Cowling, W.E. (2002). Motivations for contemporary Tongan migration. In P. Spickard, J.L. Rondilla & D.H. Wright (Eds.), Pacific Diaspora: Island Peoples in the United States and Across the Pacific (pp. 99-117). United States: University of Hawai’i Press.
Abstract
Migration can be seen as a process in which large numbers of individuals and families begin to write a new history for themselves. The initial act of leaving one's parents, family, neighbourhood, society and culture, and adopting a new life- and work-style is a crucial one. Only a small proportion of people who enter a migration process, or who have participated in major migration movements in the past, have had a clear perception of what they were going to encounter, or the extent to which their lives were going to change. While it is very likely that a large proportion of the individual migrants are the forerunners in a migration which will ultimately involve other members of their kin network, they are not usually able to foresee this at the time.
Publisher
University of Hawai’i Press
Rights
This chapter has been published in the book: Pacific Diaspora: Island Peoples in the United States and Across the Pacific. © 2002 University of Hawai’i Press. Used with permission.
