Global Journal of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences Vol.6, No.4, pp.33-48, April 2018 ___Published by European Centre for Research Training and Development UK (www.eajournals.org) 33 ISSN: 2052-6350(Print) ISSN: 2052-6369(Online) UNDERSTANDING RURAL-URBAN MIGRATION FROM THE PERSPECTIVES OF MIGRANTS IN AGBOGBLOSHIE, GHANA Ronald Adamtey 1 and John Ebotui Yajalin 2 1 Department of Planning, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Kumasi- Ghana 2 Kreuzberg –Bonn, Stationsweg 21, 53127, Bonn, Germany ABSTRACT: About half of the urban growth in Africa is accounted for by migrants from rural areas yet we fail to understand migration from the perspectives of the migrants. This paper seeks to understand rural urban migration from the perspective of migrants and how this can inform rural development planning. A mixed research design was adopted to explore the decision making process around migration. In-depth interviews were held with migrants in Agbogbloshie and their families in Yendi where they have come from. The paper found that while rural-urban migration will persist for a long time because of the deprivation in rural areas, migrants have plans to return home. Planning would need to shift from the conventional approaches of general rural development towards a good understanding of rural development problems unique to certain areas. KEYWORDS: Africa, Ghana, Development, Migration, Planning, Urbanisation INTRODUCTION Rural-urban migration is increasing everywhere and has played a key role in the unprecedented growth of cities in the 21 st century (Todaro and Smith, 2012; UN, 2014). Almost half the world population lives in cities and for the first time in human history the world became more urban than rural in 2008 (Todaro and Smith, 2012). The number of people living in urban areas has risen steadily by around 1 million every year. The United Nations Population Division projections show that the urban population grows at 1.8 percent per annum, while total population growth is projected to be one percent annually. This would result in an urban population of 5 billion, or 61 percent by 2030. The rural population on the other hand is expected to decrease from 3.3 to 3.2 billion between 2003 and 2030 (UN, 2003; UN, 2014). The projection by UN further reveals that the urban population is expected to grow, so that by 2050, the world will be one-third rural (34 per cent) and two-thirds urban (66 per cent), roughly the reverse of the global rural-urban population distribution of the mid-twentieth century. In the 1950s for example, more than two thirds (70 per cent) of people worldwide lived in rural settlements and less than one-third (30 per cent) in urban settlements. The opposite will be seen by 2050 (Todaro and Smith, 2012). Sub-Saharan Africa is one of the most rapidly urbanising regions in the world, and almost all of its growth has been in slums, where new city residents face overcrowding, inadequate housing, and a lack of water and sanitation (Todaro and Smith, 2012; UN Habitat, 2014a; Tacoli et al, 2014). In Western Asia, most of the urban growth is occurring in slums. The rapid expansion of urban areas in Southern and Eastern Asia is creating cities of unprecedented sizes. Northern Africa is the only developing region where the quality of urban life is improving. In this region, the proportion of city dwellers living in slums has decreased by 0.15 per cent annually (Todaro and Smith, 2012; UN Habitat, 2014a).