This research examines in-depth the health and wellbeing experiences of 30 Kiribati
migrant women navigating their way to achieve New Zealand permanent residency
under the Pacific Access Category (PAC) policy. The political and economic
rationality underpinning PAC was to meet New Zealand's labour demand for industrial
growth. It also provides successful applicants with the opportunity to work, live and
study in New Zealand indefinitely. The purpose of the research was two-fold. Firstly,
to assess the health and wellbeing experiences of migrant women who travelled to
New Zealand under the PAC scheme, using Kiribati women as a case study to
comment on issues of responsibility for healthcare and wellbeing. Secondly, to identify
gaps in personal and policy-related aspects of healthcare and wellbeing, and determine
how access to appropriate healthcare and social services for PAC migrant women can
be facilitated.
The experiences of these migrant women indicated shortcomings in provision of health
and social services that this thesis terms the 'PAC gap'. Although the PAC policy
offers them the opportunity to live permanently in New Zealand, the current state of
the PAC policy features gaps in service provision that result in gender and health
inequality, financial hardship and stress, poor housing, unemployment and poverty.
The health and wellbeing impact of the existing conditions of the PAC policy was
exacerbated by the contrasting influence of neoliberalism as a policy, ideology, and a
form of governmentality in the New Zealand environment (Larner, 2000a; Suaalii,
2006), and the markedly different maneaba system that is central to the social and
political life in Kiribati (Tabokai, 1993; Uakeia, 2017; Whincup, 2009). Te maneaba
is a traditional meeting hall, where communal meetings take place, and unimane (male
elders) make decisions for the governing and wellbeing of the village people (Tabokai,
1993). It is a form of governmentality that shapes and influences how an I-Kiribati
thinks and acts (Foucault, 1991). This system is at odds with a neoliberal approach that
stresses self-responsibility and individualism. These contrasting forms of
governmentality 'talk past each other' or are totally different (Metge & Kinloch, 1984).