By 1 February 2012, there will be 1.5 million people living in Auckland, New Zealand, according to latest reports.
In 2011, of every 100 Aucklanders, 22 of them are of Asian decent. That’s more than the 11% of Maori and 16% of Pacific communities.And by 2021, Auckland is expected to have 27% people of Asian decent.
Yet Auckland is not ready for the number of Asians living here. Asians living here in Auckland is a mixture of older descendents and new migrants, all of which had different social and economic needs.
Having the Lantern and Diwali Festival is not the answer to promote better intercultural understanding between Asians and non-Asians. As a matter of fact, it continues to show Asians as “singing and dancing” communities.
As a matter of fact, the truth meaning behind the Lantern and Diwali Festivals are lost because they were organised by people who have little understanding of the history and culture behind the festivals.
The Auckland Council had an Auckland Plan that looks at the Auckland in the next 30 years. In it, it raised the importance of the changing diversity of Auckland, which included the growing Asian population.
With the lack of good understanding about the Asian population in Auckland, it failed to look at the following:
- Economic potential of the Asian Population:
- The Asian population in Auckland are mainly small to medium enterprises that have a trading relationship with Asian countries. They have the skills and knowledge to facilitate the trading relationships. Their economic contribution to this city is not recognised.
- For years I suggested that New Zealand companies should be working with Asians living in New Zealand, not just New Zealand companies who have worked in Asia. Many subtle cultural practices and behaviours are best advice by Asians who have an understanding of both worlds.
- Of the four BRICs, two of them are Asian countries. Asia is economically more reliable in 2012 than European countries. The potential is huge and it is understood that the economic growth in China is showing no signs of slowing.
- With the growing number of Asians living in Auckland, it also provided an internal business opportunity that Auckland businesses can do to maximise their economic growth.
- Language and cultural conservation:
- The Auckland Plan showed the importance of protecting and promoting Maori and Pasifika languages. The Cantonese language is dying, despite the efforts by Poll Tax Heritage Trust. The Chinese schools running in Auckland are all running at a lost because they are all community run. Little are there to look at protecting and promoting Asian languages here in Auckland.
- For years, many knows that the Lantern and Diwali Festivals are not change-makers. Asians are not all singing and dancing. The public sees Asians as Festivals. A lot more can be done.
- Growing needs of aged population:
There is a growing number of aged population, particularly those who are new to this city. They often have communication problems, and need proper aged care support. Aged care support in Auckland for the ethnic community is lacking and the service is poor. My colleague Jeet Sachdev is working on building a culturally appropriate aged care service for the South Asian communities, however, free and lack support from the mainstream. - Economic impact of Asian population overseas:
What happens in Asia has an impact in New Zealand. For example, the growing number of Dragon Babies in Asia is going to have an economic and social impact to Kiwis in Auckland. Unless Aucklanders is taking notice of it now, it could become a problem.
Auckland is not doing much at the moment to prepare a plan for the growing Asian population and continues to see them as “foreigners”. From economic and social perspectives, there can only be more good than harm to prepare and plan now.
We were told ~25 years ago that New Zealand was part of Asia and we said “bullsh*t, we are part of the British Commonwealth” … fortunately the National Govt at that time had some foresight and (in spite of Winston Peters) we were suddenly hit by a bewildering ‘Asian invasion’. Our local primary school at Glenfield changed from 10% Asian and 90% European to the other way round over the same time. Asian immigration has also done a lot to help the tangata whenua understand that they are not the centre of the Universe (and in fact it is China who currently is). Change is unsettling but New Zealand is probably managing all this better than a lot of other countries (we were in the 1980s told we should be comparing ourselves with the PIIGS viz. Portugal, Ireland, Italy, Greece and Spain but look at them all now.. semi-corrupt Governments and pretty well bankrupt). We do need to ensure that New Zealand stays relatively corruption-free and maybe if our police are more interested in the fanfare of Miami Vice Hollywood style Coatesville showdowns then perhaps they are likely to be less interested in getting the infiltrative police corruption which some parts of Australia already are suffering from. We constantly hear that we need a bigger population to compete in the Asian economy and I guess it is Treasury who is driving our Immigration policies, as variable as they seem to be.
Whether it is Asians, Europeans, etc, we need to ensure we keep the Kiwi-ness, this is why people came here in the first plce. And yes, definitely corruption free and also free of money laundry and other illegal activities!
That corruption thing is lurking in the background in “clean” little Auckland …..
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“Ling Lin took up a position at the Chinese language newspaper, New Times. Photo / Kenny Rodger
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Ling Lin took up a position at the Chinese language newspaper, New Times. Photo / Kenny Rodger
A young Chinese journalist who says she was forced to pay her own wages to her boss has been awarded $19,000 in an Employment Relations Authority decision.
Ling Lin, in her 20s, arrived in New Zealand in 2001.
She graduated from Victoria University after completing a degree in media studies and took up a position as a journalist for Auckland-based Chinese language newspaper New Times in 2008.
Ms Lin was granted a two-year work permit that year, but an application for permanent residence was declined in February 2010.
Immigration officials said there were discrepancies in pay records and evidence of Ms Lin reimbursing New Times for her salary.
Ms Lin claimed she had had to pay $6000 in “guarantee money” before starting work, as a kind of bond. etc etc”
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Asians are foreigners. This is a European / Maori country first and foremost and you are all ‘visitors’ here; learn to adapt to our culture, not the other way around.
Just a thought.
From my perspective, Europeans (Pakeha’s) are technically “foreigners”, just like everyone else as the Maori were the settlers of our country. So technically, NZ is a “Maori country first and foremost”; shouldn’t the Europeans have adapted to the Maori culture?
However, moving on to today’s day and age, I DO agree that immigrants (where ever they come from; not just Asians) should learn to adapt to our Kiwi culture. If you decide to live in NZ you are consciously making the decision to belong to a culture that is different to yours, and should therefore learn to adapt to their way of life and abide by their laws etc. They should integrate and learn/see what it is like to be a Kiwi.
But at the same time, we as Kiwi’s should learn to accept the culture of others because it is who they are- Just because they move here does not mean that they should have to disregard their own culture altogether. It should be possible for them to adapt to the Kiwi-culture without having to feel like they have to lose their ethnic roots at the same time.
NZ is a multicultural country, and so we should be more accepting of other ethnic groups. It doesn’t mean that WE have to adapt to their way of life and lose our Kiwi-culture, but if we were more accepting of other cultures, NZ might become an even better place to live in.
The publicised comments seem to be pretty atypical of ‘average’ Kiwi views.. There will always be a far right fringe, the Neo Nazis and their angry cousins.. And a surprising amount of intolerance comes from our indigenous peoples.. One would think Maori would be more appreciative of the unacceptability of racial discrimination however they can
find it challenging to accept the powerful work ethic which Asian immigration has happily brought to NZ
I don’t think kiwis are being asked to change their own culture, merely to take off their blinkers.. As kiwis we were told we were part of Asia 25 yrs ago and we all rolled around on the floor laughing.. Well our main business interests now most certainly do lie with Asia and not with Europe or the USA.. And for that we should be grateful.. Asian immigration however needs fine tuning and NZ simply cannot afford to support the large number of ageing non taxpayers Chinese who have started flooding the country because of the one child policy, and that is not racism merely blatant economic logic
An interesting red-neck/brown-neck viewpoint fom Tim.
As I said in Feb we (the nation, not necessarily ‘the people’) are part of the Pacific/Asia rim – not part of Europe or the America’s.
As it happens China also has most of the global gold stores and thus we should unashamedly bend over forward, backwards and even sideways to stay in their goodbooks and to sign trade deals. This is 2012 and we have a lot of Asians in our population, most of whom are employed, are not beneficiaries and who are fluent in English.
Get used to it Tim,
New Zealand has to reverse the pernicious effects of beneficiary dependency during this time, the longest period of global recession for generations.
What’s up mates, nice paragraph and good arguments commented at this place, I am in fact enjoying by these.