THE RE-INTEGRATION AND REHABILITATION OF MIGRANT WORKERS INTO A LOCAL DOMESTIC ECONOMY - LESSONS FOR ENDOGENOUS DEVELOPMENT

This paper examines the nature, extent and long-term consequences when a local community re-integrates and rehabilitates migrant workers back into the domestic economy. Specifically, it focuses on how a Ghanaian community relying on aspects of its cultural resource base responded to socioeconomic stress caused by the sudden influx of its citizens who had emigrated to Nigeria in search of wage employment and improved standards of living. The author discusses the contemporary adaptation of the returnees, pointing to the degree of intra-village stratification that resulted from their agricultural successes. The author also highlights the extent of social responsibility that exists among community members. It is argued that indigenous knowledge and cultural attributes of rural peoples such as community bonding, self-help, mutual aid, social responsibility, and the organizational capabilities of traditional polities need to be re-examined for their contributions to an "endogenous" strategy of development.