How Tonga Aids New Zealand
Positive Social Effects:
Positive Social Effects:
Everyone in Tonga is aware of the ‘good’ social effects of migration to New Zealand.
Wherever one goes, people point to new, durable houses built from funds remitted by
Tongans working, legally or illegally, in New Zealand. A tremendous influx of funds,
estimated to have been as much as $800,000 from New Zealand alone in 1973, has
gone direct to the people of Tonga instead of the usual Government-to-Government aid
schemes, and ordinary people have had opportunities for relatively high-paying employment never open to them before. This has given them a chance to improve their position,
give support to relatives, and give more generously to the work of their churches. The
Roman Catholic Church, for example, reports that for the first time many parents have
been able to pay their school fees, which has made a better educational service possible.
Ordinary Tongan people have earned this money by their own labour, and this has very
different implications than the receipt of handouts in ‘aid’ from self-righteous foreign
Governments.