In small states, however, the departure of even a few hundred nurses, teachers or engineers can significantly weaken public services, state capability and private sector growth. These characteristics make small states an especially useful setting for understanding how remittances and aid interact. Donor fragmentation, transaction costs, “poaching” of qualified local staff and lack of localisation are all found to reduce aid effectiveness in general and particularly in small states. In Geoffrey Bertram’s view, expressed almost forty years ago, this configuration is defensible and durable for small states. As aid budgets contract and migration continues, many small states could soon face a moment of reckoning.