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Friday Seminar in African Studies: “I am so so very not sure”

Join the Friday Seminar in African Studies and listen to Dr. Kajsa Hallberg Adu‘s research on University Students’ Migration Aspirations in Ghana, Friday 2/2 10.15-11.30, ENG3-2028.

http://www.afrikastudier.uu.se/Download.aspx?dialog=false&id=QpVOQ6IkoIA%3D

My viva has been scheduled to 28 April, 2016, 10 am at the School of Graduate Studies, University of Ghana. I am excited and determined to do very well!

I will be presenting an aspect of my work at the African Studies Association’s yearly meeting in the US, this year in San Diego 19-22 Nov, 2015.

My panel is called Rethinking Decolonilaization and my paper will be on the topic of “Decolonizing Migration Studies using Narratives of University Students in Ghana”.

I am looking forward to attending this famous conference and hopefully making connections for future research!

Find the full program here (PDF).

This study examines migration aspirations among university students in Ghana. My interest

is in undergraduate students, a group that is largely overlooked both in African studies and

migration theory. The research was focused on migration aspirations, the first stage of any

migration venture, and carried out at University of Ghana, a large public university, and

Ashesi University College, a small private liberal arts college. A combination of methods

was employed: focus groups, an e-survey (n=506), and interviews.

To understand how students view the option to migrate, I argue that an Africanist or decolonial approach must

be used. This can be achieved by letting Ghanaian students themselves explain the

phenomenon as well as by contextualizing Ghanaian university students’ migration

narratives, and not leaving out a critical view of knowledge production in the world.

The findings show that students in the Global South indeed consider migration as a life

option, however, migration aspirations are volatile, often include the aspiration for return,

and are driven by the ambition for further study, rather than being an end in itself. While

other researchers have described a “migration culture” in Ghana, my findings rather point

toward an “education culture”. However, financing such migration as well as the passport

acquisition process, present barriers such that although many students say they aspire to

migrate, most of them have not taken action like applying for a passport. This confirms

research findings that there is a gap between aspiration and ability to migrate. In addition,

my research reveals other reservations to the migration option, like fear of racism and

religious/moral concerns. Further, the students in my study suggest that lower-educated

individuals have a stronger aspiration to migrate than highly educated individuals like

themselves – I construe this as form of “othering”, not previously found in the literature.

Men and women are as likely to aspire to migrate with the exception of women with weak

academic results who are more likely to aspire to migrate. Further, the research established

that university students in Ghana use new communication tools powered by the Internet to

stay in close contact with family and friends abroad. Students also discuss migration in

relation to “exploring”and “enjoying” as well as describe travel similar to the “gap year”

earlier described in the literature, but for students in the Global North.

These results highlight that students in the Global South are generally similar to the

students in the Global North in terms of migration aspirations. However, while the latter

are well covered in the International Student Migration (ISM) discourse the former are not

– and this is the discourse my study contributes to. While individual considerations among

Ghanaian students are similar to those of students in the Global North, I argue that the

migration environment is dissimilar, and to better understand the phenomenon of student

migration originating from the Global South, a more holistic approach is needed, inclusive

of historical, social, and political contexts.

Now the manuscript has been copied and bound in four heavy bundles and handed in to the Institute of African Studies at University of Ghana. Viva should happen before the end of the year!