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OCEANIA
• Oceania is host to five million international more. While in Australia the migrant population migrants (UN DESA, 2005), representing 15.2 per has increased since 1995, in New Zealand the cent of its population, the largest share in any number of migrants decreased from 708,000 to region in the world, and accounting for 2.6 per 642,000 (UN DESA, 2005). cent of the global migrant stock. • Migration accounts for one-quarter of population Figure 1: growth in Australia, New Zealand and Pacific Ocean Stock of migrants in Australia and New Zealand, island countries, with the number of migrants in 2000 and 2005 the Oceania region increasing from 4.8 million to five million over the period 1990-2005 (UN, Part A: Total number of migrants 2005). • Women migrants in Oceania have outnumbered men since 2000, when they constituted 50.6 per cent of international migrants. Their share has since risen to 51.3 per cent of total international migrants (UN, 2005). 0 1,000 2,000 3,000 4,000 5,000
AUSTRALIA AND NEW ZEALAND Part B: As a share of total population
• Migrants make up a fifth of the population of Australia, the highest proportion for any country in the world with a population of 20 million or
Source: UN DESA, 2005. Oceania includes the following countries and territories: Australia, New Zealand, Melanesia (Fiji, New Caledonia, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, Vanuatu), Micronesia (Guam, Kiribati, Marshall Islands, Micronesia (Federated States of), Nauru, Northern Mariana Islands, Palau) Only single countries and not sub-regions are referred to in this statistic. and Polynesia (American Samoa, Cook Islands, French Polynesia, Niue, Therefore, GCC countries are not included, although their total share of Pitcairn, Samoa, Tokelau, Tonga, Tuvalu, Walis and Futuna Islands). migrants is higher than in Australia.
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Figure 2: • In both Australia and New Zealand the number of migrants as a share of the total population Australia – leading countries of origin, by declined between 2000 and 2005 (UN DESA, 2005) country of birth, 1991-2005 (see Figure 1). Three main factors may explain this development. First, from 2000 to 2005, the rules concerning migration for family reunion, which in the past had accounted for a substantial share of immigration to both countries, have been tightened. Second, while skilled immigration continued to grow significantly, much of it was, U.K. in fact, of a temporary nature of between six Source: MPI, 2005. months and two years, and therefore does not show up in some statistics. Third, though of less • The stock of foreign-born workers in Australia immediate impact, particularly in Australia, the increased steadily from 1995 to 2005, while, as numbers of the older post-World War II immigrants a proportion of the total labour force, it declined are declining as old age takes its toll (Connell, slightly during the period 2003-2004 (OECD, 2007) 2007). (see Figure 3).
Australia and New Zealand are among the few Figure 3: countries in the world to have active immigration Stock of foreign workers in Australia programmes and are the major destinations in the region for both migrants and refugees
• The U.K. has traditionally been the leading country of origin for immigrants in Australia. In 1996, however, arrivals from New Zealand, outnumbered British immigrants, reaching 25,000 in 2001. In 2003, the U.K. regained its first position until 2005, when the differential between these two Source: OECD, 2007. top groups of migrants decreased with 18,220 and 17,345 arrivals from the U.K. and New Zealand, Family reunification has been the traditional respectively (MPI, 2005). cornerstone of migration policies … • In 1996, China became the third country of origin for migrants arriving in Australia, and has • During the period 1990-2002, family reunification maintained this position since (MPI, 2005) (see accounted for 37 per cent of immigrant entries to Figure 2). Australia. For New Zealand, the share of admissions for family reasons was lower and continued to decline over the same period (UN, 2005).
… but many more highly skilled migrants are now admitted under the “points system” …
Email communication with Professor John Connell, University of Sydney, • Between 2006-2007, 97,920 permanent residents Australia. were granted permanent residence in Australia under the skills programme, compared to 50,079
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under the family reunification programme • Temporary migration also increased in New Zealand (DIAC, 2007). over the last ten years (see Figure 5). In line with this general trend, a pilot programme for seasonal ... and the student population remains large workers from Vanuatu was launched in April 2007 (IMF, 2007). • In 2006-2007, a total of 228,592 student visas were granted, which represents a significant increase of Figure 5: almost 20 per cent over the 2005-2006 figure of Inflows of foreignworkers into New Zealand, 190,674 visas. The two leading source countries 1998-2005 (thousands) were China and India with 28,949 and 24,915 visa grants, respectively (DIAC, 2007). • In 2004-2005, foreign graduates of Australian Universities accounted for 20 per cent of Australian immigrants under the skills programme, led by Chinese and Indians (Migration News, January 2006).
Source: OECD, 2007. Temporary migration for work is gaining in importance Female migration is also gaining greater prominence • The number of temporary workers in Australia has increased noticeably since 1996, when the • Recent data show that women are migrating to government introduced a new temporary business Australia to take up managerial, professional and entry visa that allows employers to sponsor skilled other positions that cannot be filled locally. For workers from overseas for a stay of up to four example, Australia is projecting nursing deficits of years (OECD, 2007) (see Figure 4). 40,000 during the next four to five years (UNFPA, 2006). According to the New Zealand nurse Figure 4: registry figures for 2002, 23 per cent of nurses Inflows of foreignworkers to Australia, were foreign-born. 1995-2005 (thousands) The relatively high emigration levels from Australia and New Zealand primarily reflect the desire of educated young citizens to seek work experience abroad
• Australia has an overall emigration rate of 1.75 and New Zealand 10.7. The highly skilled emigration rate is 3.68 and 17, respectively (OECD, 2005).
Source: OECD, 2007.
Permanent settlers: Skilled workers including the following categories The emigration rate is calculated by dividing the expatriate population of visas: employer nominations, business skills, occupational shares from that country by the total native-born population of the country system, special talents and independent, including accompanying (native-born = expatriates + resident native-born) (OECD, Database on dependants. Period of reference: Fiscal year (July to June). Immigrants and Expatriates, 2005). Temporary workers: Skilled temporary resident programme, including The emigration rate of highly educated persons is calculated by dividing accompanying dependants. Includes Long-stay Temporary Business the highly educated expatriate population from that country by the Programme as from 1996-97. Period of reference: Fiscal year (July to total highly educated native-born population. June).
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MELANESIA, POLYNESIA AND MICRONESIA and that more than 3,800 had a professional or technical background (Mohanty, 2006) (see Figure 6: Figure 7). Stock of migrants in Melanesia, Polynesia and Micronesia, 2000 and 2005 Figure 7: Emigration of Fijian citizens by ethnic group Part A: Total number of migrants and profession, 1987-2004
Professionals** Year Total Fijians Others Indo-Fijians Average annual Average emigration rate
Annual Total average 1987- 3,926 57,159 3,124 64,209 4,939 6,869 528 1999 2000- 2,373 23,585 1,126 27,084 5,413 3,826 765 2004* 1987- Part B: As a share of total population 6,299 80,744 4,250 91,293 5,070 10,695 594 2004*
Notes: * The figure for 2004 is from January to September. ** Includes professionals, technical and related workers. Source: Mohanty, 2006.
• In addition to continuing permanent Indo- Fijian emigration from the country, Fiji has also witnessed new trends in temporary migration of mostly indigenous Fijians, as members of
Source: UN DESA, 2005. peacekeeping forces, security personnel, nurses, sportspeople and students to distant parts of the world. • All sub-regions of Micronesia, Melanesia and Polynesia experienced an increase in their migrant - Fijian soldiers have been deployed to Iraq, population between 2000 and 2005 (see Figure 6). continuing a long-standing tradition of Micronesia leads with 134,000, or 24 per cent of Fijian soldiers working in multinational its population (UN DESA, 2005). peace-making and peace-keeping operations. Many Fijians are also employed in security, Under the influence of globalization, Fiji has engineering and IT occupations in major cities become a source of temporary skilled migrants in Iraq. in response to specific opportunities abroad, especially in the Middle East and in other Pacific - Estimates of the number of temporary countries contractual workers recruited to the Middle East from Fiji are variable but are as high as • Between 2000 and 2004, 27,000 Fijian citizens 20,000, though such figures relate to those emigrated. A breakdown of these figures reveals who applied and paid fees of more than that the vast majority were of Indo-Fijian origin FJD 150 to private recruitment agencies,
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rather than those who were finally selected - Niue is currently seeking immigration from for employment overseas, which might be Tuvalu, as its population has declined sharply about 2,500 (Connell, 2006). after being hit by Cyclone Heta in 2004, continuing a long-term “culture of migration” - Nurses from Fiji have also migrated to the (Connell, 2006). Niue’s declining population U.K. and to other Pacific countries such as the has been of concern to successive governments Marshall Islands (Rokoduru, 2006). and currently stands at around 1,500. Over 20,000 Niueans live in New Zealand and Overseas remittances play a crucial role in Fiji’s despite government attempts to encourage foreign exchange earnings them to return home, migration patterns persist (Department of Foreign Affairs and • Fiji’s economy has relied historically on sugar Trade, Australian Government, 2007). and gold mining and, more recently, also on - Many, but by no means all, South Pacific tourism and garment manufacturing; but, in the economies rely heavily on remittances from decade between 1994 and 2004, the amount of migrants abroad. Tonga is among the Pacific remittances has increased to a level where they nations that have been identified since the bring in more foreign exchange than all other 1980s as MIRAB economies, that is, sustained sectors except tourism (Maclellan and Mares, principally by Migration, Remittances, Aid and 2006) (see Figure 8). Bureaucracy. In 2006, Tonga was globally the second main recipient country (after Moldova Figure 8: and Liberia) of remittances as a share of GDP Increase in foreign exchange earnings in Fiji, (32.2%) (World Bank, 2008). According to 1994-2004 (millions of Fijian Dollars) Small and Dixon (2004), in the case of Tonga, “it is migration, along with the remittances of cash and goods from migrants who live and work overseas, that keeps the Tongan economy afloat”. Remittances are its major source of foreign exchange. - On the other hand, Vanuatu experiences almost no emigration and receives few remittances, in marked contrast to Samoa and Tonga (IMF, 2007).
All countries in this sub-region will experience an oversupply of labour by 2015
Note: 1 Fiji Dollar (FJD) equals about 0.63 U.S. Dollar as of August 2008. • According to World Bank projections, Melanesia, Source: Maclellan and Mares, 2006. Polynesia and Micronesia will register an excess labour supply by 2015. This large increase (except in Fiji, where the increase is expected to be more • The small Pacific island states do not feature prominently in an analysis of global migratory The acronym was developed originally by Bertram and Watters (1985) in processes, but they are nonetheless confronted relation to Pacific states linked to New Zealand, and expanded to include other Pacific nations in similar economic situations. increasingly by migratory concerns
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moderate) is driven by the strong growth rate of the working-age population combined with a low increase in jobs. Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands and Vanuatu are likely to be the most affected (World Bank, 2007) (see Figure 9).
Figure 9: Working-age population of Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands and Vanuatu not employed in the formal sector, 2004 and 2015
Source: World Bank, 2007.
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International Monetary Fund (IMF) REFERENCES 2007 “Vanuatu”, Staff Report for the 2006 Article IV Consultation, IMF Country Report No. 07/92, Australia, Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade March, IMF, Washington, D.C., http://www.imf. 2007 “Niue Country Brief”, Department of Foreign org/external/pubs/ft/scr/2007/cr0792.pdf. Affairs and Trade, http://www.dfat.gov.au/geo/ niue/niue_brief.html. Maclellan, N. and P. Mares 2006 “Labour Mobility in the Pacific: Creating Australia, Department of Immigration and Citizenship seasonal work Programs in Australia” in S. (DIAC) Firth (Ed.), Globalisation and Governance in the 2007 Annual Report 2006-07, November, DIAC, Pacific Islands, ANU E Press, Canberra, 137-171, http://www.immi.gov.au/about/reports/ http://epress.anu.edu.au/ssgm/global_gov/ annual/2006-07/pdf.htm. pdf_instructions.html.
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