The remittances of migrant Tongan and Samoan nurses from Australia
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The remittances of migrant Tongan and Samoan nurses from Australia John Connell1 and Richard PC Brown*2 Address: 1Head of School, School of Geosciences, University of Sydney, Australia and 2School of Economics, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia Email: John Connell - [email protected]; Richard PC Brown* - [email protected] * Corresponding author
Published: 13 April 2004 Human Resources for Health 2004, 2:2
Received: 28 October 2003 Accepted: 13 April 2004
This article is available from: http://www.human-resources-health.com/content/2/1/2 © 2004 Connell and Brown; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article: verbatim copying and redistribution of this article are permitted in all media for any purpose, provided this notice is preserved along with the article's original URL.
Abstract Background: Migration and remittances are of considerable importance in the small Pacific island states. There has been a significant migration of skilled health workers in recent decades to metropolitan fringe states, including Australia and New Zealand. This paper reports the findings of a re-analysis of survey of Samoan and Tongan migrants in Australia where the sample is split between nurse households and others. Methods: The study analyzes the survey data with a view to comparing the remittance behaviour and determinants of remittances for nurses and other migrant households, using both descriptive, cross-tabulations and appropriate econometric methods. Results: It is found that a significantly higher proportion of nurse households sent remittances home, and, on average remitted more. Remittances of nurse households did not decline significantly over time contrary to what has generally been predicted. This was in contrast to other migrant households in the sample, for whom remittances showed a sharp decline after 15 years absence. Remittances contribute much more to the income of migrant sending countries, than the cost of the additional human capital in nurse training. Conclusions: Given the shortage of nurses in Australia and New Zealand, and therefore the high demand for immigrant nurses, investment by Pacific island governments and families in nurse training constitutes a rational use of economic resources. Policies encouraging investment in home countries may be more effective than policies directly discouraging brain drain in contributing to national development.
Background In little more than a quarter of a century there has been extensive migration from the small states of the Pacific to the metropolitan countries that border the region, resulting in absolute population decline in some states and new social, political and economic relationships. Contemporary variations in the structure of migration are substantially a function of colonial history, and throughout the
Pacific islands, islanders have mobilized colonial ties to emigrate to the metropolitan countries. In small states like the Cook Islands, Niue and American Samoa there a
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