Feature
The 1.5 generation
by Andrew Janes
A fundamental shift in the nature of migration has been largely overlooked by policy-makers. Are Kiwi Asians here to stay?
She has lived in New Zealand for more than half her life, but Monica Yang is still not quite sure where she belongs. Originally from Taiwan, the 23-year-old came here with her parents as a nine-year-old. Dad was one of the so-called astronaut parents, commuting between work in Taiwan and Mum, Monica and the rest of the family in New Zealand, although he has now settled here permanently. “Sometimes I question myself,” says Yang. “I don’t know if I’m a Kiwi or if I’m Taiwanese. Most of my friends are Asian. I suppose I’m sort of in-between.”
After a brief stint in the workforce, Yang has now applied to go back to university to do a media studies course. “But once I graduate, I’ll probably look for a job in Taiwan,” she says. “It’s a more fast-paced, exciting lifestyle and I’d like to experience it.”
Ultimately, though, the young Aucklander reckons she’ll probably settle down in New Zealand. “I know the place and I like it.”
Yang is one of what immigration academics call the 1.5 generation. Not first generation because they didn’t choose to come to New Zealand. But not second generation, either – as they were born and spent part of their childhood in their country of origin. But Yang’s experience differs from previous generations of migrants in another way. Hailing from Taiwan, she is part of the first major wave of non-British or Pacific migrants, unleashed on New Zealand when the fourth labour government overturned more than 100 years of discriminatory
immigration policy in the late 1980s.
Although the social disruption caused by the influx of Asian migrants over the last decade and a half has been well documented, Massey University sociologist Dr Allen Bartley says the nature of the migration has also changed – something that’s been largely overlooked by policy-makers.
Bartley surveyed around 120 members of the 1.5 generation who had migrated here with their parents from South Korea, Hong Kong and Taiwan. An immigrant himself – he arrived here from the US in 1968 – Bartley says that he was interested in studying this group out of a recognition that their experience of adjusting to New Zealand was vastly different to his own. “When, in the 1990s, Winston Peters talked about foreigners inflating house prices and driving up interest rates, I knew on an intuitive level that he was not referring to me.”
Exploring issues of identity, sense of belonging and future aspirations, Bartley came to the conclusion that what we are seeing is transnational immigration – where migrants simultaneously carry on lives in two or more countries. “It’s a fundamental shift in the nature of migration and requires an accompanying shift in the setting of immigration policy.”
Conventional assimilationist models of immigration – which still dominate the immigration debate – recognise that the first generation of migrants may have difficulty adjusting to a new culture, but see subsequent generations as becoming increasingly assimilated into the host country. So in a few generations, hey presto, we have “yellow-skinned, rugby-mad beer drinkers”.
“What struck me about the group I surveyed was their ambivalence about their identity as New Zealanders and their future aspirations,” says Bartley. “While most of those surveyed were performing well in school and were involved in a range of extra-curricular activities, many did not feel like they really belonged here. They sort of belonged, they saw belonging as a goal, but feared they would never be allowed to fully belong.”
Two-thirds of those surveyed identified New Zealand as home, but most aspired to go elsewhere for education or career. This was reinforced by the experience of many of the young migrants’ parents, says Bartley. “All of them either came from or knew families in which the main breadwinner was unable to find suitable work in New Zealand and was unemployed, under-employed or a so-called astronaut parent.
“Many were also unsure about where their parents were going to be in a few years time. Often they can continue owning a business or property in their home country and commute back and forth for work.”
The common response of many participants was that not only was a transnational strategy possible but also, because of the limited career opportunities, it was perhaps desirable. New Zealand was not a place for the ambitious, said a number of participants. But it would be a great place to retire.
Immigration policy in New Zealand continues to be based on the assumption that migrants uproot from their country of origin and re-ground in their new home, writes Bartley in a summary of his survey findings. “But my research, and that of others, suggests that the traditional model that informs immigration policy can’t deal with transnationalism. Highly skilled, well-educated professionals and entrepreneurs who become cross-culturally fluent fit the profile of highly desirable migrants not only for New Zealand but for the countries with whom we compete for migrants – Australia and Canada.
“The question is whether New Zealand will acknowledge this form of migration as legitimate and acceptable. Are we to emphasise conventional expectations of migrants or is it possible for New Zealand to be a node in migrants’ increasingly global networks?”
In academic circles, transnational migration is nothing new. Internationally, migration theorists have been using it to describe the cross-border behaviour of modern migrants since the mid-1990s.
Page 1 
