In the 1970s, remittances in Samoa were mainly used for personal consumption or to support the traditional economy (Shankman 1976), yet as much as 41 per cent was being used for house building (Kallen 1982). Indeed, in many Tongan and Samoan villages in the 1970s and 1980s it was possible to identify the households that had absent migrants, since they were usually the ones with some form of modernised housing. The assumption that remittances were primarily used for consumption lingered long, despite growing evidence of more diverse uses.