Labor requirements in the Pacific are often framed in terms of Australia and New Zealand’s need for agricultural workers, or, increasingly, aged care. Yet other countries in the region also have labor requirements, albeit without the significant pull of wages within Australia and New Zealand. However, there are opportunities for those countries in need of labor and those in need of opportunity to cooperate more closely with each other.
Earlier this month, Solomon Islands’ prime minister, Jeremiah Manele, met with the Federated States of Micronesia’s (FSM) non-resident ambassador, Carson Sigrah, in Suva, Fiji. Part of their discussion was the possibility of a labor mobility scheme for Solomon Islanders to work in FSM, with a particular focus on the healthcare sector.
The discussions come during a period where FSM is beginning to develop a substantive migration policy. Due to the country’s Compact of Free Association Agreement with the United States, all FSM citizens are able to live and work in the U.S. without needing to obtain a visa. This provides enormous opportunities for FSM citizens, particularly youth looking to pursue education abroad, but it also creates a significant brain drain within the country as skilled citizens see far greater career prospects in the U.S.
A labor mobility agreement would not just be an opportunity for FSM to fill job shortages caused by an outward flow of people, but an opportunity for Solomon Islanders to find employment within the region.
While most Pacific Island countries maintain fertility rates above the replacement level of 2.1 children per woman, Solomon Islands’ fertility rate of 3.9 children per woman is the highest in the region. Currently the country has an incredible “youth bulge,” with 70 percent of the country’s population under 35 years ago. These young people are hungry for opportunities that Solomon Islands economic growth rate is currently unable to offer.
Reflecting this, last week Solomon Islands High Commissioner to Australia Robert Sisiolo called for an increase in the number of visas available to Solomon Islanders under Australia’s Pacific Engagement Visa (PEV). This program provides up to 3,000 visas annually to people from the Pacific Islands and Timor-Leste through a ballot process. Sisiolo argued that Solomon Islands’ allocation of just 150 visas was not reflective of the country’s population size and its young demographics – and should be expanded up to between 200 and 500 places. Solomon Islands is projected to overtake Fiji to become the Pacific Island region’s second largest country – after Papua New Guinea – within the next decade.
While the the PEV and the Pacific Australia Labor Mobility Scheme (PALM) are still seen as the primary avenues of opportunity for Pacific Islanders to enhance their incomes and skills, the discussion between Manele and Sigrah indicate that Pacific Island countries are starting to explore opportunities with each other to fill labor shortages and offer opportunities.
Last year Solomon Islands and Niue signed the Niue-Solomon Islands Labor Mobility Pilot aimed at recruiting nurses from Solomon Islands to work in both hospitals and aged care facilities in Niue. Due to Niue’s own free association with New Zealand, the island’s population is now only around 1,600 people, dwarfed by its diaspora of 31,000 in New Zealand, and an additional 6,000 in Australia. As a result, the delivery of basic services like healthcare in Niue is incredibly difficult. Turning to the Solomon Islands to fill these gaps makes sense.
In 2014 the Pacific Islands Forum (PIF) released its Framework for Pacific Regionalism. In it PIF defined Pacific Regionalism as “An expression of a common sense of identity and purpose, leading progressively to the sharing of institutions, resources and markets, with the purpose of complementing national efforts, overcoming common constraints, and enhancing sustainable and inclusive development within Pacific countries and territories and for the Pacific region as a whole.” Greater labor mobility within the region to share resources and overcome common constraints would help facilitate this vision.
Of course, the significant movement of people around the region is unlikely, due to cost, cultural difference and norms, and language constraints – despite a common lingua franca in English. But the effort by Pacific Island countries to understand their own requirements and find complementary requirements with their neighbors has the potential to create mutually beneficial outcomes – and in the process build a stronger sense of Pacific identity and purpose.