DOI: 10.5880/fidgeo.2023.041
title: Empirical data from a multi-local survey on migration and translocal structures in Ghana (Northern Region, Eastern Region, Greater Accra Region)

description: The data in this data publication were collected within the research project “Migration and Translocality in West Africa (Mitra|WA)”, based on a multi-local survey approach following a translocal methodology. Data were collected in research areas along main migration corridors of Ghana. This dataset contains data from household level and individuals at the areas of origin as well as data from individual migrants originating from these locations at their respective areas of destination. 
 
The same multi-local baseline survey was also conducted by fellow researchers of the Mitra|WA-project in other parts of Ghana (e.g. Ashanti Region and Upper West Region), Burkina Faso, Nigeria and Sierra Leone. 
 
The dataset provided here consists of two tables with data from the Area of Origin (AoO) and one table from the Area of Destination (AoD). While each of the individual tables contain valuable information on respective households and migration aspects, the three tables combined mirror the translocal methodological principle of the multi-local baseline survey. They provide a valuable starting point to identify and analyse translocal struc-tures and processes, which are highly relevant in West Africa.
description: The data presented here stem from the international joint research project "Migration and Translocality in West Africa” (Mitra|WA), funded by the German Ministry for Education and Research (BMBF Grant 01LG2079A), as part of the WASCAL (West African Science Service Centre on Climate Change and Adapted Land Use) funding scheme of WRAP 2.0 (https://wascal.org/). For further information, visit our website: https://www.uni-passau.de/en/mitrawa 
 
The research consortium consists of six partner institutions from four countries (University of Passau, Ger-many; Université Jospeh Ki-Zerbo, Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso; University of Ghana, Legon/Accra, Ghana; Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Kumasi, Ghana; University of Ibadan, Nigeria; TU Dortmund, Germany. 
 
The conceptual starting point of the project is the fundamental realisation that migration is a defining feature of and for socio-economic as well as socio-ecological change in West Africa. Many of the big challenges such as rapid urbanization, livelihood security, agricultural change and food security in times of climate change (and the reciprocal effects between these challenges) can only be understood and addressed when the complex social and economic networks which evolve and intensify through migration processes are taken into consideration. So far, many studies focus on structures, processes and impacts of migration in isolation, analyzing these either at the regions of origin or in the areas of destination (Steinbrink and Niedenführ, 2020). Hereby, they widely neglect the existential relevance of the dense space-spanning (translocal) networks interlinking these areas. 
 
The aim of the Mitra|WA project is to develop a translocal perspective on social, economic and ecological transformations in West Africa. Thus, we try to overcome the territorial bias of classic migration and devel-opment research, which tends to dissect the lived reality of migrants and their embeddedness in translocal social network structures. Part of this aim is to develop a translocal methodology and to translate the concept of translocality into adequate empirical research methods (Wehner, 2022).