Comments

Dear Mahendra, Thank you for your reflection on this piece. I’m glad the idea of remittances as a structural warning resonated, that was exactly the intention. I plan to write my future piece on policies that matter especially on diaspora bonds and matched savings. Thank you.

Dear Dhurba, Thank you for reading this piece and your kind words.

Dear Rose Marie, Thank you for this very excellent comment from Malta. Malta’s own migration history is actually instructive here. As you rightly pointed our elsewhere in your research that in the 1950s-1960s, large-scale emigration helped relieve unemployment pressures. But Malta did not rely on migration alone. Over time it invested deliberately in education, industrial policy, EU integration, financial services, and institutional reform. Migration became part of the story, and not the whole story. That is the key lesson for small states like those in the Pacific and the Caribbean: migration can buy time, but only strategy, governance, and diversification build prosperity. Remittances can support resilience, but development requires visionary leaders (in short supply these days).

I want further studies on GBV.

I agree that remittances on their own have limited development potential. State development policies, which offer excellent rationale for business growth and attract talent and capital back to the country of origin are needed for development purposes. Otherwise, remittances act as a short-term abeyance of poverty. On other occasions they may act as the incentive to start a small business or send someone to higher education, but for real economic development, more stakeholders need to be involved and an overall strategy for such development needs to be spelt out and acted upon. Thanks for this article.

I agree with the arguments in this article in the context of Fiji. When the population merely exceeds 900,000 people and 10% working abroad, importing labor to mitigate labor shortages and while the unemployment rate is around 4-5% which is not bad, that means that there are systematic issues in governance. Definitely Public administration reforms are needed to address these issues. In line with the Social investment theory, government should invest in education, healthcare and infrastructure, moreover reform fiscal policy stimulate private entrepreneurship, most importantly curb corruption. These measures may not immediately stop the labor migration but will mediate negative effects of labor outflows in long term.

This is an excellent fact based article.

Dear Deidra, Thank you very much for this generous and thoughtful comment. I’m really glad the piece resonated in Jamaica and other parts of world, because so many of the dynamics we see in the Pacific mirror what you describe. You’re absolutely right: the central question is how small island states make staying a real, dignified option by creating environments where opportunity, fairness, and confidence in the future exist at home. Jamaica’s experience reinforces the point that remittances can ease hardship, but they cannot substitute for development. Until we are honest about that distinction, we risk managing symptoms rather than addressing causes. I appreciate you bringing the Caribbean perspective into this conversation. These shared experiences across regions are exactly what can help us rethink the development choices facing small states.

Dear Farzana. Thank you for putting it so clearly, and for naming the uncomfortable truth. I completely agree: the real issue is not migration itself, but the quiet acceptance that exporting people can substitute for building institutions, services, and opportunity at home. You’re right that, in the Pacific, migration is as much a political and moral signal as an economic one. People are looking for countries that are fair, predictable, and dignified, places where effort leads somewhere. This is natural and understandable. Rebuilding domestic capacity, fair wages, skills retention, and institutional trust is not anti-migration at all. It is about restoring choice. The real failure is not that people leave, but that staying is no longer imagined as viable. Thank you for engaging so thoughtfully with the argument, this is exactly the conversation we need.

Dear Mypursu, Thank you for your excellent comment. I give credit to you for capturing the core argument far better than I can have summarise it myself. I fully agree that remittances are the oxygen of many Pacific economies (essential for survival) but oxygen alone cannot build muscle, institutions, or confidence. What worries me most is the fatalistic approach of our leaders who let this bleeding continue, and on the contrary celebrate the amount of money sent by the hardworking migrants. I completely agree that rebuilding opportunity, dignity, and hope at home is the durable way forward. But what we do with the remittance money sent home. Thank you again for engaging so seriously with the piece, this is precisely the kind of conversation the Pacific needs.

Your article perfectly captures the crossroads the Pacific is currently facing. You are right to challenge the 'quiet resignation' that has set in regarding labor mobility. By framing remittances as a 'structural warning' rather than a success metric, you strip away the complacency that often masks domestic decline. I am especially compelled by your suggestion to turn remittances into investment through diaspora bonds and matched savings. You have laid out a clear choice: we can either continue exporting our people or we can follow the path of Singapore and Mauritius by giving them reasons to stay. Thank you for reminding us that a future worth staying for is a choice, not a miracle.

He was a very distinguished Academic who imparted knowledge and touched lives of people in many ways. A complimentary chapter was a Political Career after Academia. He was Cabinet Minister and history will definetly reward him the front row Seat for his role in the movies, his contributions to PNG Politics and Academia in PNG. May his soul rest in eternal peace.