The economic significance of migration and remittances in Tuvalu

Abstract

The observed importance of migration (MI), remittances (R), aid (A) and bureaucracy (B) to Small Island States (SIS) in the Pacific has led to the development of the MIRAB model to explain the economies of these countries. Scholars have questioned the long-term sustainability of MIRAB microstates in a continuing debate that cannot be settled without recourse to a detailed examination of the magnitudes and trends involved. In order to add to a small but growing empirical literature on this issue, the present paper provides an exploratory empirical investigation of migration patterns and associated remittances in case of Tuvalu.