If Everyone Returned, The Island Would Sink

Download or read book If Everyone Returned, The Island Would Sink written by Kirstie Petrou and published by Berghahn Books. This book was released on 2020-02-01 with total page 214 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Focusing on the small island of Paama, Vanuatu, and the capital, Port Vila, this book presents a rare and recent study of the ongoing significance of urbanisation and internal migration in the Global South. Based on longitudinal research undertaken in rural ‘home’ places, urban suburbs and informal settlements over thirty years, this book reveals the deep ambivalence of the outcome of migration, and argues that continuity in the fundamental organising principles of cultural life – in this case centred on kinship and an ‘island home’ – is significantly more important for urban and rural lives than the transformative impacts of migration and urbanisation.