A study has found that there are an increasing number of people from the freely associated countries, the Federated States of Micronesia, the Marshall Islands and Palau migrating to the United States and their territories.
The US Government Accountability Office study was in part prompted by claims that federal funds provided to the Northern Marianas, Guam, and Hawaii, which receive a large number of the Compact migrants, were inadequate.
A GAO director, David Gootnick, says the grants are meant to reduce the financial burden on the territories and Hawaii.
"The cost of educating the kids who come, the cost of providing health care and social services in the effected jurisdictions but also we made an effort to look at the ways in which Compact migrants contribute and are otherwise productive individuals living and working in the United States."
David Gootnick says the right to migrate to the US is fundamental to the Compacts of Free Association.
