Pacific Island Migration and Pacific Island American Identitities
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The history of migration is not a new phenomenon among the inhabitants of the Pacific islands. Pacific Islanders who inhabit many island nations and Western colonial territories include a variety of differences and similarities in cultural, social, and political structures. The need to explore the outer reaches of their island kingdoms in the past and establish strong networks across thousands of miles between each distinct island groups attests to their multiple presences into newer territories and countries today. The idea that more Pacific islanders live outside their place of origin is becoming common knowledge.
In 2000 the U.S. Census Bureau recorded over 800,000 Pacific Islanders that identified as Native Hawaiians and other Pacific Islanders including but not limited to groups such as Samoans, Tongans, Chamorros, and Guamanians residing in the U.S.A. [1] Since their adoption of the Western way of life in the past few centuries their numbers have only grown in America. How does the history of these individual groups affect the master narrative of American identity, culture, society, and history? In the same respect how does the history of this ongoing trend affect local matters from their places of origin? In the historical process the dynamics of these issues are worth investigating.
