During New Zealand’s 2023 election campaign, a pre-election promise made by the National-led coalition, now in government, was to increase the cap on numbers employed under the Recognised Seasonal Employer (RSE) scheme to 38,000 by the end of the decade (up from 19,000 in 2022-23) and, possibly, to...
Category - Labour mobility and migration
New data to inform big decisions around Pacific labour mobility
There has been much discussion about how the rapidly expanding labour mobility programs in Australia and New Zealand have affected lives in the Pacific. Many have pointed to the significant economic benefits to Pacific islanders, such as being able to earn much more abroad than at home. On the...
Australia-Tuvalu deal brings a visa-free Pacific closer
The announcement that Australia will provide 280 permanent residency visas to Tuvalu each year as part of a new treaty between the two countries is the latest in a series of pathbreaking Pacific migration initiatives unveiled by Australia’s Labor government. In this blog I explore how the new...
Will the Greens support the Pacific Engagement Visa and with what conditions?
The Pacific Engagement Visa or PEV is the most important Pacific policy initiative of the Labor government. Introduction of the new visa – which will provide 3,000 citizens of Pacific countries and Timor-Leste with permanent residency in Australia annually – requires the passage of two pieces of...
Seasonal work supports everyday expenses in Tonga
A previous blog introducing the Tongan household survey component of the Pacific Labour Mobility...
Recruitment pathways and motivations in Samoa’s new labour trade
This blog is a summary of recent research from the National University of Samoa’s Centre for Samoan...
Brain drain 3: specific problems and solutions
The first blog in this series of three outlined the growing concern about brain drain among Pacific...
The Pacific: emerging from COVID, slowly
The impact of COVID-19 on the economies of the Pacific island region has been much more severe than...
Brain drain 2: general solutions
As the first blog in this series outlined, the terms ‘labour loss’, ‘skills shortage’, and the more...
Brain drain 1: a growing concern
In May 2018 I wrote on Devpolicy Blog, “It is vital [that] Australia’s new efforts to promote...