Population Nears Standstill
Giff Johnson, editor of the Marshall Islands Journal and author of Idyllic No More.
The Marshall Islands population has increased by just 3,000 people in 17 years, according to an Asian Development Bank report. That is fewer than 200 people a year, despite the fact that in the 2000s, the Marshall Islands averaged around 1,500 births per year. Radio New Zealand correspondent Giff Johnson says the population stagnation has been driven by Marshallese leaving for the US for job opportunities, education and healthcare. Giff told Moera Tuilaepa-Taylor about the impacts of out-migration has on the nation.
GIFF JOHNSON: The government at the moment has put a hold on building more elementary schools on the outer islands because of depopulation and there half a dozen new outer island school buildings planned this fiscal year, all of those have apparently been on hold and the Ministry of Education has been asked to go back and review population and enrolment trends to try and see, because it just doesn’t make sense to put the investment in islands where you got a real decline in population.
MOERA TUILAEPA-TAYLOR: Because there is such a large population in the US. Do they feed money back into the Marshall islands economy, like in places like Tonga and Samoa, heavily rely on remittances. Is it the same for the Marshall islands?
Listen to the interview here or read the transcript below:
INTERVIEW
GJ: In recent years, it has become much more so in terms of people in the US sending money back home, so yes, there is a definite impact on having so many people working in the US but one of the trends is this money that does come back, is that people who are working in the US, many use their annual tax refund from the US government because the way the US tax system works, if you are in a lower income bracket, you actually get more deducted during the year and at the end of the year you are entitled to a rebate, some take all of that money, send it out to people here in order to buy one way tickets to go to the US and so we see in the March, April period, which is when the tax refunds are made, we see heavy purchase of people getting new passports and one way tickets, and the planes are just packed with outbound Marshall Islanders heading out on one way tickets to various parts of the US.
MTT: Is the government concerned about this? If so many young families are leaving, does that mean leaving a slightly older population in the Marshalls?
GJ: Seems like a lot of elderly have also one like, now there is a critical mass of Marshall islanders in many different areas of the US, for example there is a big concentration in Northwest Arkansas but then in Oklahoma, Washington State, Oregon, California. There are these pockets of 500 to a 1000 or more islanders, so they have got enough people for multiple churches for family events, so a lot of older folks have gone, in particular those in need of health care that they can not get out here, on the upside, we see a fare number of Marshallese students who have graduating from university in Hawaii or on the mainland coming back and getting jobs here, so if you have skills, if you have university degrees and some skills it’s pretty easy to get a job here.
