ABSTRACT
Fiji is a small island state of about 800,000 people in the South Pacific. Rather more than half the population are indigenous Fijians and most of the remainder are Indo-Fijians, the descendants of migrant labourers brought to work in the sugar cane plantations from the late nineteenth century. Fiji has a fragile economy, centered on tourism, sugar and clothing manufacture, but evolving global trade patterns have reduced the viability of both agriculture and textiles. One outcome has been a growing incidence of international migration and a rise in remittances. Labour migration from Fiji only began around the 1960s and its rapid rise is a phenomenon of the past decade. With the permanent migration of mostly skilled Indo-Fijians to Canada, United Kingdom, United States and neighbouring Australia and New Zealand, a drain of skilled human resources has become significant. Currently, apart from such ‘standard’ skilled migrants as teachers, doctors, lawyers, pilots, engineers and technicians, migration has diversified to include defence personnel and security guards, skilled sportspeople, unskilled and semi-skilled personnel to work as domestic workers, care givers and fruit pickers.
