Introduction
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Presentation Transcript
Income Distribution, Migration and Economic ResilienceJohn Connell(University of Sydney)Malta, April 2007
Introduction • Islands, Poverty and Smallness • LDCs, Failed and Corrupt States • Restructuring and remoteness • Limited Economic Growth • Aid, Remittances … and Tourism • Transnational States
Dodgy Data and Distribution • Uneven data eg Fiji • Poverty or Hardship? • Absolute Poverty? • Poverty ..of Opportunity, Dignity/Esteem • Youth bulge, Unemployment, Informal Sector • If Fiji …. ?? • Urban and Rural Safety Nets?
Demography • Urbanisation, Settlements • Poverty transfers • Anti-Urbanism … no Pro-ruralism • Population growth • Pressure on resources
Migration • Uneven development & expectations • Economics, environment, society, politics • The emptying periphery • Selectivity • Remittances
International Migration • The 1960s ‘long boom’ • Colonial and post-colonial ties • Skill selectivity ….. brain drain? • Globalisation (eg Fiji nurses) • Outward urge
A Culture of Migration • The ‘destiny’ of smaller states eg Niue • Social and economic safety valve • Survival of ‘government islands’
Skilled Migration • Inherent selectivity ‘get up and go’ • Health workers – global health care chain • Footballers • Security guards • Active recruitment
Skills in Drains? • Skill training eg Kiribati, Tuvalu • Skill choice and migration (eg health) • Skill shortages (eg health, aviation, IT) • Unsatisfied needs • Brain drain and brain waste • Limited return migration
Remittances • Family structure: TNC of kin • Household economic destinations • High % disposable income – MIRAB • Increased significance eg Fiji • Peripheral survival
Use of Remittances • Debt repayment • Consumption – food, housing, education • Investment transition/opportunities – land, education, business (eg markets taxis..) • Community eg church11 • Towards inequality?
Remittance Sustainability • Remittances sustained over decades • Second generations, marrying out .. • Continued migration • Guestworkers … selectivity • ‘broken dreams’
Remittances vs. the Skill Drain • What choice?
Globalisation and Island Micro States • Trade, poverty and migration • Employment transferability eg St.Kitts, Fiji • Safety nets and redistribution? • Social costs
Migration and Self-Reliance • An age of migration • The culture of the ‘outward urge’ • A diasporic future • Cosmopolitan islanders and cyber-Polys • Emigration as resilience