In contrast with the policies followed by, for example, Chile or France as colonial powers in the Pacific, New Zealand has opted to follow relatively closely the policy laid down in the United Nations’ Decolonisation Charter (see Angelo 2001, 259 n 43).

Transnationalism is a useful concept because it points to the existence of a particular kind of social field with inherent characteristics that set it apart from other social fields of interaction that emerge as a result of regional interaction. Some of these characteristics have been mentioned above: the perhaps most important one is the increased frequency of contact across national borders, by multiple media, and on many different levels from the personal to a state apparatus. My use of the term thus differs from those who use it as a general label for all contact between island communities in the region, including precolonial ones (e.g. Spoonley 2001, 95). To take this stance is not to deny the point made by Marshall Sahlins in his polemic article addressed to Lévi-Strauss’ civilization-pessimism, ‘Goodbye to Tristes Tropes’, where he draws a connection between earlier forms of migration in the Pacific region and contemporary migration (Sahlins 1994). He argues that contemporary networks and flow of goods, gifts, persons, rights and obligations perpetuate patterns that were present in earlier forms of regional interaction. Camille Nakhid, in her discussion of the applicability of theories of transnationalism to the particularities of the Pacific makes a similar point when she argues that transnational relationships in the region are typically characterised by reciprocity (this volume). In the same vein, Sahlins’ perspective is important, especially as applied to Oceania, as much research has tended to perpetuate an image of historical discontinuity between the (exotic and interesting) pre-contact past and an (acculturated and uninteresting) present. In order better to understand situations such as that represented by contemporary Tokelau configurations—in and outside of the atolls—we need to develop perspectives that allow us to explore such long-term continuities represented by networks of social reciprocity. At the same time, they allow us to examine how nation-states may influence relations between Pacific communities in qualitatively different ways. In this respect, transnationalism has much to offer. It forces us to go beyond one location and one community and look for connections that create new divides but also bridge distances.

Over time, New Zealand’s relationship with the Pacific region has changed. At one time the Pacific represented as a golden opportunity for New Zealand to establish a ‘pan-Polynesian’ empire while at the same time sever the strong political ties binding it to Britain—in order to establish itself as a nation with its own, independent political profile (Hoëm 2005). As is commonly the case with such visions, it was not realised as it was originally conceived. Also, and because of Pacific peoples’ greater familiarity with social conditions in New Zealand brought about by the wave of migration commencing from the early 1960s, the country does not figure to the same degree as the ‘Promised Land’ for prospective migrants. For example, Australia and the USA came for some time to be perceived as more promising destinations for people in search of work. Restrictions on migration also have been tightened. For example, the population (born after 1948, see NZ laws on citizenship) in what was then called Western Samoa lost their rights to New Zealand citizenship after Samoa became independent in 1962. At the same time, a new system of quota regulations for immigrants from Samoa was established. This system has, with certain modifications, remained to the present day. Today the quota is up to 1,100 immigrants per year (in addition to those entering New Zealand under ordinary immigration arrangements), granted that the prospective migrant is between 18 and 45 years of age and has a job offer. People from other Pacific nations, such as Kiribati, Tuvalu, Fiji and Tonga may enter under the ‘Pacific Access Category’. New Zealand receives only a few hundred immigrants from these nations each year. Only the population from Cook Islands, Niue and Tokelau still have unlimited access to the country. (See the New Zealand Ministry of Foreign Relations and Trade web page for a fuller description of these policies.)