Confident, equal and proud? The barriers Asians face to equality in New Zealand
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The document discusses the barriers that Asians face to equality in New Zealand, including experiences of discrimination, harassment, and unequal access to employment. It notes that Asians are the fastest growing population group but also experience more discrimination than other groups. While some Asians report high life satisfaction, others have faced challenges integrating and report incidents of racism. The document argues for the importance of social inclusion to improve well-being and ensure migrants feel welcome in New Zealand society.
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Confident, equal and proud? The barriers Asians face to equality in New Zealand
- 1. Confident, equal and proud? Adrienne N. Girling, James H. Liu & Colleen Ward Centre for Applied Cross-Cultural Research Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand The barriers Asians face to equality in New Zealand
- 3. National Survey on Attitudes toward Immigrants, Immigration and Multiculturalism Source: Ward & Masgoret (2008)
- 5. How should immigrants adapt? (% of agreement) Immigrants should give up their original culture for the sake of adopting 21% New Zealand culture Immigrants should maintain their original culture as long as they do not mix it 28% with NZ culture Immigrants should maintain their original culture while also adopting NZ culture 82%
- 6. Threat and Competition (% of agreement) Immigrants take jobs away from New Zealanders 25% Allowing immigrant cultures to thrive means that NZ culture is weakened 24%
- 7. It is a good thing for any society to be made up of people from different races, religions and cultures
- 8. Perceptions of Immigrant Groups
- 11. Attitudes Toward Asians and Asia
- 12. Perceptions of Immigrants Source: Ward & Stuart (2009)
- 14. Perceptions of Immigrants from Different Religious Backgrounds
- 15. Source: Asia:NZ Foundation, 2009
- 16. % of New Zealanders who say each will have a positive impact in the next 10-20 years Source: Asia:NZ Foundation, 2009
- 17. Source: Gendall, Spoonley & Trlin, 2007 Attitudes Toward Migrants by Region of Origin
- 18. Source: UMR Research Ltd, 2009
- 19. Source: UMR Research Ltd, 2009
- 22. Asians’ Experiences of Discrimination Source: Asia:NZ Foundation, 2009
- 23. Migrants’ experiences of discrimination by region of origin Source: Department of Labour, 2009 Percent
- 24. Source: Department of Labour, 2009
- 28. International Students in Christchurch Source: Safer Students Campaign, 2009
- 31. Source: Winkelmann & Winkelmann, 1998 NZ-born
- 32. Source: Statistics New Zealand, 2006 Census
- 35. “ I would say that 75 percent of clients we deal with discriminate when they describe what they want in an employee. Because the client pays us to find that employee, we in turn have to discriminate every day. It is morally and ethically against our views but the bottom line is the company ’ s needs. ” Recruitment Consultant Source: Burns, 2000
- 37. Source: Asia:NZ Foundation, 2009
- 39. Satisfaction With Life European Māori Pacific Asian Very satisfied / satisfied with life overall 87.1 81.5 80.2 84.1
- 41. When I look back at Hong Kong and compare it with here, I have no regrets … when I go back to Hong Kong, I cannot see the air, the skyline … and the stress … here it is so quiet, you are able to talk … Hong Kong, no way. Always busy, busy, busy! ” Migrant in Auckland Source: Spoonley & Meares, 2009
Editor's Notes
- Telephone survey based on random sample of 2020 NZ households
- General Skills Category made up nearly 60% of all migrants
- Based on a sample of 302 Nzers sampled from the electoral rolls Far right represents ratings of “immigrants” (unspecified background) - note Asians seen less favourably than generic “immigrant”
- Asian Muslims seen as even less favourable
- Telephone interviews with a random sample of 1,000 Nzers (annual survey starting in 2007).
- Some Nzers want a one-way relationship with Asia: very happy to benefit economically from the relationship (Asian tourism, exports to Asia, economic growth of Asia and free trade agreement with Asia), but not as positive about the influence of Asia on NZ society and values.
- Two random samples of Nzers from electoral roll: 1118 valid responses in first; 750 in second. Which immigrants increase crime rates, take jobs away from people born in New Zealand, are good for New Zealand’s economy? (percentages) Percentage of Asian people in prison is actually 2.5%, which is much lower than the 9% Asian population at large. These findings point to the idea that some New Zealanders are happy to have a one-way relationship with Asia, where they wish NZ to benefit economically, but they would like to keep New Zealand society and values distant from Asian influence.
- A telephone survey of a nationally representative sample of 750 New Zealanders 18 years of age and over. Umprompted answers about which groups are most discriminated against.
- Prompted answers.
- Some people have reported trying to join clubs and classes to try to meet some NZers, but it never panned out. The experience is often that Kiwis are polite and friendly, but are not easy to make strong personal connections with. Several qualitative reports show that Asian migrants have a strong desire to meet Kiwis, get to know them and understand their way of life, but have difficulty forming close bonds. Kiwis are seen as polite and friendly, but keep distance between them.
- LisNZ (Longitudinal Immigration Survey: NZ) Wave 1 conducted by IMSED of the Dept of Labour. All people who had taken up permanent residence between 2004 and 2005 were contacted for an interview. A total of 7,137 participated in face to face interviews about their settlement outcomes in NZ. These experiences are common but infrequent. North Asia = China, Japan, Korea, etc Southeast Asia = Malaysia, Phillipines, Indonesia, etc South = Indian subcontinent
- ALL migrants (not just Asian). North Asians were the most likely to report being discriminated against in the street.
- In two separate studies on Korean migrants… There were many reports of verbal abuse, including the oft-uttered sentiment of “go back where you came from”. This particular Korean migrant in Christchurch reported that she very often experienced harassment when she went for her daily walk. Korean migrants in Auckland faced intolerance and harassment based on their language abilities and appearance.
- A study was conducted with migrants with 48 ethnic and cultural backgrounds in Nelson/Tasman in order to design and instate a system for report racist incidents. A Settling In evaluation report (which is a programme run by MSD all over the country to facilitate the settlement processes for migrant and refugee groups) released in 2005 for the Nelson/Tasman region stated that there was “widespread racism against Asians in the street”. This provided the motivation for the study of migrants’ experiences of racism in Nelson/Tasman. While the survey was conducted with ALL migrants, many quotes Asian-specific quotes were provided in the report. These three express very similar experiences to the Korean and Chinese migrants previously cited.
- The Safer Students Campaign was launched in 2008 to also give international students a place to report discrimination. It is done online and anonymously. In its first year, 51 reports of harassment were filed, either self-reported or by a witness, and in 34% of the cases the victim was identified as either Asian or originating in an Asian country.
- Arguably more detrimental than harassment which is relatively infrequent. Inequities in access to employment and income levels are large and pervasive.
- More anecdotal study vs national sample
- 243 participants: 158 HR professionals; 85 recruitment consultants 40% had first hand experience of discrimination towards Asians (31% HR & 54% recruitment) Managers and clients of the professionals/consultants were overwhelmingly identified as being the perpetrators of discrimination (88%). Another significant finding was that 25% of respondents reported that recruitment consultants themselves had been found to discriminate against clients.
- CVs were given to HR Management students. Simulated study. Asian applicants with ethnic sounding names (as opposed to anglicised Asian names) were rated even worse. Other research has shown that employers prefer applicants to have NZ qualifications (Butcher, Spoonley & Trlin, 2006; Henderson, 2003), but the results of this study show that this explains only part of the picture. No Chinese migrants were shortlisted, whereas some local Chinese applicants were, partially supporting the hypothesis that Asian migrants are at a disadvantage due to their foreign and unknown qualifications. However, the result that local Chinese were shortlisted less often than UK/Canadian qualifications suggests that it is more than just their qualifications that are putting Asians at a disadvantage in seeking employment. The results clearly showed NZ European to again be favoured over Asian applicants. The NZ European applicants received requests for future contact with consultants more often (28%) than did the Chinese applicants (9%). Similarly, 27% of the Chinese applicants were told that there were no current opportunities compared with 3% of European applicants being told this. These findings together illustrate that Asians in New Zealand face inequities in their access to employment compared to NZ Europeans. Asian migrants with foreign qualifications and ethnic-sounding names have a much lower chance of gaining suitable employment than NZ Europeans and other migrant groups. However, this research also indicates that Asian people who are born and raised in New Zealand, with New Zealand education and employment experience, face inequality compared to white-skinned, English speaking migrants with foreign qualifications.
- 752 of the 1253 race-related complaints directed towards it were for comments by MP Hone Harawira, and were typically filed by male NZ Europeans. The group that complained the most about racial discrimination were NZ Europeans, the ethnic group that experiences discrimination the least in NZ society. Even excluding complaints following the Harawira incident, 25% of complaints were by NZ Europeans, 13% by Māori, 7% by Indians, and 10% by other Asians. This does not fit well with a portrait of whingeing ethnic minorities in Aotearoa/New Zealand, but rather ethnic minorities coping with a dominant and vocal majority.
- For many Asians, migration to New Zealand is a one-way street. The experience of discrimination, while common, is not frequent enough to spoil other aspects of the lifestyle they have chosen.
- … even though they were aware that their Chinese language skills were often insufficient.
- Skilled migrants are increasingly sought in New Zealand to fill gaps and shortages that exist in the labour force, so ensuring that…