Moving On: Migration, Remittances and Brain Drains

The SIDS have become dynamic and coveted geopolitical regions, where ‘great’ and lesser powers have sought footholds and political ties. By contrast, islanders themselves have long been ‘moving out’, migrating away from the regions. Such movements have intensified and diversified in this century, and the ethnic populations of some SIDS are greater overseas than at home. In the Caribbean migration has been long established, dating back to the late eighteenth century, whereas in the Pacific it began a century later. Contemporary migration patterns are influenced by social, economic, cultural and environmental factors driving local mobility and international migration. Government intervention and involvement in seasonal employment programmes, in Canada, New Zealand and Australia, has supported substantial short-term migration flows, now primarily from the Pacific SIDS. Economic rationales dominate migration flows and climate change has yet to be a dominant factor in international migration other than in Tuvalu. Selective migration has contributed to a brain and skill drain, but remittances, especially in the Polynesian states of Tonga and Samoa, are crucial to national incomes and household livelihoods.