Investing in home: development outcomes and climate change adaptation for seasonal workers living between Solomon Islands and Australia

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Dun, Olivia
McMichael, Celia
McNamara, Karen
Farbotko, Carol
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2022
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Abstract

Labour migration is considered an important pathway for improving economic development in countries of origin. In recent years, labour migration, through the ‘migration as adaptation’ discourse, has been further positioned as a response to changing environmental conditions in places of high climate risk, such as the Pacific Islands region. However, limited empirical work examines whether and how labour mobility schemes enhance both development outcomes and climate change adaptation. This paper considers how temporary and circular labour migrants from Solomon Islands, who are participants in Australia’s Seasonal Worker Programme (SWP), are investing in their lives, households and villages in their country of origin in ways that contribute to development and climate change adaptation. Based on in-depth qualitative research with twelve Solomon Islander SWP participants working on citrus farms in the Mildura region, Australia, we find that investments (via funding, resources and skills) made by labour migrants contribute to development and in-situ climate change adaptation, enabling aspirations for a resilient futures in their community of origin. However, we argue climate change considerations should be formally integrated and mainstreamed into the SWP to fully enable possibilities for transformative climate change adaptation.

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Migration and Development

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11

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3

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© 2020 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group. This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in Migration and Development on 23 Dec 2020, available at: https://doi.org/10.1080/21632324.2020.1837535

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Demography

Climate change impacts and adaptation

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Dun, O; McMichael, C; McNamara, K; Farbotko, C, Investing in home: development outcomes and climate change adaptation for seasonal workers living between Solomon Islands and Australia, Migration and Development, 2022, 11 (3), pp. 852-875

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