Before completing my MSc in Gender, Development and Globalisation at the London School of Economics & Political Science in 2006, I submitted a dissertation on the nature of work being done by skilled migrant women in the UK using a case study of female Ghanaian migrant workers in London.
During the research for my dissertation, I realised that a significant majority of the Ghanaian women I interviewed had higher education qualifications from Ghana but were working in areas completely unrelated to what they studied and using very little of the skills they had acquired from their studies.
Amongst the Ghanaian women I spoke to in the UK was Bella, who was married with two young children. She had left her children in Ghana with her mother-in-law to join her husband who was a Masters’ student at a university in London. Bella was a trained teacher with a BA in Psychology and Theology from a Ghanaian university but in London, she worked as a customer assistant at the fish counter at a Tesco Supermarket, which is a British multinational groceries and general merchandise retailer.
Ewura Ama was married with three children and also moved to the UK to join her husband who was studying for his PhD. She holds a BA in Sociology and Political Science and a Masters’ degree in Public Administration from the University of Ghana but whilst in London, she worked as a customer service assistant at one of McDonald’s fast-food shops.
Another lady I interviewed was Amina, a qualified doctor from Ghana with a Bachelor of Medicine and Surgery who moved to the UK as an economic migrant. For a couple of years, she worked as a care worker in a care home trying to save money for the fees for the requisite exams to enable her practise as a medical doctor in London.
The outcome of my research piqued my interest in finding out what motivated people to leave their countries of birth to live elsewhere and what their experiences were in their host countries. Years down the line, the trend of skilled migrant workers in low paid work continues unabated while hundreds, if not thousands, continue to flock to countries in the Western world in search of greener pastures. I hope that by reading ‘Beyond the Greener Pastures’, we will begin to seriously think about and discuss the factors that influence the sub-optimal choices we make and the resulting impact on our lives, families and generations after us in our quest for a “better life” beyond the shores of Africa.