Confronting mainstream migration narratives in Ghana: everyday youth aspirations as part of a decentring agenda

Migration has long been an important livelihood strategy for Ghanaian youth. External actors’ present-day interventions in Ghana have brought specific narratives around ‘managing migration’ for development combined with neoliberal development agendas that emphasise migrants’ and would-be migrants’ role in contributing to local development. At the same time, domestic policy elites actively apply an economic gains lens to migration governance that reflects their interest in securing investments from their diaspora. This article examines the central migration policy narratives of immobility, entrepreneurialism and development espoused by external and domestic policy actors. It contrasts these narratives with youth perspectives derived from local socioeconomic realities, aspirations, and a vibrant ‘culture of migration’. Our findings draw on two studies conducted in 2016–2018 involving documentary analysis, semi-structured interviews with government officials and other migration stakeholders in Accra, and an ethnographic study of youth in British-Ghanaian transnational households. This paper contributes to a ‘de-centring’ agenda by incorporating such perceptions on migration from the margins. Our findings also demonstrate that the comparative study of diverse actors – external and domestic, elite and marginalised – and their narratives is an essential exercise in a country such as Ghana, where external and domestic actors govern migration.