As Pacific Island countries strive to recover from the COVID-19 pandemic, Australia and New Zealand’s seasonal job programmes are helping families regain incomes and pay for the needs of their communities, however, the schemes are also blamed for draining skills and labour from the small, isolated nations, reports Al Jazeera. The labour mobility programmes allow thousands of Pacific Islanders to undertake agricultural and horticultural work for significantly higher wages than they would receive back home.

While Australia’s Pacific Australia Labour Mobility (PALM) scheme is officially aimed at the jobless and unskilled, some governments in the region say that significant numbers of those joining are not unemployed but in fact hold positions in sectors such as manufacturing, hospitality, tourism and healthcare. While the Australian government says that the selection of temporary workers is made by Pacific Island nations, more than 10% of the male working-age populations of Tonga, Samoa and Vanuatu are believed to be employed as temporary workers in Australia and New Zealand, according to a report last year by the Australian National University’s Development Policy Unit.

Labour market imbalances are longstanding issues for Pacific Island countries. For years, population growth has outpaced economic growth in many of the islands. Limited formal sector jobs, underdeveloped private sectors, and large youth populations have combined to leave many Pacific Islanders at risk of joblessness. Governments in the region have nonetheless acknowledged that labour schemes will play an important role in their recovery from the pandemic.