Craig, David and Bedford, Richard and Gegeo , David W. and Rodie, Patricia and Miller , Rebecca and Friesen, Ward (2014) Labour mobility and diaspora: An overview of Solomon Islands historic regulatory experience 1850s-2013. University of Waikato.
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Abstract
With less than 4,500 of its population of around 600,000 living overseas in 2013, the Solomon Islands
ranks 138th in the world for diaspora formation. At these levels the scale of the diaspora as a
proportion of population (0.8 percent) remains lower than it was in the early 20th century, when
more than 5,000 Solomon islanders were compulsorily repatriated from Queensland under early
Australian Commonwealth legislation. This working paper retraces and reframes the history of
Solomon Islands labour mobility and diaspora formation since the 1850s, considering it in relation to
the wider institutional and macro-regulatory machineries of three phases or regimes of economic,
trade and mobility regulation. These regimes are referred to in this paper as: 1.liberal imperial, 2.
national territorial and 3. international neoliberal. We argue that Solomon Islanders’ participation in
labour mobility has been substantial under all three phases, but that international mobility and
diaspora formation only developed significantly under the liberal imperial regime. Even then, however,
its development proved precarious. The ways regional actors and governments acting within the
different regimes have framed and segmented labour markets continue to powerfully shape mobility
and diaspora outcomes. The paper concludes with a discussion of the implications of the situation to
date for future economic development and security in Solomon Islands.
| Item Type: | Other |
|---|---|
| Subjects: | H Social Sciences > H Social Sciences (General) |
| Divisions: | Faculty of Arts, Law and Education (FALE) > Oceania Centre for Arts, Culture and Pacific Studies |
| Depositing User: | Fulori Nainoca - Waqairagata |
| Date Deposited: | 13 May 2015 00:42 |
| Last Modified: | 21 May 2022 12:21 |
| URI: | https://repository.usp.ac.fj/id/eprint/8242 |
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