Friendship Is The Best Way To Counter China In The Pacific

Migration has long been central to the Pacific’s relations with the wider world. The Marshallese and Palauan diasporas in the US number about half as many people as live in those respective countries, thanks to the fact that they, along with citizens of the Federated States of Micronesia, have full work and residency rights there. There’s about four times as many Samoan Americans as there are residents of American Samoa. People born in New Caledonia, French Polynesia, Guam and the Northern Mariana Islands are full citizens of France and the US. New Zealand has a green card-style program for citizens of Samoa and four other Pacific nations that grants permanent residency to 1,750 people a year.