Generally, migrant remittances refer to any form of goods sent from the migrants to a receiving country. Remittances are usually perceived to be a one-way flow from the migrant to recipients but this is not so for this study, as will be discussed in this section.
Most Fijian migrants in Kiribati and the Marshalls sent something home to Fiji. 92 per cent sent money, 63 per cent also sent gifts of clothes, and food (6 per cent). Many of the migrants sent money home regularly (54 per cent), while 21 per cent sent home money only on request. Regular remitters sent money to Fiji every fortnight when they received their salaries. A further 17 per cent sent money home only for special occasions, for example, birthdays, and to assist on the death of a family member. Eight per cent of the respondents chose not to answer this question. The amount of cash remittances sent home ranged from $A134 to $A1,644 fortnightly — for the 71 per cent of the respondents who chose to answer this. There was an isolated case of a respondent sending home $A3,234 to assist the family after the death of a relative.
|
Amount of money sent fortnightly |
Marshall Islands % (No.) |
Kiribati % (No.) |
Total % (No.) |
|
$0–100 |
53 |
66 |
55 |
|
$101–200 |
3 |
0 |
2 |
|
$201–300 |
6 |
0 |
5 |
|
$301–400 |
8 |
17 |
11 |
|
$401–500 |
6 |
0 |
5 |
|
$501–600 |
8 |
0 |
7 |
|
$601–700 |
3 |
0 |
2 |
|
$701–800 |
3 |
0 |
2 |
|
$801–900 |
6 |
0 |
5 |
|
$1,000–1,200 |
0 |
17 |
2 |
|
$1,201–1,300 |
3 |
0 |
2 |
|
$2,400 |
3 |
0 |
2 |
|
Total of respondents |
100 (36) |
100 (6) |
100 (42) |
Note: Remittances were sent fortnightly to family members, friends, academic and financial institutions.
Soucre: Fieldwork data from Kiribati and Marshall Islands, June–August 2002.
Up to 23 per cent of the respondents sent monetary remittances to their children while 19 per cent sent remittances to their spouses. The majority (27 per cent) sent remittances to their parents because they were looking after the children of the migrants in Fiji, and another 6 per cent sent monetary remittances to the Housing Authority of Fiji and home finance providers for housing properties they had invested in. A few respondents made direct payments to educational institutions for school fees, settled car loans, paid for life insurance schemes and paid domestic bills for electricity and telephone services. Sisters and other relatives (17 per cent) also received monetary remittances from the migrants.
There was an active exchange of goods and money between the migrants in their host countries and their families and friends back home in Fiji. The majority (80 per cent) of the Fijian subjects asked for things that were not available in their host destinations to be sent from home. These were mostly for their personal consumption.
|
Kiribati |
Marshall Islands |
|
|
Curry powder, chillies, spices, tinned tuna, baked taro and cassava, kava, baby products, traditional artefacts (mats, tapa, salusalu), Fijian scented oils, Fijian and Hindi music and other language entertainment audiotapes and other entertainment audio, CDs, videos and DVDs, money |
Clothes, kava, snacks, cosmetics, kitchenware, crochet string, custard powder, root crops, curry powder, chillies, spices, pocket-sulus, yams, cassava, taro, baby products, tea, traditional artefacts (mats, tapa, salusalu), Fijian scented oils, sandals, Fijian music and other entertainment audiotapes, CDs, videos and DVDs, money |
Note: There were regular two-way exchanges of money and items between the migrants and their families and friends in Fiji.
Source: Fieldwork data, 2002.
Most of the items were sent by postal courier or taken by people passing through Kiribati and the Marshall Islands. The migrants would send money and related instructions for particular expensive items such as kava and scented oil, while the other items were either sent across at regular intervals or packaged and taken across by Fijian travellers to those Pacific Island countries. The networks were well established between the migrants, their relatives, friends and co-workers and especially with the contact points (Fijian citizens), who regularly travelled the region working for regional institutions, private businesses or NGOs. These contact points became messengers and couriers between the migrants and Fiji.