New Zealand Chinese Early History F 333

source -stephenyoung.co.nz

edmondsallan - Hello - If you have been reading these chinese journals so far it give us ordinary kiwis a great insight into our
" kiwi chinese " citizens .

Because of the unemployment problems of the Chinese and other Asian newcomers, do they use more social services than the average New Zealand citizen? There is a paucity of relevant New Zealand statistics but it seems likely that social patterns are broadly similar between the immigrants of America and this country. The American experience is that immigrants ‘always’ earn less than native born Americans when they arrive. Yet even if they are poorly skilled (as most of their immigrants are) they substantially catch up financially in their lifetimes, not to mention in the lifetimes of their children and grandchildren. Because immigrants initially earn less, the American-born citizens at first have to pay more taxes than they, and the immigrants receive a ‘little bit more’ in social services. Generally the latter services are not in healthcare or programmes for the aged (because of age selection in the immigration process) but in schooling. However, when the taxes are added up over the lifetimes of immigrants and their children, they actually pay more in taxes in the United States than they receive in benefits. This payment would be even higher should the United States particularly concentrates on selecting higher skilled young immigrants.(72)

For all their unemployment, one might conclude that a number of Chinese newcomers show little tendency to take on different and especially menial work in New Zealand when their plans are thwarted and their qualifications go unrewarded. Indeed, this tendency may be another reason for Ip’s large ‘not part of the labour force’ section of her survey. Perhaps this is partly because some had sold assets like property and shares before leaving and the additional capital buffers them from a compelling need to earn some money - for a time anyway (frequently for the three years needed to become naturalised, after which they leave New Zealand). It is said, however, that some mainland Chinese take on whatever work they may find, since they are generally the poorest recent Chinese subgrouping to come to New Zealand, perhaps little better off than the Indo-Chinese refugees when they first arrived.

Yet others, when faced with unemployment, adopted either one of two strategies. Many graduates have gone to a tertiary institution for more study and a New Zealand degree, which would bypass the qualification blockage. This strategy also enabled the impecunious individual to obtain a student allowance or loan, and if friends flatted together, their combined allowances enabled them to live adequately - until the allowances were disallowed in 1999 for two years after entry in New Zealand. Mainland Chinese were the chief users of this fairly common route and some figures indicate that a significant but not overly excessive number of Chinese university students with permanent residency did seek the student allowance.(73) For this, the mainland Chinese university students especially were disparaged. The other strategy was for the chief rice-winner of the family to return to the previous homeland to work among pre-existing networks and familiarities. This route was often used by Taiwanese and Hong Kong Chinese who were nicknamed ‘astronauts’.

The first cases of ‘astronauts’ appeared very early, whereby heads of migrant families returned to the previous homeland and commuted to and from New Zealand where the rest of the family resides. To be sure, some astronauts were returning to prepare their businesses for sale or to await a pension to mature, but they were soon joined by others who were commuting out of necessity because they could not get employment in New Zealand. Though thought to be a fairly common phenomenon, no figures exist as to its prevalence. In fact, Professor R. Bedford has pointed out that there was no evidence to suggest that ‘what was known as astronaut families had happened on anywhere near a significant scale’.(74) To the writer’s knowledge these families show great commitment to each other and to New Zealand in tolerating such a major family separation. The writer’s acquaintance with several astronauts convinces him that most, if not all of them would have much preferred to have had relevant work in New Zealand. They bring money back to New Zealand for family living expenses.

Other writers have identified the astronaut phenomenon as part of a transnational readiness to seek employment across frontiers, a growing world tendency in modern times particularly for quality migrants.(75) In 1998, for instance, it was reported that 29,920 of 58,738 British immigrants coming to New Zealand in the past decade had left (76) and surely some of them had departed because of the transnational proclivity. One might wonder, however, whether the terms ‘transnational workers’ and ‘astronauts’ are merely variants of the old ‘sojourners’. At all events, Chinese sojourners, transnational workers and astronauts have been criticised in New Zealand as lacking in loyalty to, and involvement in this country, despite similar traits shown by European sojourners among the goldseekers era and throughout colonial life. Or indeed, by modern European-New Zealanders who go overseas for OE (Overseas Experience) to Britain, Australia, the Middle East, Hong Kong, Singapore, Japan and elsewhere to work and perhaps to return. The fact that their Chinese counterparts were - and still are - singled out for disapprobation is a reminder of the long apprenticeship newcomers and aliens usually have to serve when they wish to join new societies.

An inevitable consequence of the new immigration has been the creation in New Zealand of two Chinese resident populations. They are the recent immigrants and the long-established Chinese, unrelated to each other except by race, the latter astonished and somewhat perturbed to find themselves so outnumbered by the new Chinese arrivals. Looking at the incoming stream - and the huge concomitant ingress of Asian tourists and students actively sought by New Zealand institutions - the Kiwi Chinese marvel at the contrast of today’s opportunities with immigration policies of earlier times. The long-established Chinese, including mixed-bloods, were estimated from the 1996 census to now form about a quarter of the Chinese total.(77) Fortunately, both the recent and long-established Chinese appear to have largely comparable ranges of westernisation, so neither could look down on the other in this aspect. A few leaders on both sides are making some positive moves to get closer to one another.(78) Unfortunately, no one of regional (much less national) stature has yet emerged from any Chinese grouping to unite them all and speak with one voice - although the indefatigable Mrs Pansy Wong, originally from Hong Kong, and currently New Zealand’s sole Chinese parliamentarian (1996- ), is very praiseworthy in her endeavour to do so.

The new Chinese immigrants show several salient differences to Kiwi Chinese. Generally they have an urban background and are indeed quality migrants - high achievers with money or education, and skills to match - whereas the Kiwi Chinese had a Cantonese rural base before acquiring a Western education. Usually the new arrivals come as nuclear families from a wide diversity of origins - from Shenxi to Singapore - and to date they have developed few features of chain migration.(79) Hence they are more prone to loneliness, to combat which they have formed a greater variety of societies and associations than the old rural Cantonese migrants ever did. Naturally, the Chinese newcomers also tend to mix together according to their country or place of origin, thus forming subgroupings usually referred to as ‘the Taiwanese’, ‘the mainland Chinese’ and so on, each with their societies. They are analogous to the old subgroupings of the Kiwi Chinese based on Cantonese counties of origin, from which were formed benevolent societies called the Poon Fah, Naam Shun, Tung Jung, Seyip and Kwongchu Associations.

Since the newcomers have no previous links in this country, they are less interested in the Chinese past here, and have no stake in preserving the traditions and relics of that past. For all that, both newcomers and the long-standing Chinese families share a basic Chineseness, although most of the former (with the exception of Hong Kong immigrants) speak Mandarin Chinese, whereas the latter chiefly speak Cantonese. As a consequence, their common language usually is English.

Settling in.

Some observers think many New Zealanders still regard this country as a South Pacific nation, yet the increase in Asian immigration was an unmistakeable statement to Asia of the wish of many New Zealand leaders - at that juncture - to further develop ties with that continent. Unfortunately, the surge in immigration stirred up a brief but intense anti-Asian reaction such that the National Government (1990-99) was put on the defensive and amended its emphasis on Asia to a less dynamic perception of New Zealand as an Asia-Pacific nation. The present Labour Government (elected in 1999) appears to have followed suit,(80) although Prime Minister Helen Clark has recently made a tour of Asian capitals.

The Asian influx, including the Chinese component of it, settled in Auckland especially and Christchurch, the two cities with the main international airports. In Auckland, a city of over one million persons, Asians became about 10% (now said to have increased to around 12%) of the population, over 40% of the Asians being Chinese.(81) This kind of concentration has counterparts elsewhere, as in Vancouver and Los Angeles. On the one hand, the Asian immigrants added to strains in Auckland’s city infrastructure - in schools, housing, transport and water.(82) On the other hand, they appeared different from the humble Cantonese arrivals of old and many New Zealanders were at first either perplexed by or resented these non-European foreigners, both for their confidence and their wealth. In the context of Auckland’s economic problems, the resentment was illustrated in the term ‘Chowick’ for Howick, an upmarket suburb in Auckland favoured by the newcomers where the houses were around NZ$600,000 each.(83) The ill-feeling was compounded by the concentrated, rapid and apparently unrestrained increase in Chinese and other Asian numbers, and by the behaviour in some immigrants perceived by New Zealanders to be irritating - loud speech, the jumping of queues, a general lack of courtesy towards other shoppers, hard bargaining, having expensive cars and uncertain driving styles, and an alleged over-readiness by some to claim social welfare and the student allowance.(84) There were also exposures of rackets bringing Thai prostitutes to Auckland (in 1989 and 1992), and rumours of Chinese triads circulating since 1988, though the triad stories were later (1997) put into perspective by the head of Auckland’s two-men Asian Crime Unit.(85) In the background, the American and British media were becoming ever more vocal about China’s human rights record. Quite suddenly anti-Chinese and anti-Asian immigration controversy and racial abuse appeared in the open, sparked off in 1993 as the ‘Inv-Asian’ or ‘Asian Invasion’.(86)

As the influx and controversy continued, the National Government gave three months’ notice of really tough new immigration criteria to be introduced in October 1995. A rush of applicants occurred - no doubt heightened by the immigration agency system - of such volume that the applications were still being processed under the old criteria in November 1996. The new criteria extensively changed both the business and general categories, and included in both a difficult points system and an English language test for Asians much stiffer than that used in the past.(87) These changes possessed powerful blocking properties which greatly decreased the number and acceptance of Asian migrant applications (Table 3). The English test alone would have been effective thus, but the required points could be changed from week to week. In addition, all migrants had to have a returning resident’s visa for overseas travel, which was issued for a family only after the principal applicant had sufficient residence in New Zealand to qualify for New Zealand tax residence status (which also delved into world income). Clearly this visa was aimed at ‘astronauts.’ So much for the ideal of equal criteria for all immigrants, and the loss of this ideal for many non-English speaking Chinese and other Asians can be seen in comparison with the contemporary South African influx (Table 3). In 1994, the South Africans found it so easy to enter New Zealand they called the immigration procedures applicable to them ‘the chicken run’,(88) and their inflow registered no change after 1995.

Table 3

No. of Asian, British and South African approvals for residence among the top 10 nationalities for permanent and long-term N.Z. immigrants (of all categories), 1996-2000.

1996 1997 1998 1999 2000

Taiwan 12,751

China 5,385 4,950 4,220 3,065 3,569

Hong Kong 2,742 1,118

India 3,590 2,311 2,433 2,652 3,585

Philippines 1,437 875 776 655 924

South Korea 2,836 913

Indonesia 949

Sri Lanka 747 671

Gt. Britain 5,478 5,507 4,840 4,218 5,080

South Africa 2,283 3,712 3,366 3,428 3,706

Source: Immigration Fact Packs.

Chinese numbers remained significant only from mainland China, from which country came highly motivated and qualified immigrants who tend to seek family reunification here. According to M. Ip, approvals (not arrivals) of Taiwanese immigrants numbered only 664 in 1997 and 344 in 2000.(89)

Immigration became a major election issue in 1996. Machiavelli said men’s hatreds generally arise from envy and fear. Since the Asian influx landed in a period of major social change and mixed economic performance, it is likely an underlying fear for many people opposing their immigration - even if they had no personal contact with Asians - was the possible takeover of jobs from New Zealanders,(90) although unemployment fell from 11% of the workforce in 1991 to 6.1% in 1996. Furthermore, Auckland figures in 1996 showed that only 5% of all the jobseekers enrolling with the New Zealand Employment Service were originally from an Asian country.(91) It seems that those in skilled trades and manuel work were the persons most worried for their jobs; and while it is generally true that ‘those people who compete directly with immigrants lose’, probably the fact was overlooked that most Asians who were approved principal applicants in the General Category had professional skills. Only 5% of them were trades workers.(92) In 1996 too, several New Zealand cities must have felt some benefit from the years of inflow of well-educated migrants with sufficient money to buy quality housing and goods - particularly in the immediate years after the grim 1987 stock market crash. Over 50% of Auckland’s growth in the first half of the 1990s was said to be due to international immigration.(93) Even in southern Dunedin, housing prices kept up or went up and significant optimism existed in sales and services because of the influx of only about 50 families each of Taiwanese and South Koreans (followed by another 50 families of mainland Chinese and some Indian migrants). Yet the Kiwi Chinese were surprised by the reappearance in this period of old catch-cries and larrikin action,(94) showing that New Zealand’s past perceptions of non-European aliens had not been entirely expunged from the national psyche.

In truth, however, the controversy had much less breadth and depth in proportion to population than the old public outbursts over Chinese immigration. It largely concerned Auckland, and although anti-immigration rhetoric did arise throughout the country, a brief appearance of the malignant virus of racism was not endorsed by political parties other than the small but vocal New Zealand First party, nor by newspapers or trade unions. This was a considerable contrast from the situation a century earlier, when all the trade unions, nearly all the newspapers and most of the politicians, were against the Chinese. But in 1996, many politicians, including the prime minister and deputy prime minister, publicly condemned any signs of racism; and strong statements were issued by the Jewish and Catholic Church leaders, although the Presbyterian and Methodist response was weak.(95) As for Prime Minister J.B. Bolger, his National Government’s introduction of the October 1995 regulations might yet be judged by history to have condoned the anti-Asian outcry.(96) But in keeping with the general background of decency, his party chose Pansy Wong as a Christchurch list candidate, and she entered parliament in 1996. Maori comments on the Asian immigration were mixed and except for Winston Peters (the head of the New Zealand First party), Maori leaders tended to steer clear of the controversy, partly because of the new considerations the growing presence of an Asian minority might eventually have on Maori-Pakeha relationships and the long-term application of the Treaty of Waitangi.(97)

The newcomers, it should be noted, are not the passive targets of racial prejudice that the old Cantonese Chinese in New Zealand were. As well as being more overtly reactive to racism, they have access to the vote, and have enough numbers in three or four Auckland electoral seats to make their votes count. In earlier times, politicians could safely ignore or abuse the Chinese, partly because of the usually unassertive nature of sojourners, and partly because they did not have the vote anyway, or were too few and scattered in numbers to make it count. That this situation no longer exist was shown by the formation in 1996 of two new though short-lived political parties which some Chinese newcomers joined - the Ethnic Minority Party of New Zealand and the Asia Pacific United Party. The Asians also held a street march in Auckland in protest against the prejudice they felt directed at them.

For all that, a truly remarkable development after the 1996 election was the steady diminution of anti-Asian feeling.(98) By the 1999 election, immigration was not an issue at all, not even revived by the New Zealand First party. A year earlier, the local body elections even voted in a Chinese (Ken Yee) to represent Howick, and there were eight successful Chinese local body candidates out of 14 throughout New Zealand. The surge of newcomers had noticeably slackened and it was as though many New Zealanders realised too, that they should not blame the immigrants for faults in Auckland’s infrastructure or New Zealand’s immigration policies, which allowed the rate of inflow to exceed Auckland’s absorptive capacity - both in structural systems and in the social acceptance of foreigners. Some of the writer’s friends hoped the immigrants realised that much of the feeling expressed against them had not specially risen because of race. The rapid ingress of any large group of strangers will create controversy, difficulties and fears. As a matter of fact, New Zealand history can produce examples of abuse hurled at European immigrants who were seen to be flooding in. For instance, the earlier Scots in Otago disparaged later influxes of Scots in the early 1870s, calling them ‘sallow-faced, shifty, loud-mouthed … hereditary paupers.’ In more recent times, the incoming thousands of Dutch in the 1950s were given a hard time for being too industrious and assertive and, in the early 1970s, it was the turn of the British (‘Bash a Pom’) and Pacific peoples. The point is that all newcomers to a society come under an edgy scrutiny, particularly when they arrive in large numbers. It is the ‘new boy on the block syndrome’, which newcomers should understand.

Till we meet again -regards - edmondsallan