An Empirical Study of the Factors Influencing Ghanaian Household Internal Migration

Abstract

Using the Ghana Statistical Service Annual Household Income and Expenditure Survey (AHIES) most recent dataset on household demographics, income, employment, and other relevant factors, this descriptive study examines how 64,304 respondents ranked the factors that influenced their primary internal migration motivations and their correlations. Although the two primary reasons for internal migration; family unification and long-term or permanent stay, are all derived from the social stock, the study found no positive correlation between them, and together with the economic reason of employment, accounted for 93.6 percent of the reasons for household respondents primary internal migration motivations in Ghana in 2023. The findings indicated strong, moderate, and weak negative correlations of (-0.5943, -0.4911, and -0.2281), between the first three ranked causes of internal migration in Ghana suggesting that each household's internal migration cause needs to be appraised separately in the short term. The study findings support the idea that social capital plays a part in internal migrants social networks. A thorough and integrated policy approach that takes into account the various reasons and effects of internal migration is necessary to address the difficulties and seize the opportunities brought about by internal migration in Ghana. All the Spearman correlations model estimates are significant at the five percent level of statistical significance.