 I hope I will keep you alert and awake in this final session of the day by examining quite what is quite a controversial topic here in Ghana. The title is South-South Labour Migration and the Impact of the Informal China Ghana Gold Rush 2008-2013. This is a co-authored paper. One of my co-authors, Dr Gabriel Bochrae, is here with us and will join me for questions. The paper is based on two lots of field work, one which was undertaken in Ghana in mid 2014 by myself and Dr Bochrae. The other and we undertook field work in the central and western regions of Ghana where small-scale mining is prevalent and where the presence of Chinese miners had been very notable. Then there were some follow-up interviews which occurred just recently in August 2017 in China. Those interviews were undertaken by two colleagues, Nicholas Lluber and Jisha Llu and they interviewed some of the returned miners from Ghana who were back in their home county in China. For those who are less familiar with small-scale gold mining in Ghana, let me give you some background information. Artisanal and small-scale gold mining has been an informal sector, largely poverty-driven and a traditional means of livelihood for many rural households for centuries. Often supplementing agricultural activities and also using the same techniques for centuries, basically a sort of a pick, a shovel and a bowl. Small-scale mining has also made a significant contribution both to the economy and to household incomes. This is indicated by some of the figures. I mean these figures vary a little bit but say that there are estimates that there are 100,000 legal miners and an estimated one million illegal miners or gallamsayers there known in local parlans. It is particularly notable that the percentage of official gold output from small-scale mining has increased significantly over the last decade and it is now over 30% of overall official gold output. Another important point is that small-scale mining is an indigenous activity. By law it is reserved for Ghanaians. Only Ghanaian citizens can get a license, get a session of land and a license to mine. Therefore all foreign mining is officially illegal. But despite this there has been a significant external migration of miners into this informal sector in recent times. So from 2008 onwards with the hike in gold prices significant numbers of foreign miners came into Ghana and the large majority of these were from China and by 2013 a Chinese newspaper reported that an estimated 50,000 miners had left China for Ghana and in Ghana they became known as the Shanglin gang and this is because the large majority of them came from Shanglin County in Guangxi province which itself had a long historical tradition of gold mining. It is interesting that Shanglin that the population there is primarily a minority ethnic group, the Zhang group and they also have a history of migration. So throughout the the 1990s Shanglin residents migrated domestically within China to engage in small-scale mining around the country. But then the Chinese government tightened regulations on this type of activity and the Shanglin miners then looked outwards and the late 2000s stories of people striking at rich in Ghana resulted in a mass exodus of Shanglin miners to China where it was reported that they established over 2,000 mining operations. Now how was this possible particularly in a context of of illegality? Well unsurprisingly there was a significant co-operation and collusion from Ghanaians including Ghanaian miners unsurprising because the Chinese miners were coming into a very different culture and society often with little or no English therefore the co-operation of Ghanaians was was necessary in a phrase that we heard very frequently during fieldwork is that the Chinese were led by Ghanaians and commonly they would be led to the local chief to negotiate over access to land. We were also told that the Chinese miners paid lump sums to chiefs and local landowners as well as bribes to local government officials in order to undertake their mining activities. And with the price of gold rising rapidly to almost $2,000 per ounce the numbers of Chinese miners increased very significantly and by 2013 the situation was described to us by a senior official from the Environmental Protection Agency as out of hand and characterised by a culture of impunity and a director of a small Ghanaian mining company who was involved with Chinese miners admitted that there was a free for all going on for Ghana's mineral resources and Ghana's gold. Let me turn to the the immediate impact because I think this is very significant and that the Shanglin miners introduced new technology in machinery. Essentially they came with capital. They organised themselves in small groups. They borrowed considerable sums of money from financial institutions in China and with this they purchased excavators and bulldozers and pumps for dredging. So essentially small-scale mining became mechanised excavators, crushing machines, washed plants, platforms and suction equipment for river dredging were all introduced by Chinese miners into Ghana. The latter that the equipment for river dredging is particularly significant as we'll see because it's both illegal to mine in rivers and indeed within 100 metres of a river bank but this was a practice that was introduced through the equipment that had been used in China brought to Ghana and then subsequently used by Ghanaian miners. So there was a very significant intensification of production through mechanisation and we were informed that land was now mined in weeks which previously would have taken years. Let me turn to the to the controversies. First of all it was illegal as noted before small-scale mining in Ghana is restricted to Ghanaian citizens by law. Secondly the scale of environmental degradation intensified significantly through the mechanisation of mining both with land and water bodies. Third while sales of gold from small-scale mining to the precious minerals marketing company the official government gold buying agency whilst those sales increased substantially at this time there were also allegations of gold being smuggled out of the out of the country particularly by Chinese miners with a consequent loss of revenue to the state. And fourth whilst this phenomenon of migrant Chinese miners was mostly characterised by collaboration with Ghanaian miners there were also instances of local conflict between rival miners and with deaths and injuries on both sides and an increased incidence of small arms. So given this controversial situation what was the response of the state and the media? And strangely the state appeared to be absent despite the illegality despite the scale of what was happening the state seemed to be at best very tardy in tackling the issue. But increasingly there was a media outcry at what was happening and a perceived foreign exploitation of resources. And I just give a quote here from an editorial in the in the daily graphic which states this as we look on in helpless amazement foreigners continue to degrade our lands and pollute our water bodies. So an outcry from the media that was attempting to put pressure on the on the government to do something. But also this media outcry was was jingoistic in tone and the reports in the in the daily graphic would always refer to illegal migrants, illegal undesirable migrants, deviants, aliens and so forth. So a very jingoistic tone which was placing the the blame for environmental destruction solely on the on the Chinese miners. But this media pressure sort of appeared finally to force the the government to act when in May 2013 President Mohammed admitted that we have a problem and established a military task force to in the words used flush out illegal miners. This was supposed to apply to all illegal miners but really the it was the the foreign miners who were targeted and there was a rest and deportation of over four and a half thousand Chinese miners along with small numbers from other other countries. There was also the the voluntary departure of many others given the the the crackdown that finally happened. So let me turn to the to the impacts of of this episode. So firstly it's our contention that with mechanization small scale mining in Ghana has changed irrevocably. It's not going to go to go back again to the traditional methods and it was the the Chinese it's our contention also it's the Chinese involvement that triggered this this transformation. So firstly the impact on the on the sector small scale mining at least for some is is no longer an informal poverty driven sector. It's become big business for some operators and we were we interviewed some Ghanaian miners including those who'd worked with the with with groups of Chinese miners and their earnings were quite extraordinary. Also we had information from a Chinese resident in Ghana who had been involved with with assisting and supporting Chinese miners. In his words in four to five years a lot of Chinese millionaires even billionaires were made. I'm not sure what currency was referring to in that statement but clearly we're talking about a lot of money but not everyone benefited in that way. In recent field work so the stratification and inequality is also increased and in the recent field work in China we were made aware of the differential benefits among Chinese miners. Those who arrived early tended to do very well. Those who arrived later or as wage labourers rather than investors they were not able to earn such large sums of money and often were forced to to return with with debt and also in turn within the Ghanaian context whereas the small scale mining has become big business for for for some also we have in the in the hierarchy a lot of women and youth who are now rewashing the the tailings that that are left at pits which have already been been mined by by mechanized and intensified methods now rewashing those tailings that abandon pits to try and extract some some remnants of gold. What has been the the economic impact? Well there has been some positive economic impacts in both macro and micro levels certainly the volume of gold has increased significantly so that small scale mining now the the increase in total gold production has gone up from 15% to 36% between 2008 and 2013 and at the micro level also the the gold boom had a positive effect on the local economy and we've got some quotes here from from different people around Duncwyr on often where we we undertook our research so local businesses were booming the town was hot very busy people had money in their pockets and one Chinese miner interviewed recently back in China said that they wanted us there because they could earn money too in terms of the environmental impact I think that is entirely negative the one consequence of mechanization has been the intensification of environmental degradation in areas of alluvial mining both on land and water bodies and in particular the the scramble for for for land has led to the the destruction of farmland and an adverse impact on food and cocoa production but I think it's the pollution of rivers which has been both a new and particularly catastrophic effect of the introduction of mining of illegal mining in rivers and there's been a serious impact on the on the aquatic ecosystem and also on drinking water and whereas we mentioned before that the the state had lost revenue the cost to the state of the this reversal of land destruction and water body pollution is is so huge that it's almost incalculable let me turn to political impact and the the discussion of the political impact overlaps to an extent with an explanation of why this extraordinary phenomenon of irregular migration and illicit mining on such a scale could be allowed to happen and it brings us back to this question of of where was the state during those years that there were rising numbers of irregular chinese migrants migrating into the the informal small-scale mining sector but our findings really was that the that the state was was not absent as first appeared to be the the case in fact it was very present but it was very present in a negative way and during our field work we were told lots of stories of of various forms of corruption we're told that garner immigration service officials provided both entry visas and false work permits to to to chinese miners there were some local government officials also accepted payments to to to turn a blind eye but at the same time there were lone voices in the in the public sector who were opposed to what was was happening but found it difficult to to pursue their their opposition one district level official told us that when he tried to to to do something about the situation that he would receive phone calls and in his view there was high level protection from those he called big shots in in government and the these stories of corruption were also largely concerned by a sort of chinese resident who was involved with the the chinese miners in his words money talks and many people were involved he was referring to to government officials we're also it was also stated to us that the politicians protected the chinese miners in return for financial support to sponsor their election campaigns in the run up to the december 2012 elections and even with the um and with the with the task force that was really a watershed um and with that task force we're told that there was this this switch from from the protection of chinese miners to them being no longer protected by the by the government and and that that significant switch led to them and this of the military crackdown led to the the voluntary departure of many of them but we're also told that there was corruption associated with the task force itself which made money and we were informed by one licensed small scale miner who had been involved with with chinese miners that those who were arrested and deported were those who could not pay you could not pay the task force so this leads us to to to questions about the the nature of the of the the ghanai and state the state was not absent it was pre task force it was present but the political and administrative authority of the of the state and also the traditional authority of chiefs appeared to be used for private enrichment rather than public service and this the ghanai of course is a very positive image as a as a model of democratic governance and i've written very positively myself um previously about successful democratic consolidation in in ghanai but in some ways this this research was was an eye opener for me and i felt a little naive in terms of uh some of my previous work at the same time it's also recognized that you know ghanai has made huge progress in terms of of of elections and democratic consolidation around elections and and change of government but i think this this endemic corruption certainly tarnishes that that model of of democratic governance and one key informant went so far as to say that the stain of corruption has spread so far that the colour of the whole cloth has changed just to bring you up to up to date um this the task force was now four years ago and that uh it that military crackdown essentially uh brought an end to that very widespread phenomenon of chinese involvement and other foreign involvement in the small scale mining sector but we would argue that the the consequences continue to the the present day this is in particular with the mechanization and intensification of mining now being practiced by um at least some ghanai and small scale miners including mining in in river the chinese miners they they they didn't all leave we were told in recent interviews in shanglin that some kept a low profile for a while others disappeared further into the bush those that weren't in a position to to to return home also um a number of those that remains have shifted from actual mining to to machine hire or else they were engaged in the sort of the the hidden ownership of small scale concessions which were were were fronted by by ghanaians i think probably most alarmingly the environmental degradation has has intensified and in march 2017 the ghanawar water company warned that the country would soon have to begin importing water for consumption if illegal mining activities were not curved and one month later um the uh the current government um imposed quite a controversial six month moratorium on all small scale mining legal and illegal in ghanawar and introduced a military task force operation vanguard to enforce that so in in conclusion we have focused on south south irregular migration from china to ghanawar of tens of thousands of miners um from one but mainly from one particular county to work illicitly in the informal small scale gold mining sector um and this occurred during the the gold boom years of of 2010 to 2013 we've traced the impact on the livelihoods of both chinese and and ghanain informal miners as well as examining the wider economic environmental and political landscapes there have been benefits for for some um but also an adverse impact for for many uh we've suggested that the uh whole episode cast a shadow on the on the ghanain state and self-serving elites and finally that the impacts and the consequences continue to this day thank you very much