Tongan Americans

The Kingdom of Tonga

Tonga, an archipelago, is the only remaining kingdom in the South Pacific, with an estimated 2007 population of about 100,000. The crowning of Prince Tupouto'a in 2006 as King George Tupou V follows in the modern legacy of the Tupou dynasty that solidified its power in the constitution of 1875 under the auspices of the British military and Christian missionaries. Although Tonga was not formally colonized, the British ruled indirectly, and their prodigious influence can be traced in the formation of Tonga's government, judiciary system, and indigenous cultural politics.

The U.S. occupation of the Tongan islands during World War II was a pivotal moment in Tongan history because it greatly altered the Tongan economy. The structural changes that occurred during these years further widened the economic gap between commoners and elites. These economic disparities led to the unprecedented and exponential growth of the U.S.-based Mormon Church from the 1950s until the 21st century. The central role of Mormonism in Tongan culture is illuminated by the fact that Tonga holds the record for the world's highest ratio of Mormon conversions and membership to general population. The church offered Tongan commoners opportunities for upward mobility that often included a plane ticket to the United States and educational opportunities at the Mormon-owned Brigham Young University located in Laie, Hawai'i. Early Tongan migrations to the United States were thus mitigated through membership in or affiliation with the Mormon Church.

Although dubbed the “Friendly Islands” in 1777 by the British Captain James Cook, Tonga in the 20th and 21st centuries has been rife with social unrest including mass labor strikes, public demonstrations, and violent upheavals. These social contestations in the public sphere were the culmination of Tongan people's resistance to new and often oppressive structural and economic policies. For example, the Tongan Pro-democracy Movement, a movement headed by Tongan commoners, was born in the 1990s. The movement's allies continue to grow and extend beyond the borders of the Tongan nation-state into the diaspora.

[Page 1315]These critical trajectories in contemporary Tongan history reveal the dire economic disparities created by globalization, and they inadvertently illuminate the Tongan government's role in the exacerbation of economic disparities. The genealogies of past and present imperialisms in the Tongan islands led to the unprecedented numbers of Tongan conversions to Western religions and the subsequent migrations to industrialized countries like the United States.

Early Migrations

Migrations overseas have become common in Tongan life. More than half the population of the islands lives abroad in industrialized countries such as Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and the United States. In the often-circuitous routes of Tongan overseas migrations, about four in ten Tongans live in the United States, a country viewed as the preferred and most prestigious destination. Tongan migrations to the United States began in 1945 after World War II, and they later proliferated after 1965 because of changes in U.S. immigration laws.

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