New Chinese Immigrants to New Zealand: a PRC Dimension
This paper presents a profile of the PRC Chinese migrant community in New Zealand. The Chinese population in New Zealand has rapidly grown through immigration since the passage of the 1987 Immigration Act. The 2006 census shows that Chinese now comprise 3.4% of the New Zealand population, of which the PRC Chinese make up more than half. The first part of this paper uses New Zealand immigration and census data to analyse two large influxes of PRC immigrants to New Zealand, during the mid-1990s and the early 2000s respectively. The second employs quantitative and qualitative data acquired from analysing the New Zealand Chinese-language media, particularly during the 2005 New Zealand general election. As the “new rich” from China, many recent PRC migrants including former international students and business people appeared to support ethnic Chinese politicians standing for conservative parties and disappoved of the centre-left Labour government’s policies on the welfare state; they also maintained distinctly patriotic sentiments towards China.
Phoebe Hairong Li was born in northern China and graduated with a Bachelor of
Arts in History from Liaoning Normal University in China and a Master of Education
in Management from RMIT University in Australia. She migrated to New Zealand
in 2001 and commenced her PhD research at the University of Auckland in 2005.
Her thesis (A Virtual Chinatown: the Diasporic Mediasphere and Chinese Migrants
in New Zealand) was completed in 2009; it is a study of the social dynamics
of the
current Chinese migrant community in New Zealand through a critical
analysis of
the New Zealand Chinese-language media. Phoebe is currently
an honorary
research fellow in the School of Asian Studies at the
University
of Auckland.
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