Pasifika New Zealanders
Pasifika New Zealanders (also called Pacific Peoples[2][3]) are a pan-ethnic group of New Zealanders associated with, and descended from, the indigenous peoples of the Pacific Islands (also known as Pacific Islanders) outside of New Zealand itself.[a][4] They form the fourth-largest ethnic grouping in the country, after European descendants, indigenous Māori, and Asian New Zealanders.[5] Over 380,000 people identify as being of Pacific origin, representing 8% of the country's population, with the majority residing in Auckland.[4]
History[edit]
Prior to the Second World War Pasifika in New Zealand numbered only a few hundred.[6] Wide-scale Pasifika migration to New Zealand began in the 1950s and 1960s, typically from countries associated with the Commonwealth and the Realm of New Zealand, including Western Samoa (modern-day Samoa), the Cook Islands and Niue.[7]
In the 1970s, governments (both Labour and National), migration officials, and special police squads targeted Pasifika illegal overstayers. Pacific Studies academic Dr Melani Anae describes the Dawn Raids as "the most blatantly racist attack on Pacific peoples by the New Zealand government in New Zealand's history".[8]
Immigrant Pasifika families settled in the inner city suburbs of Auckland and other major cities in the country, when middle-class Pākehā families were tending to move outwards to newer, more distant suburbs.[7] Pasifika immigrants also tended to replace Urban Māori in central suburbs.[9]
By the mid-1970s, gentrification became an issue for Pasifika communities in Auckland. The cheap housing found in Ponsonby and other inner city Auckland suburbs were attractive to Pākehā young professionals, especially socially liberal families searching for a multicultural and urban lifestyle.[7] As these houses were purchased, the available rental stock plummeted, and Pasifika families who tended to rent more began to relocate to suburbs further out from the city centre.[7] The Pasifika populations in Ponsonby and Freemans Bay peaked in 1976.[7] Grey Lynn continued to have a large Pasifika population (particularly Samoan) until the mid-1980s.[7]
The umbrella term Pasifika, meaning "Pacific" in Polynesian languages, was first used by government agencies in New Zealand in the 1980s to describe all migrants from the Pacific islands and their descendants.[10][3]