Local officials believe this will add a surge to heavy out-migration to the United States seen since the mid-1990s.
“The strong and rapid increase in the cost of living here will definitely encourage more migration (to the U.S.),” Marshall Islands Ambassador to the U.S. Ben Graham said Wednesday in an interview. But skyrocketing inflation will also make it increasingly difficult for lower-income families to come up with the money to buy the $750 one-way tickets needed to migrate to America.
The government’s chief planner Carl Hacker said in an interview that out-migration numbers for 2007 appear to have dropped significantly compared to 2005 and 2006, when between 1,000 and 1,100 people left the country annually. “About 560 people may have emigrated during the first 11 months of 2007,” Hacker said. “This is a significant decrease over the prior two years.”
“Lower-income households have been especially hard-hit by the recent food inflation,” Graham said. So “it is much more difficult for these households to ‘purchase’ migration, so their situation has just gone from difficult to very difficult.”
Numerous Majuro residents confirm the dramatic changes in lifestyle forced by escalating prices.
“Before, I came home while my air-conditioner was going full blast and my wife was watching television in a nicely cooled room,” said Rotis Jitiam, who works for the government’s retirement fund and supports a family of six.
“Now I’ve limited using the air-conditioner and watching television to evenings only.”
“I used to come home with two bags of rice for two weeks,” said Ambi Amram, who works for the local utility company and supports a household of eight. “Now, I can only afford one bag of rice (20 pounds) that has to last us two weeks. To accomplish that, I made a new meal system. Every lunch and dinner meal must have at least a small amount of rice and three slices of breadfruit or other local food.”
