Matangi Tonga, Vol. 18, No. 2

Many young Tongans are unhappy and frustrated in their host countries and with the hardship of meeting their parents' obligations to Tonga.

The secret to success for Tongan immigrants is to be able to maintain their identity as Tongans, at the same time absorb and take advantage of the opportunities that are available to them in their host countries, said Dr Helen Morton Lee, a lecturer on anthropology at the La Trobe University of Melbourne.

Helen has written two books about Tongans, the first Becoming Tongan, published in 1996 by the University of Hawaii Press, and her latest, Tongans Overseas Between Two Shores, published in February 2003 also by the University of Hawaii Press.

Helen agreed that for Tongans to live in two worlds was easier said than done, and in her new book, she has highlighted some of the problems faced by young Tongans in the metropolitan centres of New Zealand, Australia and America.

Helen was in Tonga for the bi-annual conference of the Tongan History Association where she presented a paper covering some of these issues.

She said there was a danger if young overseas Tongans were not brought up correctly to be proud of their identity as Tongan but at the same time were encouraged to absorb the way of lives of their new country they would become frustrated and get into all sorts of social problems. In the long run they would cease to maintain contact with their homeland and fail to maintain the flow of over $90 million remittances to Tonga annually.

Helen said that one of the problem groups that she discovered when she was researching her book were parents who were so concerned that their children had to strictly preserve their Tongan identity, and were very strict with them, "even though they were old enough to look after themselves."

She said that the young people in this group were not happy and because of these restrictions, naturally, were not able to take advantage of the opportunities, which were available to them in their new environment.

On the other hand there were also young people who were encouraged to be serious about their education but were restricted to remain among the Tongan community, and she found those young people were also unhappy and frustrated with their new environment.

Obligations

Helen said that while researching for the book she used a website where she encouraged young people to express their views freely on their home environment and on their relationship with their home country, particularly with regards to remittances. She said she was amazed with the views expressed by young people. They said that the obligations that were put on their parents by the church, their families and relatives in Tonga was far too much.

Open up

Helen said that some of these young people after growing up and knowing the hardship that their parents had to go through in order to fulfil their obligations were themselves dead against having anything to do with Tonga.

Helen pointed out that one of the problems with the Tongan communities overseas is that they tend to turn inward, and they fund raise for community projects, which could be funded from state multicultural funds. A whole lot of other privileges are available to them, "but they have to open up instead of being a closed community", she said.