Rethinking empowerment: young African migrants’ understandings of power and empowerment in Ghana

Concepts of empowerment pervade popular discourses on youth and the term is often applied uncritically as a means to leverage young people’s perspectives on matters that affect their lives. Despite such focus, little critical work exists that unpacks young people’s own meanings of the term, or indeed considers the possible unintended consequences that may emerge from these framings. Drawing on interviews and focus groups with 59 young African migrants aged 15–24 years in Ghana, we examine young people’s understandings of empowerment and consider the concept’s usefulness for supporting young lives. Findings were analysed thematically and highlighted how socioeconomic conditions shaped young people’s agency and (limited) the opportunities to effect change. Our analysis raises critical questions about the relevance of empowerment to the lives of marginalised youth who live and work in contexts of vulnerability. The paper advances the conceptual elaboration of empowerment as it relates (or not) to the lives of young African migrants and considers how best to harness these perspectives in actions that support positive youth futures.