COVER STORY | Immigration
024 | DayStar | Oct/Nov 2009
THE STRANGER
IN OUR MIDST
Immigration has played a
large role in New Zealand?s
history. But the growth in
immigration from Asia since
the mid-1980s has altered
the ethnic composition of
our society. How might
Kiwis?particularly the
church?respond to these
changes? .... Andrew Butcher
and George Wieland
BACKGROUND
Immigrants have arrived here
from Europe, Great Britain, and
Australia since the 1700s. From
the 1800s smaller numbers have
come from South Asia and China
(the latter dominating the history of
Dunedin). These immigrants joined the
indigenous Maori population, which
itself migrated to New Zealand in the
fourteenth century. Traditionally our
immigrants came from English-speaking
Anglo-Celtic countries, notably Great
Britain. There were smaller numbers of
Germans, Greeks, Yugoslavians, Dutch,
and Dalmatians and, from the 1960s,
a growing number from the Pacific
Islands.
In 1987, following a major immigration
policy change, an increasing number of
immigrants arrived from Korea, Hong
Kong, Taiwan, Southeast Asia and
later the People?s Republic of China.
Between March 1986 and March 2006
New Zealand?s resident population
that had been born in Asian countries,
increased almost sevenfold, from
32,685 to 248,364. The Chinese and
Indian components of that population
increased even more ? by more than
800 percent during those 20 years. The
population that identified with Asian
ethnicities (including the New Zealand
born) increased by 550 percent in the
same period.
Auckland saw the greatest change.
About two-thirds of all Asian immigrants