Continuous chain migration had made expatriate āiga larger and wealthier. Untitled migrants, who had by now become established, sought and claimed leadership roles within the enclave. They now had more disposable income and also had access, in many cases, to the income of their New Zealand-born children with which to back their claims. New migrants, who were generally firmly committed to a Samoan world-view and lifestyle, were also willing contributors to and participants in these events. This process was intensified because migration had transformed traditional limits on families’ access to resources. Families which in Samoa had lesser titles and limited numbers of people and resources, were no longer constrained by these facts. Migrant families’ resources were limited only by the numbers of wage-earners and the leaders’ ability to mobilise their support. This provided both opportunity and incentive for some families to seek upward mobility by challenging larger, better-established ones in ways that would not have been possible in Samoa.

Perhaps the most significant factor, however, was the re-emergence of the competitive dynamic in migrant Samoan society. This was in large part a consequence of the growing number of matai whose role was to use resources to enhance a kin-group’s sociopolitical status and of a growing pool of resources with which to work. As kin-groups sought to establish their claim to status and recognition in the migrant enclave through demonstrations of collective strength and ability to mobilise resources, a form of ‘ceremonial inflation’ occurred. This inflation manifested itself in two ways: a growth in the scale of these formal events and the creation of new ones.