The role of internal migrants improvement unions in the developmentn of their origin areas:the case of migrants from the north west region to the Cameroon development corporation and pamol plantations of Cameroon

Teke Johnson TJT Takwa, Institut de Formation et de Recherche Demographiques (IFORD)

Studies have shown that no matter their directions of movement,African migrants usually maintain strong social and economic links with their home places,usually their ancestral homes. Migrants sharing a common origin usually come together to form what is variously known as Kinsmen Associations, Improvent Unions, Development and Cultural Associations, Solidarity Organisations or Family Meetings. Through these associations,they collectively remit money and ideas for the development of their home places. Examples of schools,roads; hospitals and other public and social infrastructure that have been realized in the many poor communities of the North West Region of Cameroon with the financial assistance of their out migrant communities working in the two giant agro industrial plantations owned by the Cameroon Development Corporation and Pamol are many. In this way, these associations are filling an important gap left by governent as a result of economic difficulties and the implementation of the Structural Adjustment Programme