Gender and Return Migration: Gulf Returnees in Ghana

Abstract

Labor migration in the Global South is generally conceived as a multidimensional process that comprises three distinct subprocesses: emigration, immigration, and return migration. There is growing consensus that return migration is the least understood of these three subprocesses. In a similar vein, a gendered analysis has become more integral to migration scholarship today; yet, one area where gender matters but has not been thoroughly studied is the return migration process. Focusing on Ghanaian returnees from the Arab Gulf states, this paper examines how gender affects the migration process by highlighting gender-based socio-demographic differences in migrant experiences in terms of working and living conditions, recruitment, remittances, and reintegration and remigration. The study reports that the gender dimension of returnees’ experiences constitutes an avenue of migration research that has the potential to produce a more nuanced understanding of gendered migration scholarship in the Global South.