66. In addition, any meaningful remedial policy has either to recognize the fact of massive population growth or must seek to reduce it. Thus, population control and national family planning programmes should be considered as a necessary part of any solution to the employment problem in the subregion. Yet many African governments believe that much of the
continent is underpopulated. Little wonder then these governments aremore concerned with raising the living standards of their population as against taking steps to contain a rapidly growing population. Regarding education, the essentially rural communities of the subregion require
training that is appropriate to their agricultural needs. But contemporary education is largely functional since it encourages city-ward migration
by teaching skills and attitudes that are appropriate to an urban way of
life. Riddle has, however, argued that if the schools were to inculcate the essential features of rural society, teach the appropriate skills and prepare school-leavers to help make the agricultural economy more viable,
then education could become a conservative element in terms of human mobility in the subregion. The other policy measures - decentralization of government agencies in terms of locations, Africanization and develop ment of growth poles have all been discussed at length. However, there isno empirical evidence to support their successful use in steming city^ward
migration. There is, therefore, need for a more intensive examination of the causes and consequences of migration with a view to formulatingsolution oriented policies to deal with the trend of city-ward migration
in the subregion.
67. Although the OECD/IBRD study did not deal empirically with the consequences of migration, it led to certain conclusions of significance for the development of the region from the demographic, social and economic
standpoints. Demographically, it was seen from the study that the rate of
population increase in the savannah regions had increased by 0.6 percent.Socially, the dependence rate was higher in the emigration countries than in the immigration countries (106 in Upper Volta as against 93 in the
Ivory Coast). Emigration had reduced the average educational level both
in the countries of departure and countries of arrival. The most importanteconomic consequence of the study was undoubtedly the redistribution of
the working population among countries, among regions within countries and
between rural and urban areas. For example out of 11,731,000 persons34
-considered as economically active in eight countries of the region in 1975, eleven percent were immigrants (foreign African nationals).
68. Besides the OECD/IBRD study, Ghansah and Aryee had examined the demographic social effects of international migration in Ghana based on the results of the 1960 census 6/. The co-authors noted, among other things, that since the immigrant population was largely males in their middle ages, immigration tended to increase the masculinity of the Ghanaian total population. On the one hand, the absence of males in the middle ages of the population of Ghanaian neighbours including Togo, Upper Volta9
Nigeria and Ivory Coast (the origin of the migrants) had the unsalutary effect of delaying marriages and reducing the birth rates of the countries of origin. On the other hand, the co-authors argued that the excess of males in Ghana possibly enhanced either intertribal marriages or prosti tution or both. Another social effect of the massive immigration into Ghana considered by the co-authors included the resulting inadequate and insufficient housing facilities giving rise to the creation of slums in areas of migrant concentration
69. Besides, according to Rouch (1954), Ghana was to remain for many years dependent on this migratory movement of manual laboureres. Ghana obtained labour without great social investment. She was freed of the costs of raising the young generation, care for the old and sick, etc.
Indeed, the unskilled foreign labour was in high demand in Ghana,because local labour, particularly that in Southern Ghana, was unwilling to accept similar labour offers. This fact, however, does not prove that free and unselected labour immigration was also economically sound or indispensable.
It is a fact that at the time foreign unskilled labour immigrated by the hundreds of thousands, much local labour was unemployed or underemployed.
It appears, therefore, that low wage rates influenced the lack of local labour, these latter being a result of foreign labour offer from low income countries. Indeeds wages, particularly in rural areas, were so low that in 1960 the Ghana Government saw it as a duty to fix a minimum wage.
70. Particularly questionable appears to be the economic contribution of the comparatively high number of traders among migrants. The 1954 report quotes serious disturbances which had arisen from the trade com petition between migrant and local traders. Local traders were mainly women. Uncontrolled immigration of unskilled labour, low wages, and
excessive petty trading were incompatible with the then economic and social policy of the Ghana Government, as could be gathered from the statements embodied in the Seven-Year Development Plan, which called for economic advancement by means of mechanization and specialization - an increase in the proportion of the labour force in manufacturing industries and a decrease in that of agricultures increases in the percentages of high
6/ GhansahsD.K., and Aryee, A.F. , "The Demographic and Social
Effect of Migration in Ghana".World Population Conference (Belgrades 1965)
Vol. 4, pp. 199 - 201.
35
-level workers (from 4 per cent to 7 per cent) and of middle -level operators (from 16 per cent to 19 per cent) through the expansion of educational
facilities, while, at the same time, maintaining the proportion of unskilled labour at the existing level of 20 per cent.
71. Finally the export of foreign exchange, by temporary immigrants in particular, was another serious economic drawback in the then condition of Ghana. In the nineteen fifties when the foreign exchange reserves held by Ghana were comparatively large (170 million Ghanaian pounds around 1955) a transfer of about 10 million Ghanaian pounds per year by migrants to French speaking African countries alone raised no foreign exchange problem for Ghana. The foreign exchange assets had since decreased sharply and had fallen to 29.5 million Ghanaian pounds in 1963 _7/- To reduce the deficit in the balance of payments, Ghana started in 1961 a policy of import restrictions initially by raising import duties, but gradually turned it into a strict control of imports and foreign exchange.
From 1963, remittances of foreign nationals working in Ghana were limited to 50 percent of their gross monetary incomes.
72. The case of Ghana is isolated for discussion here just for
illustrative purposes. The cases of other countries within the subregion could as well be used in stressing some of the perceived effects of
international migration within the subregion. As in the case of Northern Africa countries, the socio-economic indicators of the observed inter national migration is also examined for the 11 West African countries for which some information on migration is available. Considering all the
eleven countries in the region with migration information (Table 6), the association between the GNP per capita and population size is weak given a rank order corelation of 0.13 between the two variables. The inference can thus be made that taking the West African subregion as an entity, the pattern of international migration observed (ie. Seasonal) is not sequel to differential living levels between the emigrant and immigrant countries.
In other words, in the West African subregion with a unique pattern of international migration (ie. Seasonal), available evidence indicates that there is no association between socio and economic indicators of migration and the supply/demand labour situation is more of data artifact and hence requires further investigation
The South African Subregion:
(i) Volume, Trends and Causes
73. More than any other African subregion, international migration in the South African subregion has been studied in great detail by the IL0 as a major focuss of its world employment research programme. The countries covered by about 14 such studies include Southern Rhodesia, Swaziland,
Lesotho, Botswana and Republic of South Africa. From these various studies, it is noted that the subregion extending from Malawi to the Republic of South Africa is characterised by short-term migration (about 6-18 months) of young males to the mines and industrial complexes of the Republic of
]_/ Central Bureau of Statistics, Economic Survey of Ghana, 1963 (Accra, 1964).
4HM*?W-4 '< («
36
-Table 6
Socio-Economic Indicators of Migration in West Africa
Country
GNP per capita in 1975 (U.S.$)
Population size (000s)
Natural rate of growth
Literacy rate in
1975
Ivory Coast Ghana
Liberia Senegal Togo
Sierra Leone Gambia
Benin Guinea Upper Volta Mali
Source: Amy
500 460 410 370 270 200 190 140 130 90 90
Ong Tsui and
6 770
8 559 1 379 5 085 1 951 2 735 493 2 668 4 656 5 638 5 900Bogue, D.J., Op.
2.9 2.9 3.0 2.6 2.6 2.2 1.9 2.7 2.4 2.2 2.4
Cit^ Zachariah 20 30 24 8 17 10 10 20 8 8 10
and Conde, Op_» cit.