August 2007

Friends and Allies: The Impacts of Returning Asian Students on New Zealand-Asia Relationships by Terry McGrath, Paul Stock and Dr Andrew Butcher.

 Executive Summary

We need to consider Asian students within New Zealand’s broader engagement with Asia. Asian students who studied in New Zealand under the Colombo Plan hold a particularly nostalgic place in New Zealand’s collective memory. Likewise, contemporary Asian students who return to Asia will draw upon their social and educational experiences in New Zealand. Asian students, while they are in New Zealand and once they have returned to their countries of origin, have much to offer New Zealand. Yet despite decades of Asian immigration and Asian students, New Zealand’s “Asian” literacy remains poor.

The decades of growth for international education in New Zealand brought with them changes in the New Zealand environment for Asian students coming to study in New Zealand. Frequently, Asian students encountered large numbers of other Asian students and, for many, much of their adjustment and socialisation occurred amongst co-nationals and other international students. Many Asian students have reported limited opportunities to engage with New Zealand domestic students and with host communities. The task of developing those friendships falls to Asian students as much as, if not more than, to New Zealand students, and to the institutions where Asian students study.

There are a number of issues of critical importance in order to develop and maintain positive relationships between New Zealand and its graduates in Asia. These issues include developing and maintaining personal relationships; interacting with Asian students while they are studying in New Zealand; developing and implementing programmes, strategies and policies that engage both Asian students and New Zealand students and develop their cross-cultural interactions; and connecting with New Zealand’s Asian alumni in meaningful and productive ways.

The large numbers of Asian students coming to New Zealand to study have the potential for growth in relationships between Asia and New Zealand. The Asian student body in New Zealand and New Zealand’s Asian alumni represent a unique resource for developing our relationships with Asia and Asian people. Asian students coming to study in New Zealand offer an opportunity for New Zealand to develop long-lasting and mutually trusting relationships.

This paper then provides: a brief history of Asian students in New Zealand; data on the international student as an export earner for New Zealand; comment on Asian students and New Zealand host communities; a précis of the export education policy environment; an analysis of Asian students’ views of New Zealand culture; a summary of research on Asian students’ perspectives on re-entry; a brief remark on Asian countries’ incentives for returning students; a note about ”third-place people”; and finally, conclusions and recommendations on ways to use returning Asian students to enhance New Zealand-Asia relationships.

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