‘These days, things have changed’: historicizing current dynamics of climate-related migration in the savannah zone of Ghana

ABSTRACT

While climate-related mobility has been part of life in Africa for centuries, existing literature on migration in the context of climate change generally lacks a historical perspective. This paper historicises climate-related migration in the Northern Savannah Zone of Ghana, with specific focus on the Upper West Region, drawing on climate data, a survey of 403 households, and interviews and focus group discussions with farmers. It demonstrates that migration and mobility in the region are rooted in historical patterns established and reinforced through colonial and post-colonial governance. These patterns reflect inequalities created by past and present development policies as well as environmental factors. While environmental change intensifies existing migration patterns, it is difficult to isolate these effects from the economic, social, and political factors which also contribute to migration flows in the Savannah zone. We therefore conclude that migration flows are co-constituted by past and present governance practices, disparities, development policies, and social transformation as well as environmental factors. Analysis and policy narratives that attribute recent migration flows to climate change only are simplistic and blur the effects of past and present structural inequalities and political engagement.

KEYWORDS:

• Climate change
• Ghana
• governance
• history
• migration
• im/mobility

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1 This article draws on research from the Governing Climate Mobility (GCM) program, a collaborative research program conducted by researchers in Ghana, Ethiopia and Denmark. It is part of a special section on the role of governance in shaping climate-related mobility.

2 The final sample of 403 households is due to technicalities during the survey. Whereas 430 households were originally selected, 27 households either refused to participate or did not qualify.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Danish International Development Agency.

Notes on contributors

Francis Xavier Jarawura

Francis Xavier Jarawura is a senior lecturer in the Department of Planning at the SD. Dombo University in northern Ghana. He holds a Ph.D. in Migration Studies from the University of Ghana and a Master of Philosophy degree in Development Geography from the University of Oslo, Norway. His key research interests include environmental change and adaptation, migration and rural livelihoods.

Joseph Kofi Teye

Joseph Kofi Teye is currently the Director of Research at the Office of Research, Innovation and Development at the University of Ghana, a co-director of the UKRI South-South Migration, Inequality and Development Hub, and the immediate past Director of the Centre for Migration Studies, University of Ghana. He holds a PhD in Geography from the University of Leeds and an MPhil in Social Change from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology. His current research interests include migration and development, migration policy development, environmental change, and natural resource governance.

Nauja Kleist

Nauja Kleist is a senior researcher at the Danish Institute for International Studies (DIIS). Her research focuses on linkages between im/mobility and belonging, and how migration is perceived and governed by different actors. She has worked extensively on return migration, gender and family relations, diaspora engagement, hope and uncertainty, with multi-sited and longitudinal studies on Ghanaian mobilities and Somali diaspora groups. She holds a PhD in Sociology from the University of Copenhagen, Denmark.

Lily Salloum Lindegaard

Lily Salloum Lindegaard is a senior researcher at DIIS. She holds a PhD in International Development from the University of Copenhagen, Denmark. Her work focuses on the politics and governance of climate change impacts and response from local to global scales. Current research interests include the politics and governance of rural climate change adaptation, climate-related mobility, transformational responses to climate change, and loss and damage.

David Ayikwei Quaye

David Quaye is currently a Senior Meteorologist at the Research and Applied Meteorology division of the Ghana Meteorological Agency. He has seven years of experience as an Aeronautical and Public Weather Forecaster. He is also a final year PhD student at the Center for Migration Studies, University of Ghana Legon. His research focuses on the interlinkages between climate change, migration and social transformation in Northern Ghana. He envisions a future career in climate mobility, sustainable development and social transformation in rural communities.