Migration remittances and rural development in the South Pacific. In: Population mobility and development: Southeast Asia and the Pacific (Edited by G.W. Jones, H.V. Richter)
Connell, J.
Monograph, Development Studies Centre, Australian National University 27: 229-255
1981
Document Number: 373037
The paper is primarily concerned with two issues: whether population mobility contributes to or ameliorates inequality of income and opportunity both for individuals and communities in the Pacific; and whether it promotes either the self-sufficiency or the dependence of Pacific societies in relation to their own communities in the outside world. It concludes that migration tends to produce stagnation in the sending society and contributes to its impoverishment by dissolution of the productive unit resulting in a declining intensity of land use and reduced food production. Migration proceeds out of inequality. It suggests that within the rural areas of the Pacific migration and remittances have contributed to limited growth but not development essentially because of its impact on growing dependence (for jobs and food) beyond the rural areas and because of the resultant inequalities. It is concluded that while migration benefits a large number of individuals and households in the rural areas, and is not irrational from the individual migrant's perspective, it does little to contribute to rural development.