ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the nature of the transnational family, among different diaspora populations in several different cultural contexts, both historically and comparatively. The diaspora populations thought of themselves as temporary sojourners, in contrast to other populations who migrated permanently and did not intend to return to their homelands. The emotional ties are reinforced by frequent visits of members of the Tongan royal family to cities with populations of overseas Tongans. The outside world sometimes imposes this identity as in the case of the Melbourne Department of Immigration and Multicultural Affairs which directs funding only to associations that cover the category of 'Pacific Islanders', not to specific Island groups. Kinship terminology is a sensitive indicator of the interaction between a kinship system of Urdu terms which the Pakistanis brought from the Punjab, and a kinship system evolving in Manchester or Oxford, England.
