Contribution short abstract:

Paying particular attention to the relational and institutional undercurrents of Fijian sociality, this paper ponders the strategies employed by Japan- and UK-based indigenous Fijians to limit or circumvent communal expectations related to kin and wider communities of origin in Fiji.

Contribution long abstract:

This paper discusses some of the strategies Japan- and UK-based indigenous Fijians employ to selectively limit or circumvent im/material expectations many of them face from relatives and wider communities of origin in Fiji. In doing so, it critically engages with a common bias in Pacific Islander mobility and migration studies that routinely characterizes remittances as integral to Pacific diasporas and transnationalism. Working towards a more balanced perspective, this paper draws on ethnographic research conducted with first-generation migrants from Fiji in the Tokyo metropolis, Greater London and other parts of Japan and England, who offered (at times substantial) criticism against Fijian communalism and its metacultural foundations (cf. Tomlinson 2009) without questioning it as such. This was particularly evident if Fijians were concerned who faced exaggerated and excessive requests for support from relatives and others who were unaware of the migrants’ living conditions and misjudged their financial capabilities. In response, diasporic Fijians used a range of strategies to navigate communal ways of being and belonging, for example, they limited remittances to specific persons and causes, maintained a degree of spatial distance during stays in Fiji or resorted to unannounced visits to the country. To theorise the ethnographic material presented, the paper pays particular attention to the institutional and relational undercurrents of Fijian communalism in order to trace the place of migrants within Fijian sociality at large.