Paper short abstract:

This paper examines an unusual element of the recent scramble for African resources: the entry into Ghana between 2008 & 2013 of approx. 50,000 Chinese irregular migrants to engage in small-scale gold mining, and the impact on the livelihoods of both Chinese & Ghanaian miners and on local markets.

Paper long abstract:

An unusual element of the recent 'scramble for Africa' was the entry into Ghana of approximately 50,000 irregular Chinese migrants between 2008 and 2013 to engage in small-scale gold mining. These migrants were overwhelmingly working-class miners from Shanglin County, Guangxi Province, an area with a tradition of gold mining. In Ghana, they introduced new technologies that dramatically increased gold production, while also causing severe environmental degradation. While the Chinese miners formed mutually beneficial relationships with many local actors and gave a boost to local markets, their presence also caused conflict. Legally, small-scale mining is reserved for Ghanaians, and in some cases the Chinese miners were accused of displacing local small-scale miners, feeding corruption and stealing the country's wealth by smuggling gold. While the government appeared to ignore this phenomenon for some years, eventually media pressure forced President Mahama to act, with a military-style Taskforce established and the deportation of many Chinese miners.

This research revisits this brief but intense episode. It follows-up on the main participants, both Chinese and Ghanaian, and traces the impacts of such mass migration on the livelihoods of those labourers involved, as well as on the local economy. Fieldwork is conducted in Ghana and Shanglin County to trace the differentiated outcomes, providing a critical examination of South-South labour migration and the dynamics of global patterns of marginalisation, precaritisation, inequality and exploitation.

This paper has been developed in collaboration with Nicholas Loubere.