Climate Change and the Marshall Islands with Tyler Rivera
The case of the Marshall Islands is not your typical story of family separation through conflict or war. This is a story of displacement through climate change. Like many other island states, the Marshall Islands are at the frontlines of dealing with the consequences of rising sea levels. Tyler Rivera explains what it means to preserve your culture when the concept of land is so integral to it, and how, in the face of overwhelming odds, the Marshallese people are leading the fight against climate change.
What inspired you to go to the Marshall Islands?
My postgraduate fellowship brought me to the Marshall Islands. I was researching international locations because my grant required that I be located outside of the United States. I knew that I wanted to be somewhere that was on the front lines of climate change. Many locations fall into that bucket, but perhaps none more so than small island states, like the Marshall Islands, Vanuatu, and the Maldives, that are low-lying and face a threat unlike any other in terms of the existence of their home, their culture, and their way of life.
So I knew that I wanted to go somewhere similar to the Marshall Islands. While doing some research on the history and politics of the small island states, I found the Marshall Islands to be particularly interesting, given its geopolitical context in World War II as one of the focal points of the Pacific Theater, given its history with nuclearization in the Cold War, and its circumstances now as it relates to climate change.
What is your background?
I studied human geography with a focus on international development at Dartmouth. I’m not working in a related field at this moment, but I still have long-term in human migration and with why people are in the places that they are, particularly as a son of an immigrant myself.
Three years later, I found myself applying for the fellowship that I would go on to receive from Dartmouth. The fellowship itself is an international travel fellowship, so you’re expected to base yourself outside of the United States for a short period. You receive a set amount of money and you’re given the freedom to spend it how you would like in pursuit of the kinds of experiences that you think will be fulfilling to you and your career.
The only other requirement of the grant is that it is intended for people who are interested in pursuing architectural history or urban planning. I’m currently in the process of applying to graduate school in urban planning, which is why I was able to qualify for the grant. I applied for the grant in February of 2019 and I found out I received it in May. I was in the Marshall Islands by September.
The chain of islands is located about halfway between Australia and Hawaii. It’s just above the Equator in the North Pacific, which is the region Marshallese people consider themselves to be a part of. There are big cultural as well as geological and economic differences between islands like the Marianas Islands and Hawaii, which are all part of the North Pacific, and the islands that are in the South Pacific, like Fiji.
What is the Marshall Islands’ relationship to the US?
The relationship of the Marshall Islands to the United States was one of the factors that drew me. Linkages bind their history and future fate to the United States in many different regards. The Marshall Islands were a key territory to be held during World War II because of their strategic position in the Pacific as a refueling point for planes for the respective Air Forces, and as a stopping point for navies as they’re crossing the Pacific Theater.
There was a big strategic interest on the part of Germany, which captured the Marshall Islands and held them for some time. The history of German occupation is visceral in the Marshall Islands in the surname structure of families. So many families in the Marshall Islands continue to have German surnames to this day, including Hilda Heine, who has a very German name that you would probably anticipate for a Marshallese president. Following German occupation, there was a period of Japanese occupation.
Is there a distinction with mixed ancestry Marshallese or is everyone considered one giant family?
You encounter people who at first glance would not appear to be Marshallese. A lot of them look Japanese, some of them look white. Many people look mixed. I was fortunate to be in the Marshall Islands during an election when there was a lot of campaigning taking place. This person who was running for senate, Sherwood Tibon, looked white. I asked a Marshallese coworker whether it was weird that someone who’s white is running for elected office in the Marshall Islands. She enlightened me that he was born in the Marshall Islands.
His family is descended from a line of missionaries from Germany, who first came to the Marshall Islands in the 1800s. Missionaries were the first non-Marshall settlers to occupy any territory in the Marshall Islands. As far as my Marshallese coworkers were concerned, he was Marshallese.
If you can’t distinguish a Marshallese person based on appearance, then how do you know that somebody is Marshallese?
The Marshallese have a matrilineal family structure. You are given your mother’s clan, based on her clan, that she was given by her mother. Families are organized into these larger superstructures of clans, and they don’t all necessarily share the same last name. Jowi is the Marshallese term for their clan. If you ask someone what their jowi is, they’ll tell you if they have one, and they’ll tell you a story that’s associated with their jowi, and that denotes whether or not someone is part of a Marshallese dynastic family.
With the islands so crucial to their sense of identity, what’s next for the Marshallese people in the face of climate change?
The Marshallese have a history of migration as it relates to the Compact of Free Association and people moving to the United States. They have long-distance family ties connecting people living remotely but still having a very intimate and personal sense of connection to the islands and their jowi.
The family structure lends itself to these very large families that are often dispersed within the Marshall Islands from one island to another, and then across continents between the Pacific and the continental United States. Maybe they are more resilient when it comes to those family ties.
What did the US do to prepare for the effects of nuclear testing at the Marshall Islands? What choices did people have?
No, there was very little voluntary migration taking place at that time; they were very much displaced. Essentially, the US military came in and said, We’re going to conduct these tests, we’re going to remove you from the islands. That was exclusively on Bikini and Enewetak Atolls where the tests were taking place.
The other atoll that was exposed to radiation was not evacuated in advance of the testing taking place. They received a significant amount of exposure to radiation once the tests were undergoing. Once the tests were completed, they were told that it was safe for them to return, despite the United States knowing that it was unsafe for them to return. That was intentional on the part of military scientists who wanted to test what the implications of people moving back to an irradiated land would be. They were quickly evacuated once people started becoming ill. And once people and their children started having deformities, they weren’t allowed to return.
What are the legal implications of the Compact of Free Association?
The Marshallese received special agreement from the United States, specifically the people of Bikini. They’re part of a collective of islands that are a part of a trust fund that the United States endowed to support the survivors of the nuclear testing. Previously, they were only allowed to access the dividends that accrued from the trust funds, but the local government advocated in US Congress for them to be able to access the full principal that was originally endowed. Now the people of Bikini have access to the full amount of funding that was set aside for the survivors. It’s at their discretion to use the funding as they see fit.
What is the background of nuclear testing at Bikini Atoll?
Nuclear testing began in 1946. Then in 1948, they moved a lot of people to Likiep Island on the complete opposite end. It’s a tiny place that is highly susceptible to climate change. This is the single worst place where you could have moved them.
Then in 1979, the islands became self-governing after the US, German, and Japanese rule. After that, the Compact of Free Association gives the Marshallese people free ability to move to the US. without a visa.
The compact is with three countries, the Federated States of Micronesia, Palau, and the Marshall Islands. Each of the three negotiated a particular set of terms under the compact, and all three of them are undergoing the same renewal process in the year 2023 when the current terms expire. It’s part of a much more expansive conversation that’s taking place across the Pacific with these three nations and the United States.
Under the compact, the United States can maintain full military supervision of these three independent nations, who are all unrecognized nation-states; but in exchange for ceding military sovereignty to the United States, their citizens are granted the freedom to live and work in the United States at well, under a very particular residency status that doesn’t grant them any other additional rights other than the right to live and work. In exchange, the three nations also receive a nominal amount of aid annually.
What is going to be the status of this agreement when it ends in 2023? Will it be renewed or is the status uncertain?
This process is unfolding in a really interesting way at this moment in time, as it relates to the expansion and projection of Chinese power throughout the Pacific. Taiwan represents a strategic interest to mainland China. There are only a select number of nations around the world that recognize the independent autonomy of Taiwan as a nation. The majority of those nations that recognize Taiwan are small island states like the Marshall Islands.
Recently, as China has sought to expand its projected power throughout the Pacific to maintain control over shipping lanes, it has sought favor with these small island states that recognize Taiwan’s independence. There have been several nations that switched their allegiance from recognizing Taiwan’s independence to recognizing mainland China’s control over Taiwan. That has ruptured the relations that exist between the Pacific, Taiwan, and China. The Federated States of Micronesia, Palau, and RMI, all continue to recognize the independence of Taiwan. But with the Compact set to expire in 2023, China is seeking to expand and exert its influence over these three states to convince them to shift their alignment from a compact state in free association with the United States to be in association with China.
What would be in the interest of the Marshallese?
Taiwan gives a lot of aid to the Marshall Islands today. You see the tangible manifestations: the garbage trucks and light posts have Taiwanese flags on them, entire schools are donated and supported by the Taiwanese government. You see a clear connection and alignment with Taiwan. Taiwanese families have a significant presence in the Marshall Islands. Many families are mixed and many local businesses are owned by Taiwanese families. Switching that allegiance would have a tangible impact on daily life as it relates to aid that the Marshallese people rely upon, but also the kinds of familial connections that already exist.
There are about 60,000 Marshallese people total, and a third of them live in the US in Arkansas. How did that come to be?
A Marshallese man or family first moved to Arkansas in the 80s to work at the Tyson chicken factory. Following that, it was essentially like textbook chain migration: more Marshallese families started moving once someone else had put their roots down in Arkansas. Now you have a third of Marshallese people living in this Midwestern state.
What did you do on your project on a day-to-day basis?
I was working with the UN Migration Agency. It’s called the International Organization for Migration (IOM) and I was hoping to lead projects related to my initial proposal for the funding that I received.
But when I first got to the Marshall Islands, it was like treading water trying to find organizations that I could work with because I didn’t know anyone. I was going to need connections in the Marshall Islands to be able to do any substantive work.
So I ended up working with the IOM. The first was a project in which I was conducting interviews with young Marshallese people between the ages of like 18 to 25 who had recently moved back after living abroad; some of them were born outside of the Marshall Islands, some of them had gone abroad to study, some of them had gone abroad with their families when they were young children, but all of them shared this collective experience of returning. We wanted to tease apart the experience of returning and challenge the notion that the Marshallese are people in exodus because this statistic of one-out-of-three of the Marshall Islands have left is very jarring.
People aren’t merely leaving. It’s not a unilateral flow of migration; people are also returning. In particular, young people are choosing to return to their cultural homeland deliberately because they feel a strong sense of connection to give back while they can.
I helped to organize a film festival that featured movies and stories of migration from in and beyond the Pacific. I was also helping to organize some social media campaigns in partnership with this organization called the Pacific Community around Human Rights Day in the Marshall Islands.
What is the younger generation’s motivation for returning?
For the most part, their motivations for returning weren’t linked to climate change. It’s not monolithic. The young people that I interviewed had very different perspectives on the impacts of climate change on how it was going to affect their culture and their ability to maintain a home in the Marshall Islands.
From the young people that I spoke with, I sense that it’s less of a feeling of wanting to fight while we still can, and more a deep sense of wanting to contribute the particular sets of skills, experiences, and knowledge that they have had the privilege of acquiring by having lived or studied abroad and returning that to the Marshall Islands.
Brain drain is a very real challenge for nations that experience a lot of migration, in particular out-migration of highly qualified and skilled individuals. Seeing the commitment of young people who could go work in other places and potentially earn a lot more money, make the conscious decision to return to the Marshall Islands, is inspiring. It’s very unique to the Marshall Islands in that way.
What are the forms of family separation that the Marshallese experience?
Some people moved abroad with their families when they were young; every person in the Marshall Islands has family that lives abroad. In that sense, every single family is separated in some respects. That’s very common for most island states, in particular, the Compact states because they have such freedom to migrate.
There are essentially no barriers to them migrating to the United States other than being able to afford the plane ticket to get there. There’s also this sense of separation between the families that are living on the outer islands and the families that are living in the economic centers of Ebeye and Majuro. That’s where the two international airports are. If your family is from a different island and you are currently living in Majuro, then in a way your family is separated as well.
Education, job opportunities, and healthcare are the three main drivers of out-migration. Many Marshallese people are now being born abroad. Some are choosing to return to the Marshall Islands to rekindle a sense of connection with the home that they’ve always had, but have never visited.
Then you have people who were born abroad in places like Arkansas and Washington, and who are now as adults deciding to return to the Marshall Islands. Often, their family isn’t accompanying them. In a way, they’re becoming further separated from their nuclear families. All Marshallese people have extended family that they can return to, and that will welcome them back with open arms. But many of them have the experience of leaving behind family members in the United States to return to the Marshall Islands.
What is the role of family in Marshallese culture?
Families live together generationally in compounds. People’s position within society is connected to the family that they come from and whether that family is a large landowner. Their last names are connected to very powerful families, dynasties of Marshallese people who are landowners and who hold high positions within ministries and businesses in the Marshall Islands. Having a particular last name can open up doors for you.
Family is everything to the Marshallese people. It’s very much related to the system of land tenure in the Marshall Islands. People have a deep sense of connection to the land because of the way land is inherited through generations. When people have ancestral homelands, it’s not a nebulous, intangible sense of connection to one’s nationality or one’s culture; it’s a very physical sense of connection to a particular place.
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