Author(s)

Patrick Lebene Adonoo¹, Seth Christopher Yaw Appiah^2,3*

¹School of Government, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, China.
²Department of Sociology and Social Work, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Kumasi, Ghana.
³Center for International Health, Ludwig-Maximilians University, CIHLMU University of Munich, Munich, Germany.

Africans presence in Guangzhou epitomizes a sweet bitter fragrance for China relative to governance, law compliance and international relations. This study grounded on a case study design with Ghanaians Living in Guangzhou as case investigated who, how and the where of African Ghanaians in the Chinese diaspora governance structure. The study setting was the Ghanaian Church in the De kanlu area in Guangzhou where most Ghanaian lived in Guangzhou, China. The qualitative case study approach was deemed appropriate method for the study. Through participant and non-participant observation and key informant interviews supported with Focus Group discussions, data were collected through direct visits to the Ghana restaurants, Ghana Community meetings and the Ghanaian church for 11 months between in March 2016 and January 2017. Data were analysed using emerging and constant thematic analysis. Central to the findings was the observation that the Ghanaian diaspora in Guangzhou has two main approaches of governance: the formal and the informal approaches. The focus of the former approach facilitations is engineered by the Guangzhou city government while the informal approach relied on the Church of Pentecost in Guangzhou (Ghana Church) in-built and internalized working and governance structures for governing Ghanaians. The informal self-governance approach was considered more trustworthy, effective and efficient compared to the formal arrangement. This new diasporan preferred governance approach has an eclectic character and defined as the religio-political diaspora governance approach emanating from the Ghanaian community assessment and evaluation. The formal approach (the constitutional draft) was considered as woeful outdated and inadequate governance framework for the Ghanaian diaspora community. There however is a continued ideological influence of Ghanaian diaspora by the Chinese political and governmental systems nurturing a hybridized governance approach and structure which is kept in a continuing redefining nature.

Diaspora, Religio-Politico, Governance, China, Ghana

Adonoo, P. and Appiah, S. (2019) Diaspora Governance: The Instrumentality of Informal Religio-Politico Structures for Migrant Integration among Ghanaian Diaspora in Guangzhou, China. Advances in Applied Sociology, 9, 357-369. doi: 10.4236/aasoci.2019.98026.