The diversification of return: Banaban home islands and movements in historical perspective

Abstract

The international return mobility of the Banaban community has been significantly influenced by post-Second World War collective resettlement and the resulting transnational space of multiple belongings. Thus, with their politics of translocal linking of original and new home islands, the first generation of Banabans prepared the way for crossborder movements between Fiji and Kiribati. The central issue here is a historical development that extends from the organised return of younger Fiji-Banabans-as part of the repossession politics of the island of origin, Banaba, during the 1970s-and the more recent migration of members of the second and third Banaban generations to the capital atoll Tarawa in Kiribati through to imaginings of return from Tarawa to Rabi Island in Fiji, should the atoll country be rendered uninhabitable following possible future climate changes and subsequent rising sea levels. Viewed over the course of time, the directions and places of return have proven multiple MoBILITIEs of RETURN 16and mutable. This diversification of return mobility is the product of the historical practices of different generations of Banabans in the context of a networked world of Pacific islands and island states.

Governing Irregular and Return Migration in the 2020s: European Challenges and Asian Pacific Perspectives

“…In addition, given that mobilities occur among and across Islands, belongings may be primarily linked with a specific island rather than a nation-state. In that perspective, Wolfgang Kempf (2017) pushes the discussion on return beyond nation-centric analysis and understanding of "home" and "belonging." Kempf brings an interesting historical perspective, looking at the experiences of return of the Banaban community over a span of 70 years.…”