Examining trans‐Tasman migration of new immigrants to New Zealand from the People's Republic of China: A quantitative approach

‘Back‐door’ migration refers to the entry of overseas‐born New Zealand citizens to Australia. Many New Zealand Chinese migrants from the People's Republic of China (PRC) are within this migration flow. Based on a detailed analysis on the permanent and long‐term arrival and departure data from Statistics New Zealand and an online survey conducted by the author, this paper examines the trans‐Tasman migration of New Zealand's PRC migrants. The result shows that compared with New Zealand‐born citizens, the trans‐Tasman migration of China‐born New Zealand citizens is not large in number. The 2001 Australia immigration policy change of the welfare provisions to New Zealand citizens discouraged ‘back‐door’ migration of the PRC migrants in the short term only. Australia still remains a favoured destination for many of them. Economic consideration is the main factor drawing these migrants to Australia. This paper also reveals a circulatory feature of the PRC migrants' trans‐Tasman migratory movements, as evidenced by a significant number of respondents who had migrated from New Zealand to Australia indicating that they would come back to New Zealand at some future time.     

Problems in Paradise: Taiwanese Immigrants to Auckland,New Zealand

Migration from Asia to New Zealand is now a topic of heated public debate within New Zealand. This study traces the experiences of Taiwanese migrants to Auckland over the past decade and documents their adaption and revised expectations. By the end of June 1995, over 21,000 Taiwanese had been granted permanent residence in New Zealand on the basis of their skills, qualifications and work experience. Although expecting a fall in income as the necessary ‘price’ to pay for an improved quality of life, as well as some language difficulties, few immigrants were prepared for the magnitude of the drop in income, the hardship it would bring and the heavy reliance this would place on their remaining investments in Taiwan. The net result has been unemployment and underemployment of immigrants many of whom are now resigned to net gains through education coming not to them but to their children. As a result of the inability to secure adequate employment, many Taiwanese immigrants have relocated one or all of the family members back to Taiwan. The introduction in October 1995 of stricter English standards and the flatter, less academic basis to point earning qualifications, validation of job offers, recognition of New Zealand work experience together with the spouses’ human capital as well as a clearer commitment to New Zealand should all go some way to addressing many of the difficulties the history of recent Taiwanese immigration has uncovered.     

The imported underclass: poverty and social exclusion of black African refugees in Aotearoa New Zealand

Abstract: Changes in immigration and refugee policy since 1991 have led to an increasing number of minority ethnic groups settling in Aotearoa New Zealand. The number of Black African migrants and refugees granted permanent residence in New Zealand has increased substantially from about six in 1982 to over 770 in 1998 (New Zealand Immigration Services, 2001). The socio‐economic, professional and cultural characteristics of this emerging Black African minority ethnic community are complex but fascinating. In mid 2000 the majority of the Black African community in New Zealand were refugees ( Chile 1999A ). This paper is part of a broader study to analyse the nature and structure of Black African migration and settlement in New Zealand. It is an attempt to undertake applied migration research from a participatory methodology framework that addresses the expressed needs of the grass‐roots level client community. The paper examines the socio‐economic status of Black African refugees in New Zealand and analyses the factors and processes that create an impoverished community that is increasingly excluded from mainstream society. Strategies to reverse the process of marginalisation and create a healthy, vibrant community with the capacity to participate effectively in New Zealand society are examined.     

Migration and circulation as a way of life for the Wosera Abelam of Papua New Guinea

Migration and circulation are now an integral part of the socio-economy of the Wosera Abelam of Papua New Guinea. Since the 1950s large numbers of Wosera Abelam have settled in West New Britain (WNB) towns and government sponsored resettlement schemes. These long-term migrants provide a base in WNB for temporary migrants from the Wosera seeking work or a break from village life. This paper explores the linkages between temporary and long-term migrants in WNB, and between migrants and their relatives remaining in the village. We argue that migration is now a ‘way of life’ for the Wosera Abelam, and is, to a large extent, underpinned by indigenous (precapitalist) social and economic relations.     

Occupation‐specific analysis of migration and remittance behaviour: Pacific Island nurses in Australia and New Zealand

Abstract: Most previous empirical studies of migration and remittances ignored possible differences among occupational categories of migrants. Where human capital investment decisions and occupational choices are influenced by perceived prospects for international migration, internationally tradable occupations such as nursing are likely to attract individuals with particular attributes and with a stronger propensity to migrate. We argue that this can also affect the remittance behaviour of such occupational groups, pointing to the need for a disaggregated analysis by occupational category. This paper reports the results of a recent survey of nurses in Fiji, Tonga and Samoa, and nurse migrants from the same countries in Australia and New Zealand. We also report the findings from a re‐analysis of earlier remittance data from Tongan and Samoan migrants in Australia. Nurse household remittance behaviour is statistically different from others, with nurses remitting more generously and consistently over time. The reasons and implications are explored. The impact and volume of nurse remittances emphasise the sustainability of the migration, remittances, aid and bureaucracy (MIRAB) system.     

Older Chinese and Korean migrants' experiences of the first COVID-19 lockdown in Aotearoa New Zealand: A qualitative study

Later-life migrants, as older people living away from their home nations, occupy multiply-precarious positions in relation to national COVID-19 pandemic responses. Concern has particularly centred on this group's increased risk of social and linguistic exclusion. We explore the perspectives of later-life older Chinese and Koreans living in New Zealand during the nation's COVID-19 lockdown of 2020. This paper presents a sub-analysis of culturally-matched interviews conducted with 3 Korean and 5 Chinese later-life migrants. These participants are a sub-sample of a larger qualitative interview study comprising 44 interviews. A social capital approach has been used to aid conceptualisation of participants' experiences and a reflexive thematic approach guided analysis. Despite their underrepresentation in national response efforts, Chinese and Korean later-life migrants resourcefully participated in ethnically-specific pandemic initiatives. Three themes identified were: (1) taking it seriously (2) already digitally literate (3) challenges and difficulties. Older Asian migrants engaged in a range of creative strategies to stay connected during COVID-19 lockdowns which drew heavily on pre-existing social capital. Future pandemic responses should seek to improve connectedness between the national government COVID-19 response and older Korean and Chinese later-life migrants.     

Making Asian students,making students Asian: The racialisation of export education in Auckland,New Zealand

Abstract: In recent years, international education has become a source of considerable political, academic and media debate in New Zealand. This is nowhere more the case than with regards to Auckland, the New Zealand city that has hosted the greatest number of international students. This paper focuses on the media debates around international students in Auckland with particular emphasis on the representations of the largest group of international students, those who originate from countries within the North‐East Asian region. The media representations of these students have fixed a diverse group of individuals within a singular racial identity that is known by stereotypical economic, cultural and social characteristics. As a result, these representations have further problematised the interaction between international students and the host population in Auckland while simultaneously implicating a cohort of young New Zealand citizens and permanent residents who are of similar descent within the same discourses. This process of othering the Asian student, regardless of citizenship, has consequences not simply for the practice of exporting education in this city but also for the future of a multicultural Auckland and New Zealand.     

Divided communities and contested landscapes: Mobility,development and shifting identities in migrant destination sites in Papua New Guinea

Abstract: Internal conflicts at the local and national levels in several South Pacific countries have revealed the fragility of national unity and the difficulties nations face in governing and managing their own economic development. In Papua New Guinea, the focus of this paper, an uncertain economic future for many rural and urban communities, and rising inequalities in income opportunities and access to resources, have coincided with greater intolerance of migrants at sites of high in‐migration by customary landowners and provincial and local authorities. This paper draws on fieldwork undertaken in the major oil palm growing regions of Papua New Guinea where migrants from densely populated regions of the country have settled on state land alienated from customary landowners. We examine how struggles over land, resource control and development are polarising migrant and landowner identities resulting in increasing tensions and episodic communal violence. A settler identity is emerging based on a narrative of nation building and national development, while an ethno‐regional identity amongst customary landowners is undermining the citizen rights of migrants and challenging the role and authority of the state in land matters.     

Property rights for social inclusion: Migrant strategies for securing land and livelihoods in Papua New Guinea

This paper examines the broad range of informal land transactions and arrangements migrants are entering into with customary landowners to gain access to customary land for export cash cropping in the oil palm belt of West New Britain, Papua New Guinea. Whilst these arrangements can provide migrants with relatively secure access to land, there are instances of migrants losing their land rights. Typically, the land tenure arrangements of migrants with more secure access to land are within a framework of property rights for social inclusion whereby customary landowners’ inalienable rights to land are preserved and the ‘outsider’ becomes an ‘insider’ with ongoing use rights to the land. Through socially embedding land transactions in place‐based practices of non‐market exchange, identities of difference are eroded as migrants assume identities as part of their host groups. This adaptability of customary land tenure and its capacity to accommodate large migration in‐flows and expanding commodity production undermines the argument common amongst proponents of land reform that customary tenure is static and inflexible. Before such claims are heeded, there must be more detailed empirical investigations of the diverse range of land tenure regimes operating in areas of the country experiencing high rates of immigration.     

The geography of Philippine international labour migration fields

International labour migration has increased in scale and scope during the past three decades. Concomitant, a copious body of work has examined the causes and consequences of these migratory systems. Missing, however, have been empirically-grounded studies of migration fields, linking migrant origins within a sending country with destinations. In part, this lack of detailed studies results from the paucity of geographically-sensitive data. Using special tabulations provided for the lead author, this paper is able to overcome these difficulties. Specifically, in this paper we document and empirically analyse, by sex, the spatial and occupation patterns of Philippine international labour migration. Findings suggest that female migrant workers, regardless of regional origin within the Philippines, tend to be more spatially and occupationally channellised than their male counterparts. Moreover, more peripheral locations throughout the Philippines indicate more highly channellised flows, suggesting the importance of both recruitment-related networks as well as social networks among migrants and their families.     

City economic development,housing availability,and migrants' settlement intentions: Evidence from China

The slow growth of the permanently settled migrants in host cities poses new challenges for the sustainability of China's future urbanization. Given the growing importance of homeownership, this paper clarifies migrants' settlement intentions into three mutually exclusive patterns, including de facto permanent settlement intention through homeownership, long-term temporary settlement intention and short-term temporary settlement intention. Based on matched micro- and macro-level data, this paper examines the influence of city economic development and housing prices on these three patterns. The results suggest that economic development exhibits an attractive effect on migrants' settlement intentions for both earning money and for making a life while housing price weakens rural migrants' de facto permanent settlement intention. We also highlight the effect of the Housing Provident Fund (HPF), the most important housing financial policy in China, on settlement intention, and the results suggest that the HPF serves as an option to help migrants achieve permanent settlement through housing availability. The findings can explain the mixed results of previous research and provide policy references for sustainable urbanization in China.     

Back to Nukunuku: Employment,identity and return migration in Tonga

Abstract: Return migration has escaped significant analysis in the Pacific island region. Both migration from and return migration to the Tongan village of Nukunuku are for multiple reasons, with migration centred on employment and education, and return centred on the social context of home and duty. Return is limited, with intentions not being matched with practice, and the village and national population not growing. However, return migrants acquire skills, capital and experience overseas, which can be transferred into a Tongan cultural context, although identities have changed during migration. Return migrants typically take up employment or acquire businesses on return, gain some social status from the outcome, and are neither failures nor retirees. Nonetheless, return engenders expectations and tensions exist between returnees and more established residents, although ultimately, return migrants contribute to household, local and national development, as part of an unfinished process.     

Educate,consolidate, immigrate: Educational immigration in Auckland,New Zealand

Abstract: This paper considers the convergence of immigration/globalisation and education in New Zealand. The issues of immigrant students at Epsom Normal Primary School were raised nationally in 1995, and this incident serves as a useful departure point to consider some of the challenges involved in bridging the gap between immigration and education. Educational immigration is a notion used by Belich (2001) amongst others, to suggest that immigrants arrive in New Zealand in order to bypass full cost fees paid by international students. This notion, while useful, is challenged. Research undertaken in North Shore City as well as official immigration figures show the complexities of the issue: immigrant communities may be indirect recruiters of these students, but there are also an increasing number of international students becoming permanent residents. Either way, education providers face particular challenges with migrant students, not only in terms of English language abilities, but also in the lack of financial incentive migrant students give to an education provider relative to international students’ contributions. These micro issues are placed in perspective when returning to considering the transient nature of many young migrants exploring opportunities in a globalised world.     

Border crossing of Muslim women in southern‐border provinces of Thailand

In general, the main roles of married Thai Muslim women were as home makers good wives and good mothers. Nevertheless, both married and single women from rural areas have been increasingly obliged to work outside the household, locally and in other countries. People in rural areas are now faced with the difficulty of maintaining their livelihoods if they depended on agricultural production alone. In some instances, female migration might be a response to families not being able to survive on the incomes earned by the male household heads. In response, women in southern Thailand provinces use long‐standing social networks that facilitate their migration for work, because they benefit from the close proximity, language, and religion that they share with the destination area. Commonly, they travel to work in Malaysia by using a border pass, while some travel and work without any documents. The effects of crossing national borders on migrants themselves and on their communities are mixed, generally positive from an economic perspective, but negative from a social viewpoint. Socially negative responses reflect a system of social control in the region based on patriarchy.     

New Polynesian Triangle: Rethinking Polynesian migration and development in the Pacific

For many Polynesians migration is still framed within a particular spatial context, although on an enlarged scale – one that we have termed the New Polynesian Triangle. With its apexes in the North American continent to the east, Australia in the west and New Zealand in the south, this New Polynesian Triangle encompasses a particular field through which ongoing Polynesian migration and movement continues to occur. Movement within this New Polynesian Triangle is both multidimensional and multidirectional. While it is the movement of economic resources, particularly remittances, that has captured the interest of many agencies operating in the region, we argue that such economic flows are integrally linked with other flows – of goods, ideas, skills and culture – to form a single dynamic system of movement. Importantly, such flows are not uni‐directional (from ‘rich’ to ‘poor’ countries) as was assumed in times past. In developing ideas on the New Polynesian Triangle, we wish to move away from the dominant Western discourse of the Pacific Ocean as a barrier to development and movement and towards the reclamation of the ocean as a conduit and source of connection and movement for Pacific peoples.     

Population

The 1990s can be characterised as the decade of migration as far as New Zealand's 20th century population history is concerned. There was the largest decennial net migration gain this century, the largest annual net migration gain since 1875, the largest decennial numerical increase in population since the 1960s, and the largest influx of immigrants from countries in northeast Asia on record. This was a decade when migration flows both in and out of the country attracted considerable public and political comment. In the mid‐1990s it was the ‘Asian invasion’ that was the key migration‐related political issue; in the late 1990s it was the ‘Kiwi exodus’, especially to Australia, that was attracting attention both in New Zealand and Australia. A ‘blip’ in birth rates in the early 1990s also attracted considerable attention from demographers and policy analysts – a short‐lived increase associated with irregularities in New Zealand's population structure as well as the changing patterns of fertility evident in later child bearing. The decade also saw some significant changes in the ethnic composition of the population, as well as debates about socio‐economic ‘gaps’ between some of the major ethnic components.     

Resources,population and migration in the Pacific: Connecting islands and rim

This article examines international migration in the Pacific and argues that there should be still greater opportunities for the people of Pacific countries to migrate between their home states and the developed states of the Pacific Rim. The case for borders that are more permeable to human migration is based in part on the common Pacific predicament of poor resource endowments, rapidly growing populations, depletion and degradation of existing resources, and threats posed by anthropogenic climate change. Coupled with this is a history of colonisation that has left some Pacific peoples with liberal access to economic opportunities in developed states by virtue of their citizenship or preferential visa status, while others have no such opportunities. Both New Zealand and the United States have been reasonably generous in facilitating migration from Polynesia and Micronesia. It is Australia that stands out as the Pacific neighbour with the greatest capacity to develop new migration streams. The seasonal worker scheme announced by the Australian Government in August 2008 takes a cautious but valuable step along this path, yet there is scope for further expanding Pacific access by broadening the geographical, temporal and material scope of existing migration arrangements.     

Estimating Employment‐Related Migration from Overlapping Migration and Commuting Networks

A U.S. county workplace‐to‐workplace or latent migration data set is generated from overlapping migration and commuting networks. The latent migration network is the estimated number of movers between places of work, which is then compared with the actual number of migrants between places of residence. This allows both employment‐related and amenity‐related migration and pull/push factors as causes of migration flows to be identified and contrasted. Certain counties and cities that are not important migration destinations (e.g., with <200,000 net in‐migrants between 1995 and 2000) according to official data are in fact important targets when additional in‐migrants who commute into surrounding counties also are considered. An econometric analysis is then used to examine whether different regressors have different effects on the residence‐ versus employment‐based migration patterns. This is a first assessment of whether or not the proposed approach has merit. Results are consistent with prior expectations regarding the factors that would motivate latent versus actual migration.     

Spatiality,belonging and citizenship in the age of migration in contemporary China

While internal migration in contemporary China ascribes a great change to urban China's demographic composition, social structures and economic development trajectories, it is yet to restructure the formal definitions of urban identity and belonging, which are still dominated by the household registration system (hukou). The paper suggests that as a result of changes in the political, economic, demographic and social contexts within which China's internal migration develops, there emerge a crucial need to re‐examine the crude forms of determining identity and belonging, questioning the addressing of spatiality within the existing mechanisms (such as hukou system or the shiminhua discourse). To do so, the paper argues that the existing de‐territorialisation of the migration experience has to be replaced with a more nuanced understanding of how spatial practices and conceptualisations shape migrants’ experiences, as it is becoming imperative to develop a new framework that is more sensitive to migrants’ lived process of identification and belonging, especially as these traverse multiple geographies and spatial scales. This close engagement with migrants’ spatiality can then be used as a base from which to engage with a more complex view of migrants’ spatial and social relatedness, as well as the development of their urban belonging and identity.     

Modes of Resistance: Gendered Responses to Global Impositions in Coastal Philippines

This paper considers gender and the conjunction of global and local processes in three different social and spatial configurations; a Philippines locality, a transnational view embracing the Philippines and somewhere else, and globally. Gendered household livelihoods and contradictions in gender ideologies reveal the privileging of men’s work and political potential over women’s. Exporting women’s labour is the most economically viable household strategy; a pattern which creates new transnational social fields embracing the many national contexts where Filipino women work overseas. The conclusion eschews a binary approach to women’s resistance and highlights the paradoxical yet potentially radical political significance of inter/national dependency upon Filipino women’s domestic labour.