Professor Barfuor Adjei-Barwuah, a member of the NPP Vetting Committee and former diplomat, has cautioned Ghanaian youth against assuming that life abroad automatically offers better opportunities.
He said that while some Ghanaians succeed after migrating, many others struggle with challenges that are rarely visible in the images of prosperity shared with those back home.
“The so-called ‘grass is greener somewhere. It’s an illusion,” Prof. Adjei-Barwuah said on Eyewitness News on Tuesday, September 8.
According to him, young people often see the apparent success of migrants without knowing the difficulties and sacrifices behind their achievements.
“You hear about them; they are showing prosperity and whatnot. The basis of the prosperity, they don’t tell you,” he said.
Prof. Adjei-Barwuah said some migrants also struggle to find jobs in their areas of expertise and are forced to take up work unrelated to their qualifications.
“And then also, a lot of them actually never make it,” he said, drawing from his own experience of living and working abroad.
The former diplomat spent several years in the United States before serving as Ghana’s ambassador to Japan and the United States.
He said his experience abroad strengthened his conviction that migration should not automatically be viewed as the surest path to a better future.
Prof. Adjei-Barwuah recalled that after completing his studies in the United States, he rejected several job offers because he had already decided to return to Ghana.
“When I was leaving home, I knew that the Ghana I was leaving was going to be better than the States. And therefore, I want to be there when that happens,” he said.
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