Exclusive capital: how Ghanaian return migrants value dual citizenship

Abstract

Dual citizenship is known to come with socio-economic benefits, particularly for migrants from the Global South who naturalise in a country of the Global North. This paper explores the ways in which these socio-economic benefits are portable to the Global South when migrants return. Investigating the case of Ghanaian voluntary return migration, it asks: What are the socio-economic benefits of dual citizenship for returnees’ everyday life after return? Building on 49 qualitative interviews with voluntary returnees, it finds that dual citizenship is perceived to offer substantive benefits to returnees’ lives in Ghana. These benefits go well beyond offering an ‘exit strategy’ and are best described as Bourdieusian (economic, social, and cultural) capital that can be derived from citizenship in the Global North but largely relies on its combination with Ghanaian citizenship. One group of returnees stood out by not seeing any additional socio-economic value in dual citizenship for life in Ghana: members of politically well-connected families of Ghana’s elite. The paper concludes that dual citizenship matters in more ways than previously acknowledged, as the case of Ghana points to an under-recognised socio-economic mobility mechanism through return migration with dual citizenship.