The costs of fuel and food that spiked in 2008 are the prime cause of the stepped-up out-migration of residents from this United States-affiliated Pacific nation.
A total of 1,503 people left the Marshalls for the U.S. in 2008, nearly triple the number in 2007, according to U.S. Department of Transportation statistics that track in- and out-bound passengers between the Marshall Islands and the U.S. The 2008 total is the third highest since the data began being kept in 1990.
Marshall Islanders can travel to the U.S. to live, work and study without a visa because of a close relationship with Washington through a Compact of Free Association. The Marshall Islands has a population of about 55,000.
Out-migration numbers from Majuro, the capital, were the highest, by far, but Kwajalein, the second urban center, saw its out-migration statistics more than double compared to 2007. In 2008, 1,223 people left Majuro for the U.S. — more than two-and-a-half-times the 2007 number of 466.
From Kwajalein, 280 people departed compared to 112 in 2007.
“The dramatic increases in fuel and food can be considered as major influences for out-migration in 2008,” said Economic Policy, Planning and Statistics Office Director Carl Hacker.
The record for out-bound Marshall Islanders was set in 2001, when 2,029 left to the US. In 2000, 1,916 left.
“According to the Trans Stats Database from the U.S. Dept of Transportation, the difference between passenger arrival and departures in the Marshall Islands showed that 1,503 more people departed than arrived into the Marshall Islands,” said Hacker. “This is the largest annual level of out migration since 2001.”
