Out-migration depopulates Marshall Islands at a continuous and alarming rate

BY GIFF JOHNSON
Marshall Islands Correspondent

MAJURO, Marshall Islands — Each week, the Marshall Islands Journal newspaper is filled with classified ads seeking skilled construction workers, accountants, and project managers. Nearly all these positions end up being filled by aliens.

In 14 years, the population has dropped 33%, with heavy out-migration among working age Marshallese and students. 

In particular, skilled workers have left for jobs in the United States that pay significantly more than the minimum wage of $4 that prevails in the Marshall Islands. 

Pacific International Inc., the country’s largest construction firm, relies heavily on imported skilled laborers from the Philippines. The company is hardly alone, with government offices hiring offshore workers to fill numerous management posts for development projects and businesses hiring accountants and other skilled employees from the Philippines and elsewhere.

The 2011 census showed 53,158 people in the Marshall Islands, the peak population in the history of this young the nation. 

In the intervening 14 years the population has declined to an estimated 35,442. The U.S. Census Bureau in 2022 estimated nearly 40,000 Marshallese were living in the U.S., with the number clearly getting larger on a weekly basis.

Schools are seeing dramatic declines in students. Of 79 public elementary schools, today 19 of them have 13 or fewer students. This is one-in-four schools that have barely enough students to keep school doors open.

President Hilda C. Heine used her May 1 Constitution Day speech to the nation to address the dramatic population decline that is affecting every sector of life in the country.

After outlining many positive developments in recent times, she commented on the heavy outflow of Marshallese to the United States.
“The critical question is, as our people migrate, who then will step forward to continue to build our Marshall Islands if we continue to choose this easier path?” the president asked. “Despite our achievements over the years, it should be obvious to all of us that many of our people are choosing to leave our country for greener pastures in the United States and elsewhere,” she said. “They are moving in pursuit of better opportunities. As I see it, our people are choosing better and easier paths to personal success.”

She asked who will step up and take the potentially more difficult path to build and develop the Marshall Islands for the future? 

It is the central question in the face of the outflow of Marshallese to America.

New data provided in mid-May by the Marshall Islands Social Security Administration from its registration for the Universal Basic Income program confirms the extreme nature of the ongoing decline in the Marshallese population. The social security enrolment for a “free money” program is likely the best possible census the Marshall Islands has seen because of the incentive — money — to register. It shows that there are only 33,294 Marshallese citizens in the country — a figure that is well below the 1988 census count and is expected to continue dropping based on migration trends in recent years. In the past four years, the Marshall Islands has seen net out-migration of about 1,700 people per year.

Even as low as the 33,294 registered for the government’s universal basic income program, which is expected to start in November and pay every citizen in the country about $800, administrators of the new program expect it go lower as they verify records to confirm if those registered are still in the Marshall Islands, a requirement to receive the quarterly payments.

Heine has pushed the establishment of safety net programs for vulnerable families. These include the universal basic income program, non-contributory retirement benefits for elderly and people with disabilities, raising the minimum wage from $3 to $4 an hour last year and the resumption after a 40-year hiatus of dialysis treatment in Majuro. 

But it remains an open question whether these programs will slow the pace of out-migration. mbj