Outlook 10: Asians in Wellington
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Asians in Wellington: Changing the Ethnic Profile of the Capital City
The latest Asia:NZ Outlook report was launched by the Mayor of Wellington Kerry Prendergast on 1 September 2009 at the Michael Fowler Centre in the city.
She commended the report as a “fascinating snapshot of Wellington’s transformation into a truly international city”.
“Wellington now has 85 ethnic groups within its boundaries. This dynamic will give Wellington the platform to go confidently into the future,” she declared.
Asia:NZ Executive Director Dr Richard Grant (pictured, with Mayor Prendergast) pointed to the fact that, as a proportion of population, New Zealand is already more Asian than Australia and the United States. “This series of papers [on Asian populations in New Zealand's four largest cities] makes a significant contribution to the debate about New Zealand and its changing demography,” he added.
Author Dr Wardlow Friesen commented on how much he enjoyed writing and researching the series.
Highlights
Following the election of November 2008, six Members of Parliament of Asian origin were elected to Parliament – an event that, along with the election of Maori and Pacific MPs, resulted in the most ethnically diverse government New Zealand has ever experienced. Each of the six Asian MPs were originally migrants to New Zealand, coming from at least four different countries and representing several different religions. Whereas only 13 years ago there were no Asian MPs, 2008 saw New Zealand’s first cabinet minister of Asian descent. This is symptomatic of the remarkable changes New Zealand, and Wellington as its capital city, has undergone in the past quarter of a century.
In the final report in the series on New Zealand’s Asian populations, Auckland University geographer Dr Wardlow Friesen looks at Asians in Wellington and the changing ethnic profiles of New Zealand’s capital city. After Auckland, Wellington has the second-largest number of Asians in its population, a result of its long-term and unique history of involvement with Asia. Wellington is the home to Asia’s diplomatic posts as well as the headquarters of many national ethnic associations. Asian students also have a significant presence in this university city, which began in 1950 with the intake of Asian students under the Colombo Plan.
In the late 19th century a small Chinatown was established in Wellington and the Chinese community in Wellington was consolidating in the first decades of the 20th century. By contrast the settlement of Indians in Wellington during this same time period was more sporadic and while many Indians undertook similar employment to Chinese, they also diversified into other retail sectors. But there are also Chinese and Indians in Wellington who are recent migrants and who are New Zealand-born. Wellington has a substantially higher proportion of New Zealand-born Chinese and Indian than Auckland, Christchurch or Dunedin, a reflection of Wellington’s long-term links with Asia.
There are other growing Asian populations in Wellington as well. A recent diversification of migrant sources indicates the ongoing importance of Southeast Asian countries, especially the Philippines.
And Asians in Wellington are noticed in other ways: through the diverse range of ‘Asian’ restaurants and through popular cultural festivals like Diwali, Chinese New Year, and the first Southeast Asian Night Market, held in 2008
