Tomas Ernst is a Canadian national who migrated to Australia in 2006. Prior to his relocation, Tomas worked for the UN in Nairobi and Joburg and for the federal government in Ottawa. He joined the World Bank Sydney office at the beginning of 2007; conducting research on the Pacific diaspora. Tomas is most interested in how to best leverage migration for development. He's assisted the governments of Australia and New Zealand as they launched temporary labour mobility programs in partnership with the South Pacific Islands. Tomas is a strong believer in translating policy into operational action. Remittance costs in the Oceania region were among the highest in the world at 15-50% of the amount remitted. Following two years of work with regulatory authorities and commercial banks in the region, the cost of sending money home to Fiji, Samoa and Tonga dropped to under five percent.