By: Gursimran Padda

One of the most prominent forms of not just environmental migration, but migration generally is internal migration according to the United Nations Migration’s “2020 World Migration Report” (UN Migration, 19). Within the South Pacific this occurs as well, mainly through urbanization, or the movement of people from rural communities to more developed cities. The South Pacific, according to United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific’s “Ocean Cities of The Pacific Islands Policy Brief #1 The Ocean and The City”, is a highly urbanized part of the world, and the rates continue to increase (UNESCAP, 2). Urbanization can be explained by the push and pull factors mentioned previously, but in the case of the South Pacific, one of the biggest pull factors is greater availability and accessibility for fresh water in more urbanized areas.

When analyzing urbanization in the South Pacific, the country of Kiribati works as a perfect example. In 1947 Kiribati’s capital of South Tarawa, situated on Tarawa Island, had roughly ~1671 people according to a TIME article published by Mélissa Godin, but as of 2020 the Kiribati official census believes this number to be 63,439, a massive increase in its population. In a study done by the Kiribati government in 2012 entitled “Island Report Series: South Tarawa”, South Tarawa has Kiribati’s highest growth rate in terms of population, and the third highest by percentage, with a growth rate of 4.4% between 2005 and 2010. 

South Tarawa has a land area of 15.76 square kilometers however, this realistically drops to 12 square kilometers when ignoring unusable land  (Kiribati Government, 1-4). This paints the picture of a very densely populated portion of a very small piece of land. The high urban population, coupled with a high urban growth rate have caused problems for the small portion of the island. According to Justin T. Locke’s “Climate Change-Induced Migration in the Pacific Region: Sudden Crisis and Long-Term Developments” resources have been under pressure, most notably freshwater, and squatter settlements have increased (Locke, 174). Overcrowding on the island has increased the spread of disease, mainly caused by poor or overstressed sanitary systems such as lack of garbage disposal systems, and poor sewage systems (Locke, 173-176). South Tarawa also has a noticeably higher infant mortality rate of 69 per 1000 live births, in comparison to other regions and has had high malnutrition rates, both due to the lack of resource access (Locke, 175). 

Much of these issues are already exacerbated by climate change, as mentioned in the section prior, as rising sea levels play an immense role in freshwater access and reasons for migration to begin with. Though no clear links have been established (Locke, 174), it is likely that South Tarawa’s population has grown in conjunction with climate change related resource access and livelihood damages in neighboring rural islands, which fuel internal migration. Policy responses to alleviate health problems caused by overpopulation are the “Integrated Land and Population Development Programme” (Locke, 175) which is part of the greater Climate Change Adaptation plan by the Kiribati government. The plans entail relocation of people to outer islands and employing family planning to stabilize the population. When dealing with squatters, the government plans to incentivize movement if people were to do so voluntarily. This program is however only a short term solution, as due to high birth rates and continued climate change related pressure, internal migration cannot be the sole solution.

Kiribati’s story is just one example, other countries in the South Pacific are falling victim to similar problems, which just shows how cooperation within the international and regional community of the South Pacific is necessary. Many countries within the South Pacific have been looking elsewhere through migration to help combat this problem.