Features
Ghanaian migrants in Finland and social relationships
● Ghanaian migrants in Finland at an event
I have recently come across some studies about migrants and social relationships. Such studies, done in other European countries, revealed interesting things about the social lives or relationships of the migrants, and I started thinking about what happens with Ghanaian migrants in Finland.
So, today, I write about Ghanaian migrants in Finland and social relationships. It is not totally based on any academic study; rather, what I write here is based on my personal observations and the opinions of some Ghanaian migrants in Finland, although I also rely a bit on my own research about African/Ghanaian migrants here.
The nature/types of social relationships of migrants
According to researchers on migration, a perspective of migrants’ commitments builds on insights into global flows while providing a focus on place, human agency, meaning making, attachments, and life strategising.
Sets of migrant networks ranging across kinship, friendship and workmates in Ghana (country of origin) and in Finland give Ghanaian migrants the chance to interact with myriad groups of people, networks and situations.
Social networks of family, friends, migrants associations, etc., have become important points for providing information and education about healthy lifestyles, social relations, and improving wellbeing.
What I wrote some time ago about the social lives of aging Ghanaian migrants is true for even younger ones too. They all strive to keep social bonds. There is a form of reasoning in which the meaning of the social world is objectified through family (kinship), friendship, and other ties.
Family bonds
A key contribution of the family, based on the kinship system in the various groups in Ghana, is the sense of belonging derived from the family bonds the Ghanaian migrants have both in Ghana and here in Finland.
Kinship and friendship ties in both societies of origin and settlement are important since these network connections constitute a form of social capital that people can draw upon for various reasons and benefits—including employment, solidarity and sense of belonging.
Friendship networks
Ghanaian migrants enter into friendships with fellow migrants and others in Finland. Sometimes, the networks of friendship ties can become even stronger than family ties.
Like family bonds, friendship ties in both societies of origin and settlement, and Ghanaian migrants can draw upon this as a form of social capital.
Civic participation
Ghanaian migrants in Finland engage in various activities as part of civic participation. Such activities include volunteering for local organisations and agencies, or as members of clubs or Ghanaian associations.
As I mentioned previously, migrant associations are increasingly focusing on social lives and how to help improve the wellbeing of people such as migrants.
Generally, such associations seek to serve as a platform to combat loneliness and as a way to protect the mental health and physical wellbeing of older migrants, especially the senior citizens, if you choose to call them so.
Loneliness
One of the key issues most Ghanaian migrants talk about when they meet is how to avoid or at least reduce loneliness and boredom.
In a small study I did about African migrants (including some Ghanaian migrants) I found that some of them engaged in gambling practices in order to avoid becoming bored at home.
Many migrants indulged in practices just to avoid loneliness and boredom. For example, some migrants engage in gambling and value the practice as a means of avoiding boredom, marginalisation and other problems in life.
The way forward
Many Ghanaian migrants find various ways to keep relationships alive in order to prevent loneliness and boredom.
Public agencies, migrant associations and other non-governmental organisations in Finland are advocating the good health and wellbeing of people, especially migrants.
Many migrant groups or associations are using social media platforms and virtual meetings to educate their members and others about the importance of keeping positive social lives for a healthy life. Thank you!
By Perpetual Crentsil
Email: perpetualcrentstil@yahoo.com
One of the issues we have been grappling with as a nation is corruption, and it has had such a devastating effect on our national development. I have been convinced that until morality becomes the foundation upon which our governance system is built, we can never go forward as a nation.
Our traditional practices, which have shaped our cultural beliefs, have always espoused values that have kept us along the straight and the narrow and have preserved our societies since ancient times.
These are values that frown on negative habits like stealing, cheating, greediness, selfishness, etc. Our grandparents have told us stories of societies where stealing was regarded as so shameful that offenders, when caught, have on a number of instances committed suicide.
In fact, my mother told me of a story where a man who was living in the same village as her mother (my grandmother), after having been caught stealing a neighbour’s cockerel, out of shame committed suicide on a mango tree. Those were the days that shameful acts were an abomination.
Tegare worship, a traditional spiritual worship during which the spirit possesses the Tegare Priest and begins to reveal secrets, was one of the means by which the society upheld African values in the days of my grandmother and the early childhood days of my mother.
Those were the days when the fear of being killed by Tegare prevented people from engaging in anti-social vices. These days, people sleeping with other people’s wives are not uncommon.
These wrongful behaviour was not countenanced at all by Tegare. One was likely going to lose his life on days that Tegare operates, and so unhealthy habits like coveting your neighbour’s wife was a taboo.
Stealing of other people’s farm produce, for instance, could mean certain death or incapacitation of the whole or part of the body in the full glare of everybody. People realised that there were consequences for wrongdoing, and this went a long way to motivate the society to adhere to right values.
Imagine a President being sworn into office and whoever administers the oath says, “Please say this after me: I, Mr. …., do solemnly swear by God, the spirits of my ancestors and the spirits ruling in Ghana, that should I engage in corrupt acts, may I and my family become crippled, may madness become entrenched in my family, may incurable sicknesses and diseases be my portion and that of my family, both immediate and extended.”
Can you imagine a situation where a few weeks afterwards the President goes to engage in corrupt acts and we hear of his sudden demise or incapacitation and confessing that he engaged in corrupt acts before passing or before the incapacitation—and the effect it will have on his successor? I believe we have to critically examine this option to curb corruption.
My grandmother gave me an eyewitness account of one such encounter where a woman died instantly after the Tegare Priest had revealed a wrong attitude she had displayed during the performance on one of the days scheduled for Tegare spirit manifestation.
According to her story, the Priest, after he had been possessed by the spirit, declared that for what the woman had done, he would not forgive her and that he would kill. Instantly, according to my grandmother, the lady fell down suddenly and she died—just like what happened to Ananias and his wife Sapphira in Acts Chapter 5.
NB: ‘CHANGE KOTOKA INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT TO KOFI BAAKO
By Laud Kissi-Mensah
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BY ROBERT EKOW GRIMMOND-THOMPSON
