At no time during the past quarter of a century has there been substantial return migration, due at least partly to the great differences in income levels between the island Pacific and the metropolitan periphery, and to a host of social factors. Return migration appears to be primarily of unskilled workers (and retirees), though skilled migrants do return, despite the discrepancy in wages and working conditions (Liki 2001; Brown and Connell 2004a), so that there is return migration across a wide range of categories and age groups (Maron 2001). For the Cook Islands, many skilled, qualified and experienced people have returned and have been able to use their skills in a range of occupations, not merely in the public service (Hooker and Varcoe 1999: 96), though the Cook Islands is unusual since wages and salaries in the islands are more comparable with those in the destination. Limited return is a function of the situation in which the children of migrants are educated in the destination country and have lost some degree of contact with ‘home’ societies, even to the extent that they have lost critical linguistic and other skills. This is also linked to a gradual shift in the demographic balance, especially in the Polynesian states, from those states to the metropolitan fringe; relatives are increasingly likely to be found in destinations and thus there is reduced incentive to return to what is less likely to be seen as ‘home’. This has obvious implications for the migration of skilled labour.