Migration, Gender and Security Issues in the Pacific: Complicating Conflict Discourse

Abstract

This article explores the intersections between migrants (international, internal and settler-descendent), gender, and human security. It focuses on Fiji, Bougainville and New Caledonia as distinctive Pacific contexts in which to analyse how colonial and contemporary migration flows have contributed to the destabilization of local communities. It works to complicate the pervasive discourse about women as ‘victims’ of conflict by describing women's contributions to peace-building and human security in Fiji and Bougainville, as well as women's involvement in conflict in Kanak peoples' struggles for independence in New Caledonia and their subsequent peace-building efforts. The Fiji Women Peace and Security Coordinating Committee exemplifies how indigenous women are working with contemporary settler-descendents of colonial migrants as committed peace-builders. In Bougainville continuous conflict is linked to the stresses generated by contemporary migration, as people move within Papua New Guinea and others move from the Solomon Islands and elsewhere to obtain value from resource extraction enterprises, thus creating ongoing tensions with and within indigenous communities. Yet collectives such as the Bougainville Women for Peace and Freedom group have effectively worked to build peace in their island's communities. Although Kanak women contributed to struggles for social, political and economic independence in New Caledonia throughout the 20th century, which arose from a history of colonial migration and the social impact of contemporary migration, in recent years Kanak women have worked towards the reconciliation of indigenous Kanak communities with settler-descendent and contemporary international migrants via political structures and organizations.