Many people have asked me - where is Kiribati ? Well, it's a small Pacific island nation about 2000km south of Hawaii with about 130,000 inhabitants who live predominantly on three main islands. Being a low-lying archipelago, Kiribati is facing a real existential threat in the form of rising sea levels caused my climate change. These are causing severe problems with coastal erosion and salination. Despite the best efforts of the local populace to build walls to hold back the ocean, plans are being to eventually relocate some of the inhabitant to Fiji or other parts of the Pacific.

However, Kiribatans like Kaibeia have been coming to Tasmania for different reasons - to work on local oyster farms on Tasmania's east coast. Kaibeia and his colleagues were recruited under the Pacific Islander Labour Mobility scheme ( PALM ), which has brought workers from 7 different Pacific nations to work on farms in Australia, with many hundreds working on different farms around Tasmania.

Kiribati has similarities with many of the other Pacific Islands, with their culture of sharing and collectivism, as well as their love of singing, but Kaibeia also talks about cutting toddy, a kind of sap from the bark of a palm tree used to make a delicious sweet local drink.

Ingrid hails from the tiny island nation of Saint Lucia, a lush Caribbean island known for its volcanic peaks, vibrant Creole culture, and status as the only country named after a woman. With a population of around 180,000, Saint Lucia blends African, French, and British influences, and though its official language is English, many speak Saint Lucian Creole.

Ingrid trained as a physician in Cuba on a Saint Lucian government scholarship, worked in pediatrics, and later took on various public health roles across the Caribbean. She made a big move to study Master’s degree in Adelaide, where she met herpartner—but it was the appeal of small-city life that drew her to Hobart for her Ph.D.

Now based at the Menzies Institute, she’s deep into health economics research and has found a second home in Tasmania—one that, surprisingly, shares much with her island roots.

Belarus is a land-locked nation centred between Russia, Poland, Ukraine and the Baltic states. Despite becoming independent from the former USSR in 1991, It has maintained strong ties with Russia, not only through cultural and political connections, but through personal and family connections between individuals. Similar to its large neighbour, it has been shaped by the trauma of war and hardship following the collapse of the Soviet Union.

Tania grew up initially in a small village in eastern Belarus, with family close by, and later moved closer to the city. When she was still at school in 2007, her sister moved to Tasmania, and Tania thought that one day she would move there too, and so her choice of study at university was influenced by this.

Her first attempt to migrate was unsuccessful, but she came to visit as a tourist and feel in love with the state and was determined to find another way, and in 2018 she returned with her husband , to study a Masters of Accounting. This time things worked out much better, and her and her husband are now happily settled in Tasmania with an 11-year old son, David.