ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the extent to which rural households employed migration and remittances as adaptation to national economic stress that was engendered by the implementation of Structural Adjustment Programs. It overviews the Ghana's economic crisis and the government's solution. The chapter describes the rural household survey and reports the main findings on migration and remittances as important survival strategies. It focuses on migration and remittance impacts on rural households at Dwenase, southeastern Ghana, Migration and remittances are conceptualized as rural household survival strategies for coping with the adverse economic effects of Structural Adjustment Programs. For both rural dwellers and urban workers, real incomes and consumption levels fell and poverty increased. Results of the survey point to the fact that migration and remittances must be seen as safety nets and strategies for adaptation to economic stress. Improvements in rural living conditions cannot be attributable to any positive impacts of Structural Adjustment Programs.
