GLOBAL DEVELOPMENT STUDIES
GLOBAL
DEVELOPMENT STUDIES
Copyright © 2009 International Development Options
All Rights Reserved
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Volume Five Winter 2008-Spring 2009 Numbers 3-4.
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THEME: GLOBAL LABOR MIGRATION AND EMERGING TRENDS IN DEVELOPMENT FINANCING:
AN ASSESSMENT OF THE SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC IMPCT OF MIGRANT (WORKER) REMITTANCES
IN SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA
WEST AFRICAN SUCCESSFUL MIGRANT WORKERS: REMITTANCES AS MAINSTAY
Martin F. Asiegbu
Ebonyi State University
Abakaliki, Nigeria
Published Online: March 15, 2017
ABSTRACT
Without the trans-Saharan trade and the European intrusion, West Africa would have remained relatively isolated from the external world. To the north, the region is bounded by the Sahara desert and to the south is a similar monster, the Atlantic Ocean. In a large measure, therefore, this explains the high degree of intra-regional migration recorded in West Africa and unlike no other region in Africa. West Africans are the most mobile in the continent. Since the global politics of migration has grasped the world's attention, intra-regional migration in Sub-Saharan Africa receives less attention. The colonial period initiated the early massive intra-regional migration because it gave rise to the rapid growth of many cities and a quick progressive development of previously growing urban centers. In the 1960s, according to Konseiga (2005), both South-North and North-South migrations grew pari passu. Agriculture exporting West African countries like Ivory Coast, Ghana, Nigeria, and Senegal encouraged migrations as much as did the European industrialized countries. In the 1960s and the 1970s, Ivory Coast and Nigeria developed migration-friendly policies to meet the demands of their labor markets, and attracted migrants from Mali, Ghana, Burkina Faso, among other African countries. Yet, this proves as important as the inter-regional migration.