Paper short abstract:

Young women from the north of Ghana jointly organise certain aspects of their livelihood provision, such as work, finances, and housing in order to secure one another when seasonally migrating to Accra. These informal social security networks are in close relation to their shared place of origin.

Paper long abstract:

In the past decades the feminization of mobility and migration in West Africa have been on the rise with a high share of rural-urban migration routes. Possible explanations are the lack of economic opportunities in the region of origin and a notion of accessing social spheres outside intra-household roles. Often so women find themselves in particularly vulnerable circumstances when migrating, which makes social security strategies exceptionally important. Therefore, I investigate such coping mechanisms using the example of young women, who migrate seasonally for a couple of months from the rural north of Ghana to Accra to work as so-called kayayei (head-porters) to raise money.

Young women from the same place of origin jointly organize work, shelter, and finances in small groups. However, the kayayei normally interrupt their stay for the duration of the harvesting season in the north, only to return to Accra again afterward. As part of the informal working sector, kayayei are largely excluded from formal social security schemes, because they are tied to their informal occupation. Hence, kayayei mostly rely on informal social security networks and relations. Determining not only the social status and positionality informal social security networks are also part of strategic actions toward economic investments, consumptions, and obligations. However, the vast majority of literature falls short in acknowledging the embeddedness in translocal networks and the importance of such in terms of ensuring informal security.