Migration and Remittances in the South Pacific: Towards New Perspectives

Abstract

For more than a quarter of a century there has been substantial emigration from the smaller island states of the Pacific to metropolitan fringe states, mainly the United States, New Zealand and Australia. Migration reduced unemployment in the island states and remittances have contributed to raised living standards. There has been some shift of remittances from consumption to investment. Communal remittances are of greater significance than in other world regions. There is a high propensity to sustain remittance flows over long periods of time at some cost to the senders. The duration and magnitude of migration, the remittance flows and their considerable social and economic consequences in a range of contexts has demonstrated the need for much more attention to be given, in terms of both studies and policy formation, to the role of migration and remittances in economic and social development in the Pacific region.