CathNews New Zealand

Overcrowding is becoming a serious problem in Kiribati and Solomon Islands and rising sea levels are also expected to lead to further climate change refugees.  Australia and New Zealand have been told to expect more migration from their Pacific neighbours.

Speaking to Cook Islands, Fiji, Filipino, Hong Kong, Indian, Kiribati, New Zealand, Niuean, Samoan and Tongan postgraduate students taking part in the AUT-organised writing retreat at Vaughan Park, leading Pacific demographer Professor Richard Bedford, from the Auckland University of Technology, said New Zealand and Australia are obvious destinations for Pacific migrants.

“Long term, I think New Zealand and Australia need to be aware there will be an increasing pressure for opportunities to move to other countries, not as desperate people, but just as people seeking options for their futures,” he said.

“In Kiribati, of the 100,000 population, 50 percent live in urban Tarawa while in Solomon Islands of its 500, 000 population, 20 percent live in urban areas,” Dr Bedford said.

He described what would happen, what their children would do, and how life would look like in these two island nations in 50 years.

The issue of population growth in these neighbouring islands is being slowly understood in New Zealand, Dr Bedford told a Pasifika writing fono organised by AUT University.

Source:

• Pacific Scoop press release
• Image: UNHCR

Additional reading

• Solomon Islands populations tops half a million
• Pacific islanders face the reality of climate change . . . and of relocation

News category: Asia Pacific.