009). However, migration still comes with some challenges in terms of legal and undocumented status. A lot of these challenges stem from the demand for cheap labour that is often done by undocumented migrants in these industrialised nations (Helleiner, 2013).

Despite the diversity that exists in the types of migration, West Africa remains an under researched region in migration studies, especially as regards return migration (Tenkorang, 2014). However, in recent times, there has been a substantial return of migrants to many West African countries as the political and economic climate has changed. Since the mid -1990s, there has been some evidence of return migration to Ghana. This has been attributed partly to the improvement in the Ghanaian economy vis-à-vis the economies of the neighbouring countries that once attracted Ghanaians (World Bank 1994) as well as restrictions on Ghanaians travelling abroad (for instance, those travelling to EU countries) and repatriation of those without valid documents. Nonetheless, a second generation of Ghanaians living abroad is also growing, often settling there, but maintaining links and identifying with Ghana. Data from the Ghana Immigration Service also indicate that more than 2,000 Ghanaians were deported from 58 countries around the world in 1993(Van Hear, 1998, p.206-207). Among the countries destination, the largest number came from Germany, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands and Italy which, between them, accounted for over two thirds of deportations of Ghanaians that year. It is also estimated that of the two million people deported from Nigeria in 1983, between 900,000 and 1.2 million were Ghanaians (Adeku, 1995). The Ghana Living Standards Survey (GLSS) also provides information on whether individuals are migrants or not, based on whether they are living outside their place of birth, or have lived outside their place of birth for more than one year. It allows an estimate of the total number of residents who have lived abroad and then returned.

Internal migration research conducted by the Ghana Statistical Service (GSS, 1995) has documented that two scenarios of return migration may occur. The first one is where the migrants fail to adjust to the way of life in the urban area. This happens when the pull factor to the village and the push factor from the urban area are strong. Caldwell and Caldwell (1987) found that in Ghana, the strongest rural pull was a reluctance to break close family ties with family and the village. This was reinforced by the fact that for most rural Ghanaian towns and villages, life was still alien and somewhat frightening. The situation has undergone change, however, and today most migrants only return permanently when they die and are sent home for burial. Another situation that leads to return migration is when the migrant returns home after retirement probably because living in an alien environment without regular income becomes a little unbearable.

In recent times, Ghana has seen a reversal of migration where people are more emigrating than entering (Awumbilla et al., 2008). Since the early 1990s, there have been more Ghanaians returning due to favourable conditions such as political stability, economic improvement and the discovery of oil (Awumbilla et al., 2011). However, events and situations at both destination and origin can have an effect on return migrants‟ ability to reintegrate into the society. If returnees meet situations in their homes that are not favourable and, therefore, make it very difficult for them to reintegrate, they may decide to move back again.

A significant rate of the workforce of countries in the Gulf prefers working in the public sector due to the attractive packages such as pension scheme among others as compared to the private sector. Even at the private sector, they are found at the executive positions. Thus Gulf countries like Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates all have that population dynamism. This leads to increase in the demand for cheap labour to fill up sectors such as services and construction, and that is where the Asian and

African countries step in. These countries depend on remittances and, therefore, fill up the void left by the citizens in the Gulf countries.

The precise number of African workers currently in the GCC a region is very difficult to estimate due to the unregulated ways in which most of the migration occurs. Most data are gained from large surveys (Awumbilla et al, 2014).