TY - JOUR
T1 - Social Networks and the Geographies of Young People’s Migration
T2 - Evidence from Independent Child Migration in Ghana
AU - Serbeh, Richard
AU - Adjei, Prince Osei Wusu
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2019, Springer Nature B.V.
PY - 2020/3/1
Y1 - 2020/3/1
N2 - Social networks play an important role in shaping major aspects of migratory decisions and outcomes. Adopting an approach, which focused on both before and after stages of migration, this paper examines the value of social networks to the migration of young people by drawing on the experiences of independent child migrants in Ghana. In this paper, we argue that, prior to migration, social networks significantly shape children’s migration trajectories largely through information dissemination on potential destinations and therefore may partly explain the clustering of migrants in certain urban spaces. Besides, through provision of financial resources, such networks account for who migrates and stays put. After migration, social networks by serving as a channel of information flows, enhancing access to jobs and providing informal insurance cover shape major outcomes of young people’s migration. Successful socioeconomic integration of young migrants is a product of membership of village associations. However, social networks do not always engender positive livelihood outcomes due mainly to composition and reciprocity characterising interactions among network actors.
AB - Social networks play an important role in shaping major aspects of migratory decisions and outcomes. Adopting an approach, which focused on both before and after stages of migration, this paper examines the value of social networks to the migration of young people by drawing on the experiences of independent child migrants in Ghana. In this paper, we argue that, prior to migration, social networks significantly shape children’s migration trajectories largely through information dissemination on potential destinations and therefore may partly explain the clustering of migrants in certain urban spaces. Besides, through provision of financial resources, such networks account for who migrates and stays put. After migration, social networks by serving as a channel of information flows, enhancing access to jobs and providing informal insurance cover shape major outcomes of young people’s migration. Successful socioeconomic integration of young migrants is a product of membership of village associations. However, social networks do not always engender positive livelihood outcomes due mainly to composition and reciprocity characterising interactions among network actors.
KW - Children
KW - Informal insurance
KW - Migration
KW - Social networks
KW - Socioeconomic integration
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85075260269&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1007/s12134-019-00720-w
DO - 10.1007/s12134-019-00720-w
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85075260269
SN - 1488-3473
VL - 21
SP - 221
EP - 240
JO - Journal of International Migration and Integration
JF - Journal of International Migration and Integration
IS - 1
ER -