Table of Contents
A quarter of a century ago, I wrote a paper whose title was the first part of that above (Connell 1980), which sought to provide an overview of the complex relationship between migration, remittances and rural development in the region, and largely concluded that this had been negative for the sending regions. The conclusion stated that ‘remittances on the smaller islands tend to foster dependence rather than inequality; on the largest islands they generate inequality rather than dependence. But both trends are ubiquitous’ (1980: 51). Such sweeping conclusions, centred on dependency theory, were not without criticism (e.g., Hayes 1991). Given the present extraordinary global and regional interest in migration issues, and the substantial increase in most forms of migration in the region in the past quarter of a century, it is timely to revisit these conclusions in the light of more recent data and trends. Moreover, there has now been about half a century of international migration from several parts of the Pacific, and especially from Polynesian states, hence it is useful to review their experiences. Almost all post-World War II international migration from the island Pacific has occurred since the 1960s. Since then there has been continued migration from ‘mature migration’ economies, mostly in Polynesia, and a rise in migration from all other island states.
As emigration continues, small and vulnerable South Pacific states have become irrevocably a peripheral and dependent part of a wider world. Contemporary patterns of migration have diversified, and have become more selective and skilled, demographic structures have changed, and the restructuring of global and island economic landscapes present different development contexts. The life courses of island people, present or absent, are embedded increasingly in international ties, and island states have sought out new migration opportunities. Island states, individuals and various international agencies have attached new and increased significance to migration, remittance flows, return migration and the role of the diaspora, in contexts where ‘conventional’ developments strategies have achieved limited success.
The variety of reasons put forward to explain migration in the South Pacific sometimes seems interminable and the problems of generalisation considerable. Apart from migration as a result of natural hazards, migration is largely a response to real and perceived inequalities in socioeconomic opportunities, within and between states. Social influences are important, especially in terms of access to education and health services, and are in turn often a function of economic issues. Migration remains, in different forms, a strategy of moving from a poorer area to a richer one in search of social and economic mobility abroad or at home. It is related to the economic aspirations of migrant households and to development in island states, hence it is useful to set migration within the context of economic change in the region.
Major influences on migration have been rising expectations of what constitutes a satisfactory standard of living, a desirable occupation and a suitable mix of accessible services and amenities. In parallel with changing aspirations and the increased necessity to earn cash, agricultural work throughout the Pacific has lost prestige and the declining participation of young men in the agricultural economy is ubiquitous, despite rising levels of unemployment. There is a widening gap between rising expectations and the reality of limited domestic employment and incomes. Changes in values, following increased educational opportunities and the expansion of bureaucratic (largely urban) employment within the region from the 1970s, have further oriented migration streams outwards, as local employment opportunities have not kept pace with population growth.
The islands and island states of the Pacific, with the exception of PNG, are small and vulnerable. Many states are isolated and fragmented, with numerous populated islands and, in Melanesia, with many distinct language and cultural groups. Prospects for economic growth are limited, especially in Polynesia and Micronesia, where no island state has a population of more than 250,000. Five island states are officially classified as least-developed countries. Although the region does not suffer from the absolute depths of poverty experienced in some parts of the developing world, it does have social and economic problems (Abbott and Pollard 2004). Generally, growing populations have intensified pressure on lands and seas. Economic growth has been disappointing since independence, usually about 30 years ago, though mining and tourism offer solid prospects in a few places. This has resulted in a series of imposed attempts at restructuring, including structural adjustment programs in various countries, urged by institutions such as the World Bank and the ADB.
Most countries, other than the large Melanesian states, have benefited substantially from aid and from remittances from overseas migrants, enabling them to run big current account deficits, maintain substantial bureaucracies and undertake relatively large public investment programs of a kind that could not otherwise be financed. The Pacific Islands are the most heavily aid-assisted part of the world on a per capita basis. The public sector increasingly dominates formal economic activity almost everywhere, despite efforts at restructuring.
Economic growth in the region has been limited with one important consequence: in every state formal sector jobs are being created more slowly than school leavers are emerging from the education system. The consequences are rising unemployment, the growth of the informal sector and visible signs of poverty within urban areas. Although poverty is not a welcome word in most parts of the region, and few countries officially admit that it exists, there is growing evidence that it is widespread, though disguised by words such as ‘hardship’ (Abbott and Pollard 2004). Much poverty is also hidden in outer islands and on remote mountain sides, where there is a poverty of opportunity and minimal access to crucial educational and health resources, alongside employment opportunities. One consequence of this is sustained rural-urban migration; hence a major task for most states is to create employment and provide services for outer islands and remote places that would stimulate development and reduce migration and thus unmanageable urban growth.
Until quite recently, there was a widespread belief that poverty did not exist in the Pacific, because of the existence of urban and rural ‘safety nets’, where extended families could and would support those who for whatever reason experienced temporary problems. There is now good evidence that both of these are breaking down and it is no longer possible, if it ever was, for urban people simply to return and be supported by rural kin (Connell 2003a: 68–70). Absolute poverty is not generally apparent in the Pacific; however, some households are poor in the sense that they do not have enough food, clean water or access to adequate housing or a basic education (Bryant 1993); and poverty is significantly worse in Melanesia and Micronesia than in Polynesia (Abbott and Pollard 2004: 20). Indeed in PNG relatively recent data suggest that in 1996 as many as 41 per cent of rural people and 16 per cent of urban people were living below the poverty line (Allen et al. 2005). In Fiji, firstly, the extent of poverty grew significantly between 1975 and 1991 when the Fijian economy was growing relatively rapidly. In other words, no effective trickle-down effect was occurring, which meant that inequalities were simultaneously increasing. Secondly, Fiji has achieved greater levels of economic growth than other island states, hence the extent of poverty and inequality is probably greater in other places, notably in Melanesia and Micronesia (Connell 2003a).
In every state urban areas are growing faster than the rate of population growth. Consequently, informal settlements are growing particularly quickly, as the supply of land and formal housing is inadequate to meet the needs of new migrants (or even established residents). In the two largest cities in the region, Port Moresby and Suva, settlements house more than half the urban population. In Suva, the expansion of settlements is a result of rural-urban migration precipitated by the demand for services (especially education), the expiry of land leases and the breakdown of extended families. Similar rationales exist elsewhere.
Many urban poor live in settlements, and socioeconomic inequalities are most evident in urban areas. Those who are poorest are those with little support from the rural economy and no opportunity to move away from town when poverty, rising unemployment, old age or social disorder make life difficult. In settlements such as Blacksands, Vila (Vanuatu), insecurity over land tenure and employment ensured that migrants often contemplated return migration but usually chose to remain for their children’s sake. Most households in Blacksands had incomes below the national average and at least a quarter had problems meeting school fees, paying rent and providing food. Most supplemented their cash incomes from subsistence food gardens (Mecartney 2001), an option not always open to settlement residents, especially in Port Moresby. Low incomes and a lack of support during illness or unemployment give a sense of biding time, waiting for unforeseen and uncertain opportunities and sometimes securing multiple jobs, maintaining strict budgets and abandoning some ‘traditional’ obligations, simply to get by. Many urban residents survive rather than prosper in the city.
One consequence of urban growth exceeding urban job creation is the steady emergence of the informal sector, with particularly rapid growth in prostitution and the rise of crime. In the two main cities, and elsewhere, the rise of urban poverty and the informal sector has been marked by new repressions of the poor and marginalised, in new forms of anti-urban policies, as they are forced out of urban areas, most dramatically by the bulldozing of settlements, and by attempts to devolve solutions to the churches from the State, rather than by concerted attempts to devise welfare and employment policies that might reduce such problems (Connell 2003d; Koczberski et al. 2001). Anti-urbanism is not matched by pro-ruralism. Even urban markets and market vendors have been opposed by urban and national governments, despite their ability to provide substantial employment for youths and women. Social disorganisation and crime are functions of substantial inequalities in access to land, housing and other services. Port Moresby has been declared the most unlivable city in the world, because of the extent of crime and violence, much of it fuelled by lack of access to urban resources.
Unemployment is essentially an urban phenomenon, and rising unemployment occurs in all urban areas, though there are rarely adequate measures of its extent. Where there are more or less reliable measurements, urban unemployment is never below 10 per cent and might well be higher in many cases. Unemployment is particularly high among youths (Bryant 1993: 46; Abbott and Pollard 2004), and there is growing recognition of the existence of significant numbers of unemployed and marginalised youth in most urban centres, such as Port Vila (Mitchell 2004); and inadequate access to employment, land and credit have led to increased levels of unemployment in the small Vava’u town of Neiafu and in Nuku’alofa (Gailey 1992b). This, in turn, has stimulated emigration. Broadly similar conditions occur throughout the region, but are much less evident and undocumented in the smaller states (Abbott and Pollard 2004). They are seedbeds of discontent and incentives to migration, but those affected are among the least able to achieve, or gain from, it.
Urban poverty bears some relationship to internal migration since it is evident at least in PNG, but almost certainly elsewhere, that the urban poor are often those who have migrated from the most impoverished rural areas (such as remote areas on the fringes of the Highlands). People are thus moving away from rural poverty, in the sense of inadequate access to employment and income-earning activities, and towards services; yet migration tends to transfer poverty to urban areas. It is in this very broad context, which takes minimal note of either substantial or subtle regional variations, that migration is embedded.