Here is not my home. The story of a migrant construction worker in Ghana

by Collins Yeboah

In Ghana, both skilled and unskilled migrant workers seek greener pastures in the highly concentrated city of Accra and its sprawling peri-urban areas. Most of these migrants end up working in the informal and insecure sectors as domestic and construction workers.

Usually, the migrant construction workers are practicing craftsmen – masons, carpenters, and steel benders. A study by Yaro et al (2015) indicates that migrants skilled in construction work spend years perfecting their trade at home before migrating, due mainly to the surplus of crafts persons in their originating communities.

Why do construction workers leave?

“There are jobs in the Volta Region for masons like me, but they are not too many - it is the big construction firms that get all the contracts and pay us the masons as they want”. 

These are the words of Divine, a 23-year-old mason from Tsitsito, in the North Tongu district in the Volta Region of Ghana. Divine migrated to Accra because of poor salaries and low frequency of jobs in the Volta region.

Our Migrating out of Poverty global qualitative study in Ghana* found that the livelihood options in origin areas, though diverse, are of limited benefits to the emerging youth. The towns and peri-urban areas have limited construction projects mainly provided by the state, the Ghanaian diaspora and residents. It was also found that the non-farm sector has blossomed but with limited profit margins due to poor purchasing power and low populations. Farming is an important activity in both Northern and Volta Regions of Ghana but one whose significance is decreasing due to dwindling land sizes in peri-urban areas, falling soil fertility, soil erosion, and rising input cost. Petty trading is therefore the norm in the origin areas, especially for women.

Given the above local origin context, rural-urban migration for skilled work is encouraged by the entire household. The study further found higher wages in Accra are a major attraction for migrants. Also, the waiting time for moving between contract jobs is shorter in Accra. Added to this is the fact that the desire for housing - as reflected in the aspiration of the middle classes desire to own houses - drives the demand for the services of construction workers. Global processes of industrialization, modernization, and urbanization also provide the opportunities and conditions for migration.

Our study found that the migration of skilled workers is encouraged by the entire household as it holds promise for moving them out of poverty. Like many migrants, Divine reported that his family members consented to his migration and gave him their blessings. He self-financed his migration from his savings as a mason in Tsitsito and thus doesn’t have any debts to repay:

“I financed my migration from Tsitsito to Accra. I do not owe anyone in my village. I have a purpose, to make enough money and go back so I can start my own business…” 

Others use loans from family members and friends to finance their relocation.

Conditions in the migrant construction sector

Migrants seek jobs wherever they perceive jobs are possible. Where there is an opening, an offer is made with conditions advantageous to the employer. There is little job security in the sector and few people have formal contracts. Arrangements are usually agreed verbally. Our study found that masons in the construction industry earn between Ghc 30-40 a day. Workers are only paid for days worked - an indication of the extent of casualisation in the industry. They are not provided with sick pay, except in cases where a worker falls ill on the job and cannot continue for the rest of his/her hours that day. But they are not paid for any subsequent days off.

Construction workers tend to labour throughout the week from 7:30 to 17:00, with one day off on a Sunday. The six-day work regime is used across all categories of construction work and there are high levels of flexibility for the non-formalised sector where the rule is fulfilling one’s contract rather than the time used. A mason in Accra is expected to lay 100 blocks a day or plaster two walls a day. A good worker is capable of achieving this task in 5 hours (also called ‘finish and go’). As Divine puts it:

“I can lay more than 100 blocks a day. Masa, when you start, there is no rest for you. You see the difficulty involved? It is a work for the strong not the weak” 

Despite the challenges that he faces in the city Divine still holds the idea to save enough and go back to Tsitsito. The intention to stay in Accra permanently, or acquire assets in Accra, is not part of Divine’s plan. He considers himself a ‘hustler’ and therefore sees Accra as a temporal place, a survivalist strategy to save money and return home:

“I did not come here to spend heavily on food. No way! I have plans to save enough of what I earn so I can go back to Volta region and establish my own work. Here is not my home”. 




Yaro, J. A, Awumbila, M & Teye, J.K (2015). The life struggles and successes of the migrant construction worker in Accra, Ghana. Ghana Journal of Geography Vol. 7(2), 2015, pages 113-131

*GP011 MOOP study- See one of our journal articles based on this study: Social Networks, Migration Trajectories and Livelihood Strategies of Migrant Domestic and Construction Workers in Accra, Ghana

Migration and Remittances will be Critical in Post-Earthquake Reconstruction in Nepal

With nearly 30% of its GDP owed to international remittances, and a significant proportion owed to internal remittances, Nepal is already heavily dependent on migration and remittances. If the experience of other disaster-affected countries in Asia (e.g. Indonesia and Sri Lanka after the Tsunami) is anything to go by, migration will probably increase in the aftermath of the recent earthquakes a) because opportunities for local employment will have been badly affected b) because remittances will be needed to rebuild lives and c) because there will be a need for labour in reconstruction. This increase in migration will be both internal and international.

There is ample evidence to show that remittances are counter-cyclical, peaking after disasters and providing much needed finance directly to those who need it. We could see an increase in both national and international remittances flowing into Nepal in the coming months. There were between 2-4 million Nepalis working abroad before the earthquake hit and hundreds of thousands circulating between rural and urban areas working in construction and other low paid jobs. Newspaper reports suggests that many workers returned home after the earthquake struck; roughly a million people in Kathmandu returned to their villages and many of these were circular migrants who were temporarily in the city to work.  There were also reports that contractors and agents had taken teams of workers back to the rural areas that they came from. But this will probably be short-lived - it is very likely that there will be a spurt in people migrating internally for construction work once the pace of reconstruction picks up.

Migration for construction work is an important type of rural-urban migration, absorbing large numbers of poor and poorly educated people from lower social strata in rural areas. It provides a vital source of income in the agriculturally lean season and helps to sustain and augment rural incomes.  Research conducted under the auspices of the Migrating out of Poverty Consortium in Kathmandu and two rural locations (a typical “Hill” village in Kavre district and a “Plains” village in the Terai plains in Saptari district) shows how important migration for construction work is for rural livelihoods in Nepal. Interviews at destination with 150 migrant construction workers revealed that despite insecure and dangerous working conditions, a majority remitted money to their families which helped them to improve consumption, educate their children, fund marriages and ceremonies, buy durables and in a few cases, purchase land and houses.  In both villages households with migrants were better off than those with no migrants. Income and expenditure figures, as well as land and asset purchase, show that there is a clear correlation between migration and greater material wealth, as well as more spending on education.  The research also shows how cultural and gender norms determine whether or not women can migrate and who, within the family, decides how remittances are used. While Tamang women from the indigenous communities of the Hill village had no cultural restrictions on migration, very few women among the Hindu Madhesis in the plains migrated for work due to cultural norms and stereotypes about women’s work.  It was also reported that Tamang women have more control over how remittances are spent compared with Madhesi women, although the data were too limited to see any specific outcomes of these differences. 

These findings are useful to inform the current reconstruction and rebuilding effort. It is critically important that government and aid agencies work with migrants rather than against them first and foremost by not obstructing or trying to limit mobility. It also means providing complimentary and supportive services based on a sound understanding of 1) the importance of internal migration and remittances for rural households, especially the poor 2) the gender dynamics of migration and remittance use so that interventions target the right people. While official channels such as banks and money transfer companies are likely to be adversely affected by the disruption to their infrastructure and computers, personal and informal channels assume greater importance.  It is important that these mechanisms for transferring money are not penalised and criminalised as is the wont of the paranoid official financial monitoring systems.

For further information contact Priya Deshingkar, University of Sussex. p.deshingkar@sussex.ac.uk 

The full paper by Jagannath Adhikari and Priya Deshingkar (2015) How Migration into Urban Construction Work Impacts on Rural Households in Nepal. Working Paper 27, Migrating out of Poverty Consortium, University of Sussex can be accessed here: How Migration into Urban Construction Work Impacts on Rural Households in Nepal