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Priorities of the People: Hardship in Tonga

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Is Hardship Really a Problem in Tonga?

For many Tongans, hardship means more than not having cash income: it is about poor quality services and few opportunities to improve their lives, or of being unable to realize their own potential and aspirations.

Tonga is a traditional society in transition—moving away from a subsistence-based lifestyle where access to land and strong extended family ties were the basis for survival and well-being, to becoming a modern, monetized society similar to other Pacific countries. There is not enough land to provide each adult male with an allotment as was done in the past, and many overseas Tongans who hold allotments do not use their land. This has forced many people to enter into informal tenant arrangements and/or farm poor land, while much fertile land is unused. These changes are having a growing impact on the community structure and are shaping people’s changing attitudes toward family and community. The assessment findings indicate that an increasing number of people, particularly the younger, more educated generation, are slowly moving away from providing for their extended families.

The continued migration of outer island people to Tongatapu, Nuku’alofa, and overseas is slowly but steadily depopulating the remoter outer islands and increasing the dependency of those remaining. At the same time, the increasing population in urban areas is generating social tensions because there are more landless or land-poor people.

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