Guestworker Schemes in Pacific Island Countries: Triple Wins but Social Costs?

Guestworker schemes have increased in geographical extent and numerical importance in the twenty-first century. In the southern hemisphere, Australia and New Zealand developed schemes primarily drawing workers from small Pacific island states to meet horticultural needs. Proponents of guestwork pointed to a triple win for farmers, workers and source countries, couched in economic terms. In small Pacific states, such economic gains were less evident at workers' household level, while growing numbers of participants created increased social problems for workers' households and source countries, evident especially during and after the COVID-19 pandemic. Increased demand for workers in destination states and new geopolitical tensions in the region enabled Pacific states to demand structural changes to the schemes that would remedy social costs. However, Antipodean schemes retained the structural problems of guestworker schemes elsewhere, but emphasised by skill losses, a permanently temporary precariat, and impacts affecting the entirety of small states that challenge the simplicity and ubiquity of ‘Triple win’ discourses.