ABSTRACT
Early studies of health workers in the Pacifi c recognised that migration was primarily related to quality of life issues that involved the employment context (poor working conditions, inadequate facilities, limited opportunities for research or career development), income (particular professional salary structures, costs of living) and a variety of social factors (educational opportunities for children, morale), though not necessarily in that order. A similar range of factors was usually also assumed to account for their migration to capital cities in the region or to take up employment with regional institutions (Naidu 1997; Rotem and Bailey 1999). None of these factors are surprising; they parallel similar conclusions elsewhere and are broadly replicated throughout the Pacifi c (Chapter 5). However, underlying these immediate infl uences is an increasingly evident predisposition to migration, and an orientation to it, that begin much earlier than eventual migration in adult life. For many, choosing to become an SHW opened up possibilities of migration that would have been absent in many other occupations. In several small Pacifi c island states, as people choose to become nurses or doctors (and some other occupations) as a means of migration, their training effectively constitutes the acquisition of human capital directed to acquiring a job overseas.
