Anna Tegunimataka

Senior lecturer

Oceans Apart - Internal Migration in a Small Island Developing State: the case of Fiji

Author

Anna Tegunimataka
Andrés Palacio

Summary, in English

Fiji is a Small Island Developing State (SIDS) in the Pacific Ocean, with relatively population mobility. In this context, we study the individual-level characteristics of Fijian internal migration. Hence, our contribution lies in investigating migrant selectivity and differences in migratory behavior of different subgroups of the Fijian population. Specifically, we focus on factors such as gender, age, ethnicity, and socio-economic status (measured by education and occupation). We utilize information on Fijian internal migration from four waves of census data collected between 1976 and 2007. Our findings indicate that remote and rural-urban migrants are positively selected in terms socio-economic status. We also confirm that migrants between the age of 16 and 29 are more likely to migrate than any other age group, and we find women to be more likely to migrate than men, which can be linked to Fijian marriage traditions and increasing returns to education available for women in the urban areas incentivizing them to migrate. We also observe apparent ethnic differences in migratory behavior, with indigenous Fijians more likely to migrate than the other ethnic groups. However, this result is not stable over time, and in the latest census, remote Indo-Fijians have the highest likelihood of (remote)migration. This finding can be related to land leases not being renewed and ethnic tensions.

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