The labour exodus from Fiji is a completely normal phenomenon and those leaving cannot be faulted for moving on to greener pastures.
Academic and economist Professor Wadan Narsey says the challenge now is to ensure more investments into areas which can generate revenue while utilising the skills set of Fijians.
Speaking during his book launch at USP on Thursday, Prof Narsey compared remittances received from overseas workers with the sugar and tourism industry.
He said the last thing Fiji should do is to “kill the goose laying the golden egg” as remittances had grown from being a $100 million industry 20 years ago to a $1.4 billion one.
Prof Narsey said the Government should not restrict the people who were moving abroad for better opportunities.
“If you’re a nurse working long hours and getting a salary of $F15,000 to $20,000 a year, you go to Australia, you’ll be getting $A40,000, $50,000 $60,000, which is worth about $F70,000 to $80,000.
“Your children will have access to good schools and once you get a PR, you can move to other jobs as well, so we should not restrict (them) in any way.
“People should not be putting pressure on the Government to stop our workers from going away. Let them go if they want to go and they’re not doing this freely. This is a comfort zone for many of them.”
Prof Narsey said without the remittances coming in, Fiji’s economy would be in very dire straits.
