Odyssey member Yaw Danka is exploring the potential role of the new information and communication technologies in the migration experiences of Ghanaians, particularly in relation to education and skills development and transfer. The following extract from one of the interviews he has conducted illustrates some of the themes that have arisen. Reasons for migration
Y: When did you first migrate to the UK and for what reason?
K: In February 2004 to Study.
Y: You have told me in earlier discussions that you studied in the Netherlands for a Masters Degree in populations studies and you already had a Bachelors degree from Ghana. Why then another study in the UK?
K: This was to broaden my opportunities in the job market. In the UK I came to read business studies because I have being targeting job opportunities in the Social Marketing sectors.
Y: Does migration and the study in the UK give you any special identity?
K: Yes; a certificate from this country is given good recognition back home and the fact that you have live and work outside your own country is an advantage.
Y: Presently you have acquired the Highly Skilled migrant’s status in the UK, does it mean you intend to work here and not to go back with the skill you have acquired?
K: No, not at all. I only want to work here for a while and then acquire some working experience here in addition to the qualifications then I can work better back home.
New environment and different culture
Y: If you wouldn’t mind, can you tell me a little about you experiences in the country upon arrival on a new soil where you have no strong family links and how you could survive as a new settler?
K: Like you rightly said I had no strong family links in the UK and I had to survive. Financially I had the money to accommodate myself as a student but the problem was; getting me accustomed to the system. I had nobody to tell me what to do at what point in time. The effect was that I was spending more than I had to and this affected me badly in the long run. Experiences from other colleagues were that they had to live with friends and families but that was a shocker to most of them. Some had to move out because they had become burden on their relatives. These are people who have lived in England for some time and have adopted and different ways of live in terms of culture and relationship. That kind of family bond we have in Ghana does not work here. This can be a source of frustration to new migrants from Africa.
Information technology and accessibility to Information for Migrants
Y: Again, in conversations we have had, you talked about some source of information that helped to organise your self before moving to the UK. Can you tell me a something more on that?
K: I had a lot of information from the Internet when I decided to study in the UK. I look for schools on the Internet and I was able to gain admission to these schools right on time and then I could select which one was most suitable for me. You get the understanding that getting schools for yourself abroad and moving to abroad to study has been eased by the internet.
You remember some time ago we had to write letters and wait for longer periods to get responses and even admission. This blew up a lot of chances we needed to enable us migrate. The technology does not only make migration easier but also makes it sustainable. Once you move to another part of the world you will need some information about what is happening back home. Now you can read all the news from Ghana on the internet.
Let me add more to this. I go the information about my present status ie the Highly Skilled migrants’ status on the internet. I downloaded a lot of materials from the net and it was easy to apply once I was qualified.
Homepage for Migration, Identity and New Information Technology workshop