Paper short abstract:

This paper examines the moral economy of migration and achievement in Ghana. It explores the local category of ‘Burghers’ – characterizing successful migrants from Western countries – analyzing their social and moral status, authority, and obligations vis-à-vis their families and communities.

Paper long abstract:

This paper examines the moral economy of migration and achievement in Ghana. It explores the local category of 'Burghers' - a term used to characterize successful migrants from Western and North African countries. Based on ethnographic fieldwork in 2012 and 2013, the paper analyzes the social and moral status of 'Burghers' as well as patterns of authority, obligations and expectations vis-à-vis their families and communities.

The paper argues that the position and status of 'Burghers' is ambivalent. On the one hand, 'Burghers' are widely admired for their material wealth, Western lifestyle, and ability to care well for their family members in Ghana. Furthermore being a 'Burgher' can be a way of surpassing and transforming social hierarchies and a fast mode of becoming a 'big man'. These aspects of the 'Burgher' position inspire notions of hope and achievement among young people in the region who often endeavor to realize their aspirations through irregular migration towards Europe or Libya.

On the other hand, however, 'Burghers' are seen as potentially morally corrupted by their life in the West and may quickly be dismissed as selfish and as lacking social accountability, or, if their migration projects do not succeed, as 'Burgher loose' - as 'failed migrants' and the antithesis of success. Likewise irregular migration is widely condemned among local authorities and the non-migrant established elite who promote education and regular migration as the morally and legally correct ways of achievement. There is thus a struggle between different moral economies and aspirations of success and status.