Create opportunities for Melanesians, says academic

A NEW Zealand academic, who was honoured in his country last week for his research on Pacific migration, says Australia and New Zealand must consider creating new opportunities for Melanesians like Papua New Guineans to live and work in their countries.
Prof Richard Bedford, from the University of Waikato and AUT University, said PNG, the Solomon Islands and Vanuatu had limited outlets for their people to move overseas in comparison with countries in Polynesia and Micronesia.
He said New Zealand and Australia would have no choice in the future but to address migration from these countries in a more comprehensive way.
Bedford made these comments on Radio New Zealand International on Wednesday after receiving the Dame Joan Metge medal from the Royal Society of New Zealand.
It is a social sciences award for excellence and building relationships in the social science research community.
“In the case of Papua New Guinea, the Solomons and Vanuatu, these are island states, I mean their nearest countries that have got opportunities for employment are Australia and New Zealand. There are limited opportunities for the development of wage employment in those countries,” he said.
According to a media statement from the University of Waikato, Bedford had made a major contribution to the understanding of migration in the Asia-Pacific region, and has been an influential figure in developing social science research in the Pacific and New Zealand over a long period.
His work took him to communities all over the Pacific, where several islands and atolls had experienced large population growth after World War II.
He looked at how these islands could sustain growing populations, issues of resettlement and the barriers to relocating.
“Many of the people living in villages or on threatened coral atolls had no desire to move to bigger islands or into towns to live and work.
“We were trying to plan ahead, predict what the situation would be like in 50 years, and that was difficult to forecast.”
More recently Bedford had been studying the recognised seasonal employer scheme that sees workers coming to New Zealand for the harvest seasons and for a maximum of seven months a year.
“It’s been working since 2006 and cross party support is critical for its success.
“The scheme is Vanuatu’s second biggest employer and since the RSE has been operating, it’s been refined and in most cases is working well.
“It’s definitely reduced the number of illegal workers coming to work here and is having positive financial benefits for Island economies.”