There is a significant trend for Niueans to migrate overseas and consequently, the population of Niue has declined rapidly. Many Niueans have migrated for better lifestyle opportunities, mainly to New Zealand. There is a large population of Niueans in Auckland and there are now more New Zealand Niueans with multiethnic backgrounds. Niueans have now moved to other parts of the world, especially to Australia, as employment opportunities are better and the cost of living is a lower than in New Zealand.

Transnationalism has played an important role for many of these Niueans abroad, who are still strongly connected with Niue through remittances, reciprocal gift giving, cultural activities, land obligations, and identity through kinship ties and obligations. Many Niueans will return for important events and to visit family. However, as highlighted in this chapter, Niue is an extreme case whereby a large population of Niueans live overseas and maintaining their transnational ties has been made difficult by inadequate transportation and expensive phone calls. Today, many Niueans have turned to technology to enable them to maintain these links through emails and the use of video conference technologies such as Skype.

A number of key issues have been discussed in this chapter in relation to return migration. The government has created initiatives to repopulate Niue and in some cases, Niueans have returned to Niue because of the climate and laid back lifestyle, a stress free environment and the low cost of living. However, the problem of population decline remains and there are still a number of young people who feel that they will not return to the island because of low wages, the high cost of living and the change of lifestyle.

In the last five years, Niue has been slowly trying to rebuild its economy with the new initiatives that have been highlighted in this paper; it remains to be seen whether these are successful in the long term. For Niue to become an economically sustainable country it needs to have a strong financial base to ensure that resources are manageable and to develop the country. There also needs to be a good governance structure in place so that the economy is stable. Economic development needs to be strong so that Niue is economically viable and not reliant on overseas aid. Social services such as education and health services infrastructure also must be improved so that Niueans will have a better lifestyle in Niue and more Niueans will be willing to return home.