ABSTRACT
Accelerated emigration has helped to establish small and vulnerable Pacifi c island states as irrevocably a peripheral and dependent part of a wider world. Contemporary migration has expanded, diversifi ed, become more skilled, more complex and with more dispersed destinations. Demographic structures have changed and shifted, as island states, individuals and international agencies have attached new and increased signifi cance to migration, remittances and the role of the diaspora, in contexts where conventional development strategies, centred on agriculture or tourism, have achieved limited success. The life-courses of Pacifi c islanders, present or absent, increasingly involve international ties, as island states and their peoples have sought out new opportunities. Experiences and perceptions of the wider world, its values and its material rewards underlie the migratory experience and, in an electronic era where numerous relatives are overseas, knowledge of distant places is less fragmentary. Migration is now an appropriate and legitimate means to economic and social well-being, rather than a rupture or discontinuity with island experiences. Yet it has also become more selective, but also in greater demand at home and abroad, with part of that selectivity favouring women. Skilled Pacifi c health workers have become part of a global care chain from the Pacifi c islands to the metropolitan rim and beyond, to the UAE and the United Kingdom.
