Pacific Islands Guestworkers in Australia

‘Sometimes, men cannot do what women can’: Pacific labour mobility, gender norms and social reproduction

“…Though the PLS was slow to start, annual recruitment rose to 505 workers in 2019, increased to 922 during the first year of the pandemic, and to 4941 in 2021. A significant explanatory factor behind the sudden increase in numbers was the involvement of labour hire companies—previously not eligible to be approved employers within the scheme—and the subsequent bourgeoning of employment opportunities in the meat processing industry (Petrou & Connell, 2023). By 2019, meat processing accounted for approximately 65 per cent of all employment in the PLS (Figure 1), and the relatively even gender balance seen during the NAWPP began reversing dramatically (Figure 2).…”

“…Workers themselves can find family separation difficult; Stead (2019) describes how a group of ni‐Vanuatu SWP workers ‘ached’ for their children, whereas Timorese women employed through the SWP felt guilty about being unable to fulfil traditional caring roles (Wu et al., 2023). Unsurprisingly, many early SWP workers wished they could bring their children with them to Australia (Petrou & Connell, 2023). At home in Vanuatu, younger children found it hardest to cope with their father's absence, whereas their mothers, as primary carers, found it extremely difficult to make up for their husband's lost labour (Bailey, 2014).…”

“…As for participation in the Pacific seasonal guestworker schemes (Petrou & Connell, 2023), the gendered divisions of paid and unpaid work within migrant households, extending to care responsibilities and norms, were thus important factors shaping decision‐making about PLS participation.…”

“…In contrast to other subregions of the Asia Pacific (Yeoh, 2019), temporary ‘guestworker’ schemes have only recently become a prominent feature of Pacific Island country economies. Although several Pacific Island countries were historically involved in various short‐term labour migration schemes to Australia and New Zealand (Petrou & Connell, 2023), and others have long histories of permanent migration and large diasporas in Australia, New Zealand and the United States (Doan et al., 2020), modern guestworker migration did not commence in earnest until the early 2000s. New Zealand's Recognized Seasonal Employer (RSE) scheme was launched in 2007 and was followed shortly thereafter by the piloting (2009) and formalization (2012) of Australia's Seasonal Worker Programme (SWP), with both labour mobility schemes offering short‐duration employment primarily in rural agriculture.…”

Migration and development, without care? Locating transnational care practices in the migration‐development debate

“…There is scarcely an economy in the Indo‐Pacific region that is not enmeshed in temporary labour migration. The Kafala System undergirds the oil‐economies of West Asia (Parreñas & Silvey, 2021); similarly restrictive foreign employment regimes abound in Hong Kong, Singapore, Taiwan and Malaysia (Shivakoti et al, 2021; Yeoh, 2019); irregular cross‐border passages circulate labour throughout South and Southeast Asia (Kaur, 2010) and labour mobility schemes with Pacific Island Countries (PICs) have become increasingly prominent in Australia and New Zealand (R. Bedford et al, 2017; Petrou & Connell, 2023). The depth and breadth of these migration corridors contribute to Asia having the largest intraregional migration flows anywhere in the world (International Organisation for Migration IOM, 2021), a fact that has situated the region at the centre of current academic and policy interest in ‘migration‐development’ (Piper, 2022).…”