For rest and Sunday best: Korean migration and settlement in New - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

For rest and Sunday best: Korean migration and settlement in New Zealand

Dr Andrew Butcher, Director, Research

Introduction

• Context: The new face of New Zealand in 2012
• Public polling: ‘when you think of Asia...’ and warmth rating
• The Korean population in New Zealand, 1976-2006
• Motivations for migration (1): rest
• Motivations for migration (2): Sunday best

Introduction: The new face of NZ

• Seoul, May 2012: Track II dialogue Korea-NZ

– NZ delegates’ birthplaces: NZ, China, UK, Philippines, Hong Kong – NZ spouses’ birthplaces: NZ, Malaysia, Taiwan, Singapore, South Korea – Maori Ambassador

Public polling: When you think of Asia...?

• Which countries come to mind?
• 2007, 2008, 2009, 2011: South Korea, 6th place

– 2011: China, Japan, Thailand, Malaysia, India

• 2010: South Korea, 5th place
• 2008: ‘Korea’ – 3rd place
• In 2007 and 2009, the same percentage of New Zealanders identified North

Korea as identified South Korea

Public polling: NZ’s warmth towards South Korea

• 2009: 71 degrees
• 2011: 68 degrees
• Compare:

– Canada (Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada, 2011): 50 – Australia (Lowy Institute, 2011): 57

Koreans in New Zealand

• 1976 census: 147
• 2001 census: 17,943
• 2006 census: 30,792
• Between 1986 and 1996, the fastest growing Asian ethnic group in New

Zealand – Two waves: 1990s (population grew from 1,000 to 19,000) and early 2000s – Attributable to change in New Zealand immigration policy in 1991 – In 1994 alone, 3,752 Koreans were granted entry permits into New Zealand

Rest...

Koreans in New Zealand

• “The strongest motivating factors in Korean migration to New Zealand thus

have been a desire for a higher quality of life and a less stressful education for offspring, rather than economic betterment, unlike those who left for the United States in the 1970s and 1980s.” (Epstein, 2006)

• “well-educated, middle or upper-middle class, and thus relatively affluent.”

(Epstein, 2006)

• Per capita, NZ has one of the highest Korean expatriate communities in the

world (NZ Embassy)

• Koreans stand out as making up the smallest population of the NZ-born

population since their migration has mostly taken place since the early 1990s (Friesen, 2008)

Koreans in New Zealand

• Predominantly reside on the North Shore of Auckland
• One significant difference from the other Asian populations is the presence
• f large numbers of school-age populations between 10 and 20, presumably

largely a result of international school students in intermediate and secondary schools. In the cohorts over 35, it is particularly females that stand out, possibly representing caregivers of the school-age students (Friesen, 2008).

• Competency in English (can carry out an everyday conversation):

– Aucklanders: 95% – Asians: 85% – Koreans: 70% (cf. Indians, 92%, Sri Lankans, 94%, Filipinos, 98%)

...and Sunday best

Sunday best

• 70% of Koreans in NZ are Protestant Christians: reflects the selectivity of

migration from Korea since “this proportion of Christians does not represent the religious composition of Korea” (Friesen, 2008)

• “The churches do not simply provide a place of fellowship and worship; they

are an important part of the networking and support of those Koreans that are attached to one church or another and they have provided an important institutional bridgehead to settlement. In this regard, there is a point of contact and similarity with other Christian New Zealanders” (Meares et al, 2010; also, Chang et al, 2006).

• NZ Herald headline: “NZ gives salvation for immigrants”: “Korean

immigrants are turning to Christianity for salvation and to improve their business and social lives.” (Tan, 2010)

Sunday best

• “Flatbush has suddenly sprung up in the last five years as an overflow from

the huge growth of new housing in the Howick area, primarily accommodating Asian people. The little chapel [that gave Chapel Road its name] still stands, now a joint Anglican-Methodist church half way down the road that takes its name from it…. The central focus of Chapel Road is the enormous, almost completed Buddhist Temple. On the other side of the road is a new co-educational Catholic School, reflecting a huge boom… into the Catholic Church by Asians concerned at the violent tone of New

• Zealand. Other sites down the road have been purchased by Baptist

churches…. It is boom time in Flat Bush and religion is booming there as well, but not in the little chapel. There is a plan for Anglicans and Methodists to build a big new church…. Meanwhile the Presbyterians have made a separate move. Their old Pakuranga congregation, famous for its evangelical and conservative tradition, has rebuilt just around the corner from Chapel Street and have attracted a large congregation including many Asian people with a formula that has something of the Pentecostal flavour mixed in.” (Lineham, 2005)

Conclusion

• Changing religious landscape of NZ: Koreans will continue to contribute to

growth of Christianity in NZ

• Emerging 1.5 and second generation Koreans
• Changing classrooms: Koreans as both FFP & domestic students
• Rest & ‘Sunday best’ likely to remain key motivations for Koreans’ migration

and settlement in New Zealand