Migrants in the Marketplace: Black American Diasporization and Settlement in Ghana

Haile, Shanelle Chambers

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Year:: 2023
Contributor:: Haile, Shanelle Chambers (creator); Chorev, Nitsan (Advisor); Lindstrom, David (Reader); Itzigsohn, Jose (Reader); Brown University. Department of Sociology (sponsor)
Genre:: theses
Subject:: African diaspora; Race and Ethnicity; diaspora; policy implementation; Emigration
Extent:: 10, 199 p.

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Abstract:: Through its diaspora engagement policy, Ghana’s government invites Black Americans, a group with nebulous claims to a singular ancestral homeland, to return to a country from which they did not emigrate. The policy builds on affective, historical connections between Black Americans and the African homeland but promotes Ghana as the singular nation-state to which this diaspora should return. Black American return migration to Ghana cannot be fully explained by the literatures on international and transnational migration. The former suggests that migrants move for macro- and micro-socioeconomic reasons and follow migration pathways emerging from their information networks. The latter suggests that affective connections mobilize potential migrants to where they imagine they belong. I draw upon surveys, interviews, documents, and observational data to explain this phenomenon. I examine three lines of inquiry: (1) Ghana’s policy narratives, which both construct and strengthen diasporic connection, (2) the factors motivating Black American migration to Ghana, and (3) the settlement experiences as related to measures of social inclusion. I argue that Ghana’s diaspora engagement policy may effectively (if indirectly) motivate Black Americans to embrace narratives of diasporic belonging, yet settlement in Ghana is complicated, requiring Black Americans to reassess preconceived notions of shared ancestral and racial identity. This project contributes to the literature on globalization and migration by conceptualizing diaspora engagement policies as one of many tools nation-states employ in a transnational marketplace to draw resources to the country in exchange for the intrinsic and extrinsic benefits they market and sell to targeted groups in other countries. The study also offers a new perspective on the historical particularity of the Black American diaspora’s identity and Ghana’s role in constructing it by critically examining the boundaries of racial identity in a transnational context.
Notes:: Thesis (Ph. D.)--Brown University, 2023

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Citation

Haile, Shanelle Chambers, "Migrants in the Marketplace: Black American Diasporization and Settlement in Ghana" (2023). Sociology Theses and Dissertations. Brown Digital Repository. Brown University Library. https://repository.library.brown.edu/studio/item/bdr:fk5sf285/

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Sociology Theses and Dissertations

Theses and Dissertations for the Sociology department.
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