Engaging Asia: The Role of the Diaspora

For the past half centur y New Zealan d has been going through the geopolitical equivalent of a massive earthquake. From the middle of the 19th century until well past the middle of the 20th, it was firmly part of what historian James Belich calls the Anglo-world, comprising Britain, its settler Dominions and sometimes America and Anglo-prone parts of Europe.1 In Belichs account, New Zealands role in this globe-spanning conglomeration was metropolitan Londons equivalent of New Yorks Wild West hinterland, and the flows of goods, services, money, ideas and people reflected this link. However, with decolonisation, especially since the 1970s, New Zealand has been overhauling its settler society image and refashioning itself as part of the emerging Asia-Pacific region. In 1955, Britain still took two-thirds of New Zealands exports.2 Almost half of New Zealands immigrants came from Britain, and more than 80 percent were British subjects, while only 1 percent came from China. By 2010, China was New Zealands second-largest trading partner (see Figure 1, page 3).3 As many new immigrants were Asian as were British (see Figure 2),4 and the old imperial legal status of British subject no longer even existed.5 Meanwhile, in the 1970s, consistent net migration gains which had underpinned New Zealands classic settler society reputation for a century6 gave way to a more complex pattern involving massive surges of emigration and periodic net migration losses.7 Depending how you count them, there are now between half a million and a million New Zealanders something like one in five or six living in other countries.8 This constitutes one of the worlds larger per capita diasporas.