Comparative Regional Report on Citizenship Law: Oceania Beginning with Fiji in 1997, legal reforms across Oceanic states have been largely successful in removing these forms gender discrimination from citizenship laws.154 Kiribati remains the only state that has not revised its citizenship laws to remove discrimination. 5. Conclusions Scholar James Clifford has described states in Oceania as “exemplary contexts for thinking about the fractured, sutured, overlaid, incredibly diverse and yet hooked-up complexes of local, regional, national, and transnational forms”. 155 The citizenship laws of Oceania provide a window into the ways in which small island states unite diverse polities under a single new nation-state, in the context of decolonisation and globalisation. The trends and features of citizenship traced in this report reflect this context. The states of Oceania emphasise the acquisition of citizenship by descent and many have come to embrace dual citizenship, defining the people of the nation in terms of shared culture, language, traditions and history. Citizenship laws, while based on western models, have been adapted over time to the changing circumstances of the various Oceanic states, accommodating Indigenous connections between land and people and diversity, and removing discriminatory gendered provisions that were inherited with colonial laws. Issues of decolonisation continue to be worked through, especially where the citizenship arrangements of states and territories are affected by the policies of former colonial powers. The exigencies of smallness and islandness mean that the states of Oceania are mainly emigration states. The trend to dual citizenship seeks to bind diasporas to their home state and recognise their economic and social contributions. Limited economic opportunities have also led some states to pursue creative citizenship for sale schemes, using citizenship to raise revenue. The island states of Oceania stand on the frontline of climate change. The effects of climate change are likely to drive future changes to citizenship arrangements in the region, as people and communities relocate, sometimes across national borders. Past experiences, such as those of the people of Banaba, provide examples of how citizenship laws can be adapted to accommodate cross border relocation.156 In this, a study of the citizenship laws of Oceania can be instructive not only within the region, but to states beyond it. 154 Constitutional Amendment Act 1997 (Fiji); Citizenship Act 2004 (Samoa); Citizenship Act 2005 (Nauru); Nationality (Amendment) Act 2007 (Tonga); Citizenship (Amendment) Act 2013 (Vanuatu); Citizenship Act 2018 (Solomon Is). 155 Robert Borofsky (ed), Remembrance of Pacific Pasts: An Invitation to Remake History (University of Hawai`i Press 2000) 94. 156 McAdam (n 116) 333. RSCAS/GLOBALCIT-Comp 2020/1 - © 2020 Author 29