There is now widespread agreement that options to lift labour mobility from the Pacific are needed. The Development Policy Centre had undertaken and commissioned new research to look into a range of possible channels and factors affecting migration. This workshop presented a range of new policy-relevant research undertaken into Pacific labour mobility.

Research relating to the following key issues have been covered:

• The skill profiles and employment outcomes of Pacific work migrants to Australia and New Zealand compared with all other work migrants
• The employment and income outcomes of New Zealand’s Pacific Access Category visa
• Opportunities and models for Pacific migrants in aged or disability care in Australia and New Zealand, based on recent migrant profiles
• The experience of Timor-Leste in sending unskilled labour to South Korea
• A comparison of Australia and NZ’s seasonal worker programs
• Kiribati and Tuvalu demographic projections and migration strategies
• Pacific skill strategies and challenges

The workshop was being convened to present, review and discuss the various papers with the aim of producing the end product as a book. The papers had been circulated in advance to all registered workshop participants to encourage a more in-depth discussion.