We are so grateful to the contributors to this book, who have patiently followed all our editorial requests over the past two years. From their enthusiastic participation in the Pacific Transnationalism conference in November 2006, at La Trobe University in Melbourne, Australia, and through several revisions of their papers, all of the authors have been generous with their time and have enabled us to create a book that is more than simply a collection of conference proceedings. Thankyou also to those who participated in the conference but whose papers are not included here; all of the presentations were of high quality and contributed to lively discussions throughout the sessions. Those discussions continued in the community forum held during the conference, at which members of a number of Pacific communities in Melbourne shared their views about migration and transnationalism; many thanks to them for giving their time and so generously sharing their thoughts and experiences.

We are also grateful to ANU E Press for publishing this collection and to the anonymous reviewers whose reports helped us shape the collection into its final form.

Helen Lee and Steve Tupai Francis