Paper Short Abstract:

I discuss the perception and negotiation of in/dependence by Ni-Vanuatu temporary labour migrants at different scales. First, how relations of dependence are cultivated by workers and employers alike. Secondly, migration as an alternative to dependence on ‘handouts’ at local and national scales.

Paper Abstract:

While temporary migration programmes have been promoted as an alternative to aid in facilitating economic development, they have long been critiqued by scholars and unions for exploiting reserve pools of cheap labour, and for fostering relations of dependency between sending and receiving nations, and between migrants and employers. Temporary migration programs have been criticised for forcing workers to depend on a single employer and denying many of the rights and freedoms owed to citizens, and thus fostering conditions for exploitation and unfreedom. Drawing on 16 months’ fieldwork with Ni-Vanuatu engaged in New Zealand’s seasonal worker programme, I will discuss how arguments around dependence operate to articulate aspirations for economic prosperity and development, at different scales. First, I draw on anthropological discussions of dependence as a ‘mode of action’ (Ferguson 2013; 2015: 97) to reveal how relations of reciprocal dependence are actively cultivated and maintained by Ni-Vanuatu workers as well as employers, often figured in idioms and practices of kinship and hospitality. Secondly, I discuss how labour migration is welcomed by many in Vanuatu as an alternative to dependence on ‘handouts’ and aid, at both local and national scales.