WHY RURAL-URBAN MIGRATION?

Rural-urban migration is a major problem in Ghana. The movement of people especially the youth such as school leavers and drop outs from the rural areas to the urban centers in search for jobs and social amenities is the term giving to rural urban migration. Most of the urban centers like Kumasi, Accra, and Sunyani among others are choked with people. The nature of Ghanaian urbanization is examined together with the motivational factors that cause many to leave their rural homes.

A distinction is made between those “committed urbanites” who readily adapt to urban life and the “situational urbanites” who experience greater problems in adjustment to the city. Some of the factors that causes people to move from the rural areas to the urban centers are;

Most of the youth especially school leavers are not willing to engage in rural jobs such as farming, weaving and curving. This is because, they think they are young and educated, and therefore needs a white collar job. This robs the rural communities of their versatile population.

Secondly, the practices of outmoded cultural rites such as trokosi, dipo, childhood marriage, female genital mutilation among others in the rural areas move them to the urban centers. Since some of the rural communities still practice these outmoded rites, it scares the youth especially females to move or run from their communities with the intention of not passing through these rites.

Again, Ghana like many other developing countries, suffers from the problem of unequal distribution of basic social amenities between the rural communities and urban centers. Facilities for higher education, quality health care, major sports and entertainment facilities, telecommunication and the modern economy are all centralized in the regional and national capital cities. Due to this, the people especially the youth of rural areas move to the cities to enjoy those amenities.

With this, the concerns have emanated from the facts that, the bulk of the urban population is constituted of migrants from rural areas and other small towns in the country. The loss of rural population to urban centers is often bemoaned for its implied adverse effect on rural development. Some of the effects of rural urban migration are;

The major effect is the result of high increase in the population in the urban centers. This causes lack of job opportunities since the few jobs available cannot cater for all the unemployed. Also, there is pressure on social amenities causing them to destroy. This forces the government to spend more on the urban areas which increases government expenditure.

Again, rural urban migration brings about decrease in the population of rural areas. This brings about low productivity in farm produce since the energetic youth are not around to engage in commercial farming. This brings about low productivity making it difficult to develop the rural areas.

In addition, adult male migrants make a heavy demand on all family members but especially on children who are left behind to take the responsibility of agricultural production. This brings about a huge impact or effect in the child activities, education and health. That is when children are allowed to engage in farming activities and house chores; it increases the burden of the child making him or her tired most often for school activities. This at times result in sickness and bad health.

With these factors and effects, there are many solutions to help solve this rural urban migration and this dwells on the government, NGO’s, businessmen among others. Some of the solutions to these problems are;

The government should provide basic infrastructural facilities like roads, water and electricity in the rural areas. This will make it easy for businessmen and private industrialists to establish small and medium size industries in the rural areas.

Also, NGO can help provide social amenities, create jobs and educate the public especially rural areas on the effects of rural urban migration. Again, NGO’s should advocate against outmoded cultural practices to make the rural areas a better place to live.

In conclusion, when solutions are put in place, it will help bridge the gap between the rural areas and the urban centers which will prevent people from moving from the rural communities to urban centers. 

In addition, Center for Integrated Rural and Child Development aims at helping to alleviate absolute destitution in rural communities and improve the lives of women, youth and children. With this, it has interest in rural water and sanitation, rural agriculture, rural health and rural education. This will help make the rural communities a better place to live to prevent rural urban migration.