Past Event

The Institute of African Studies in collaboration with the Feminist Institute of Social Transformation, Migration and Diaspora Studies, Department of Law and Legal Studies, and the Institute of Interdisciplinary Studies invites you to a public talk entitled: Gender, Migration, Property, and the Law in Ghana.

Speaker: Professor Takyiwaa Manuh,Institute of African Studies, University of Ghana
Moderator: Professor Nduka Otiono,Director, Institute of African Studies

Format: Hybrid
In-person: Dunton Tower, Room 2017
Online via Zoom

Participation is free.
To attend online, please register using the link below:
Register for Zoom

Join us for an engaging and insightful discussion that explores the intersections of gender, migration, legal frameworks, and property rights in contemporary Ghana.

Abstract

Migration has become a hot-button issue in many countries, fueled by media images of desperate men, women, and even children from the global South crossing oceans and land masses to reach prosperous countries in the global North and threatening their cultures and way of life. The reality is more somber, with international migrants continuing to represent about 3% of the world population over the past five decades or so, despite undoubted growth in legal immigration to the US, Britain, and Western Europe. Explanations of the driving forces of such movements tend to focus more on the push factors rather than on structural factors, with the root cause being persistent labor demand for cheap and precarious jobs in destination countries. Out of these menial jobs that many migrants engage in, some send remittances home and acquire property and assets in their origin countries, as I show in this lecture that analyzes 3 cases decided by Ghana’s Supreme Court in 2021 on claims by returned female migrants to property acquired through migration. Although the details of the cases differ, the rulings reveal the salience of migration in contemporary Ghanaian society, livelihood strategies and opportunities and the dream of property ownership, and the contested terrain of gender relations and gender equality, particularly within family life and society in Ghana.