It is estimated that in the last thirty years over 30% of Micronesians, or some 75,000 individuals, have immigrated to Hawai'i, Guam and the United States (US) mainland in accord with the Compact of Free Association (COFA). The reasons vary but nearly always revolve around the desire for a better life-yet running beneath these individual and family migration histories is the undeniable nuclear legacy of the US military in Micronesia. From 1946 through 1958 the US dropped 109 megatons of munitions, releasing radiation equivalent to more than 7,000 Hiroshima-sized bombs in the Marshall Islands, which has resulted in uninhabitable atolls and extreme environmental degradation in the region. These environmental conditions have been further exacerbated by climate change, in the forms of rising sea-levels and resulting comprised freshwater lenses, destructive storms and extreme droughts.

This article seeks to explore the motivational factors pushing and pulling many Pacific Islanders to and from their homes in Micronesia, as well as the discrimination and harsh economic realities, such as homelessness, they encounter when arriving in the Aloha State.

There is limited awareness in the US and international circles of these newest Americans and the immense challenges they face. Consequently, this article seeks to add to the burgeoning body of understanding on this complex issue, highlight the hard-won successes of all those impacted by COFA, while considering the rising rates of income inequality amid the ongoing homeless crisis in the US and calls on Congress to further support those that continue to live with the painful legacy of nuclear colonialism in the Pacific.