By Patience Gbeze, GNA
Accra, Dec. 16, GNA – Participants at a cross-talk on migration for equality and development have called for realistic laws in host countries to enhance integration and cohesion.
They said some of the host countries’ laws were so rigid and unfriendly to migrants that it affected their economic activities and called for consented efforts to loosen those laws to facilitate free movement of people across borders.
The participants were of the view that migrants have potentials that host countries could harness to propel economic development.
The programme was organised by the Centre for Migration Studies, Legon, in partnership with Migration Advocacy Centre, Ghana, a non-governmental organization, on South South Migration, Inequality and Development Hub (MIDEQ).
It was to create a platform for open and constructive discussions among migrants, community leaders and members.
Dr Joseph Obeng, the President of Ghana Union of Traders’ Association (GUTA) urged migration advocates to be careful not to blow migration issues out of proportion.
He said there were rules and regulations governing every host country and urged migrants to avail themselves and study those laws and abide by them for social cohesion.
He called on the authorities to intensify education on the laws to clear the mind of migrants as to which areas they could operate and those that were reserved for the indigenes.
Dr Edward Asiedu, an Economist and Senior Lecturer, University of Ghana Business School, who chaired the event, said economic opportunities played high on the reasons why people migrate.
He said most migrants were highly equipped with skills that could effectively contribute to socio-economic development of host countries, hence the need for a conducive environment for them to operate.
“As internal migration is very high, the same way its benefits and challenges too are high, but its benefits outweigh the challenges,” he added.
Dr Asiedu, therefore, emphasised the need to harness those benefits for national development and south-south cooperation.
A similar dialogue was held at Manson Nkwanta in the Ashanti Region.
The MIDEQ project, for the past two years, has been focusing on thematic areas along different migration corridors globally, namely, Gender inequalities, Poverty and income inequalities, and Resource flow.
The objective of these research was to examine how these processes along the corridor are stimulating the economy in the global south, and how trading is changing the pattern of migration in these countries.
The studies also explore the impact of migration, employment and financial flow on gender inequalities.
GNA