Village life suffers as youth flock overseas for work
Some youths are reportedly gone for up to four years, disrupting village life, development projects, and family structures.
Sunday 03 August 2025 | 20:00
The iTaukei Affairs Board has proposed shorter seven-month work packages through the National Employment Centre (NEC), in partnership with New Zealand, and aims to better monitor how earnings are reinvested into community and family development.
RNZ
The iTaukei Affairs Board has raised serious concerns over the long-term absence of iTaukei youth from villages due to seasonal work programs abroad, warning that rural development and traditional responsibilities are being left behind.
A parliamentary report tabled last month revealed that many young people are away for years at a time, leaving behind a vacuum in roles vital to community progress.
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“People who should be developing the village, utilizing resources, feeding the markets, repairing buildings, and carrying out social and traditional roles—they are not in the village,” said Board Deputy CEO Josefa Toganivalu.
The issue was highlighted in the Standing Committee on Social Affairs’ review of the iTaukei Affairs Board’s consolidated reports from 2015 to 2022.
The committee found that while seasonal work schemes, especially in Australia and New Zealand, provide income for families, they are also draining villages of much-needed manpower.
Some youths are reportedly gone for up to four years, disrupting village life, development projects, and family structures.
To address this, the Board has proposed shorter seven-month work packages through the National Employment Centre (NEC), in partnership with New Zealand, and aims to better monitor how earnings are reinvested into community and family development.
The Board is also working to counter urban drift, with an Urban Services Unit now engaging with iTaukei communities in informal settlements around Vatuwaqa and Nasinu.
Latest figures from a 2023 village profiling exercise show 167,597 people living in villages, with 89,243 of working age.
The committee has urged the Board to work closely with NEC to track the number of youth who have migrated or left for overseas work and ensure that foreign employment under the Vuvale and Duavata partnerships remains equitable and sustainable.
Committee Chair Iliesa Vanawalu emphasised that while foreign job opportunities are important, village development should not be sacrificed in the process.
