Excerpt and Photo from youtube.com
More than 8,700 Tuvaluans applied for a new Australian visa in 2025, that’s a third of their global population.
280 visas were granted and successful applicants have started making their way to Australia.
As rising seas threaten the low-lying Pacific nation, families are faced with an agonising choice between opportunity and home.
In this special episode, The Pacific travels to Tuvalu to explore the impacts of the visa and talks to locals who reject the label of "climate migrants", insisting they are moving for their children's futures - not abandoning their country.
Editor’s Note: This documentary was originally published by ABC Australia under the title “What happens to a country when everyone leaves?” While we found the documentary itself to be nuanced and thought-provoking, we felt the original headline did not fully reflect its content. The report explores questions of mobility, adaptation, sovereignty, and identity in Tuvalu, rather than suggesting that all Tuvaluans are leaving or that the country is being abandoned. We have therefore chosen a title that we believe better reflects the complexity of the discussion.