Fiji's brainy migrants
p. 23 · Read in the full issue
seek greener pastures
From VIJENDRA KUMAR in Lautoka
is facing an exodus of * professional and skilled people who are leaving Fiji in increasingly large numbers to seek better fortunes in other countries. Last year, 3,747 people left the country to settle mainly in Canada and America. A sprinkling went to Australia and New Zealand. Ac cording to the government statistician, Mr Mohammed Ali Sahib, the rate of emigration is accelerating and this year’s figures are expected to be still higher.
Although the Bureau of Statistics has not released a racial break down, it is no secret that a vast majority of the migrants are Indians. Many Chinese have left the country in the past few years and the trend is continuing. The government has expressed concern at this brain drain which it can ill afford at its present stage of development but has not yet seriously grappled with the problem.
Top professionals have left Fiji disgruntled and dejected, dis contented at salary disparities between locals and expatriates.
Some were frustrated with slow advancement. Several doctors have gone to Australia where they earn many times more than they did in Fiji and have opportunities to pursue post-graduate courses.
Skilled workers such as electric ians, motor mechanics, carpenters and joiners find a ready market for their skills in Canada where a majority of them find their new home. Once settled there, they gradually bring in their entire families and friends. Vancouver has several thousand Fiji nationals.
Some have ventured further inland into the biting cold for more money and better opnortunities.
Many teachers have found good positions in Canadian schools where they are continuing their own studies in different fields.
Perhaps the real reason for the migration of Indians stems from a sense of insecurity. Politically, they are equal to any other race but political power these days is tied up with economics. The Indians have uncertainties about the land problem which recently sparked off a rowdy scene in the
House of Representatives. A state ment by a minister that Indians would no longer get leases on land administered by the Native Land Trust Board (NLTB) did not help to allay these fears. On the con trary, it merely confirmed the Indians’ suspicions.
Since then, the NLTB and the government have tried to patch up the monumental political blunder but its real effects are yet to be seen.
A recent trend in emigration is even more alarming. Several busi nessmen have left. Recently, two leading Indian capitalists left to settle in New Zealand where the New Zealand Government welcom ed their investment. Some have gone to America and have estab lished small businesses. Others are planning to leave.
The owner of a flourishing print ing press at Lautoka is selling out to settle in Montreal. A Chinese merchant has offered for sale his three-storey building at Ba, a town on the Western Coast of Viti Levu, because he wants to live in Aus tralia.
This trend underlines the real fears felt by the Indian community and to some extent by the Chinese, who are in a small minority. The businessmen who have left and those planning to leave prospered well in Fiji and their departure from a country which has prided itself on being a showcase for democracy and political stability seems puzzling. But deep under currents flow beneath the system.
The government has tightened up on the flight of capital which may have an effect on slowing down the trend. But sharp busi nessmen know ways of circum venting the restrictions and are secretly channelling out cash and salting it in foreign banks—for a ‘rainy day’.
One of the ironies of the situation is that Fiji may be paying for speeding its policy of localising jobs soon after self-government.
With the local expertise flying away ?> the government may find itself in the embarrassing position of recruiting expatriates to fill posts for which no locals are available.