Cowling, Wendy E.2010-08-252010-08-252002Cowling, 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.0-8248-2562-4https://hdl.handle.net/10289/4424Migration 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.application/pdfenThis 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.migrationTonganTongan MigrationChapter in Book