Joseph Teye

Visiting Toronto Metropolitan University

Fall 2022

Research focus while a CERC Scholar - Governing labour migration: Temporary, highly skilled, gendered

Joseph will bring the African perspective to the CERC team’s analysis of the effectiveness of current strategies for managing both low-skilled and high-skilled migrants. He will work on topics including an assessment of national migration policies; international/regional collaboration and frameworks on migration governance; highly skilled and low-skilled migrant workers schemes; protection of migrant workers and their families; gendered dynamics of labour migration governance; and mechanisms for harnessing the benefits of labour migration for socio-economic development.  

Related to CERC research theme Governance of Migration in a Globalizing World

Career Achievements

Joseph Kofi Teye is Professor and Director of the Centre for Migration Studies at the University of Ghana. His current research interests include migration and development, migration policy development, environmental change and migration, and natural resource governance. Joseph has participated in large research projects funded by international organizations, including U.K. Research & Innovation; the U.K. Department for International Development; the European Union; the African, Caribbean and Pacific Observatory on Migration; the International Labour Organization; and the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). He has facilitated the development of the National Labour Migration Policy and the National Migration Policy for Ghana and a number of African countries.

Relevant Publications

Awumbila, M., Benneh, Y., Teye, J.K. & Atiim, G. (2014). Across Artificial Borders: An Assessment of Labour Migration in the ECOWAS Region. Brussels: ACP Observatory on Migration and IOM. 

Awumbila, M. & Teye, J.K. (2014). Diaspora and migration policy and institutional frameworks. Ghana Country Report, INTERACT RR 2014/31, Robert Schuman Centre for Advanced Studies, San Domenico di Fiesole (FI): European University Institute.

Awumbila, M., Teye, J.K., & Yaro, J.A. (2016). Of silent maids, skilled gardeners and careful madams: Gendered dynamics and strategies of migrant domestic workers in Accra, Ghana. GeoJournal, 81(3). DOI: 10.1007/s10708-016-9711-5

Awumbila, M., Badasu, D., & Teye, J.K. (Eds.). (2017). Migration in a Globalizing World: Perspectives from Ghana. Sub-Saharan Publishers.

Awumbila, M., Teye, J.K., & Yaro, J.A. (2017). Social networks, migration trajectories and livelihood strategies of migrant domestic and construction workers in Accra, Ghana. Journal of African and Asian Studies. DOI: 10.1177/0021909616634743

Awumbila, M., Deshingkar, P., Kandilige, L., Teye, J.K., & Setrana, M. (2018). Please, thank you and sorry – brokering migration and constructing identities for domestic work in Ghana. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies. DOI: 10.1080/1369183X.2018.1528097

Deshingkar, P., Awumbila, M., & Teye, J.K. (2019). Victims of trafficking and modern slavery or agents of change? Migrants, brokers, and the state in Ghana and Myanmar (external link) . Journal of the British Academy, 7(s1), 77-106. 

Obour, P.B, Owusu, K., & Teye, J.K. (2017). From Seasonal Migrants to Settiers: Climate Change and Permanent Migration to the Transitional Zone of Ghana. In S. Tonah, M.S. Boatemaa, & J.A. Arthur (Eds.), Migration and Development in Africa: Trends, Challenges and Policy Implications. Lexington Books.  

Teye, J.K., & Yebleh, M. (2015). Living without economic assets: Livelihoods of Liberian refugees in the Buduburam Camp, Ghana. Journal of International Migration and Integration, 16(3), 557–574. DOI 10.1007/s12134-014-0352-6

Teye, J.K., Awumbila, M., & Benneh, Y. (2015). Intra-regional migration in the ECOWAS region: Trends and emerging challenges. In A.B. Akoutou, R. Sohn, M. Vogl & D. Yeboah (Eds.), Migration and Civil Society as Development Drivers - A Regional Perspective (pp. 97-124). Zei Centre for European Integration Studies.

Teye, J.K., Alhassan, O., & Setrana, M. (2017). Evolution and nature of diaspora engagement policies in Ghana. In J. R. Mangala (Ed.), Africa and its Global Diaspora: The Policy and Politics of Emigration. Palgrave MacMillan.

Teye, J.K. (2017). Environmental Change and Migration in Africa. In M. Awumbila, D. Badasu, & J.K. Teye (Eds.), Migration in a Globalizing World: Perspectives from Ghana (pp. 89-106). Sub-Saharan Publishers.

Teye, J.K, Awumbila M., & Nikoi, E. (2019). Ambiguity and Symbolism in the Implementation of the ECOWAS Free Movement Protocol: Evidence from Ghana and Sierra Leone. African Human Mobility Review, 5(2), 1556-1582.

Yiran, G.A., Teye, J.K., & Yiran, G.A.B. (2015). Accessibility and utilisation of maternal health services by migrant female head porters in Accra. Journal of International Migration and Integration, 16, 929–945. DOI: 10.1007/s12134-014-0372-2