Introduction & Session Notes. Opening Address. Plenary 1, 2, 3, 4. Panel Discussion 1A, 1B, 1C. Review & Preview. Plenary 5. Panel Discussion 2A. Session Notes, Population Change & Social Services. Panel Discussion 2B, 2C, 2D. Plenary 6. Panel Discussion 3A, 3B, 3C. Closing Address.
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PANEL DISCUSSION 2B - POPULATION CHANGE & URBAN EXPANSION AND INFRASTRUCTURE
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Department of Geography, University of Waikato
A Preliminary Analysis of the 1996 Census Data
DENISE CHURCH,
SESSION NOTES,
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Table 2.2: Distribution of recent overseas born immigrants, 1996 a) Numbers1
Ares of
Usual ResidenceDescent Population European Maori Pacific Is. Asian Total Main Urban Areas Auckland 27,408 384 7,932 44,343 82,623 Others 25,152 489 3,123 20,571 51,294 Total 52,560 873 11,055 64,914 133,917 Secondary Urban 2,918 84 246 939 4,179 Minor Urban 4,035 150 186 1,362 5,697 Total Urban 59,505 3,307 11,487 67,215 143,793 Rural Centres 897 30 45 201 1,164 Areas 5,718 180 219 675 6,729 Total Rural 6,615 210 264 876 7,893 Other 183 0 9 96 318 TOTAL 66,303 1,317 11,760 68,187 152,004 a) Percentages
Ares of
Usual ResidenceDescent Population European Maori Pacific Is. Asian Total Main Urban Areas Auckland 41.3 29.2 67.4 65.0 54.4 Others 37.9 37.1 26.6 30.2 33.7 Total 79.3 66.3 94.0 95.2 88.1 Secondary Urban 4.4 6.4 2.1 1.4 2.7 Minor Urban 6.1 11.4 1.6 2.0 3.7 Total Urban 89.8 84.1 97.7 98.6 94.6 Rural Centres 1.4 2.3 0.4 0.3 0.8 Areas 8.6 13.7 1.9 1.0 4.4 Total Rural 10.0 15.9 2.3 1.3 5.2 Other2 0.2 0.0 -- 0.1 0.2 TOTAL 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 - 1
- Recent immigrants are people resident in New Zealand in 1996 who were born overseas and who were living overseas in 1991. Note all the New Zealand born in the population are omitted from this table.
Source: As for Table 2.1.
Recent immigrants who were born overseas are certainly very highly concentrated in urban areas overall (Europeans 89.8%, Pacific Islanders 97.7% and Asians 98.6%), but the levels of concentration in Auckland should not be over-stated. Other cities in New Zealand have also experienced much larger influxes of new immigrants during the early 1990s than was the case in the 1980s (Table 2.2).
2.1.4 Returning New Zealanders
Reference should be made to the extent to which returning New Zealanders concentrate in particular places. A key component of total migration into New Zealand in any year is the return of thousands of New Zealanders who had been living overseas (Lidgard, 1993). The numbers of return migrants rarely exceed the number of New Zealanders leaving to reside overseas for 12 months or more and, as a result, emigration rather than immigration of New Zealanders attracts public attention.
In the 1996 Census 63,400 people were recorded as having been born in New Zealand but living overseas in 1991 (Table 2.3). Less than one third (31 percent) of these people were resident in Auckland in March 1996, although 88 percent were living in urban places. Within this return migrant population, the Maori descent component was less heavily concentrated in Auckland (28 percent) than the European descent component (31 percent). Most returning Maori (and the 1996 Census recorded 8,160 New Zealand-born Maori who had been living overseas in 1991) clearly had not come back to New Zealand to live in Auckland, anymore than the returning New Zealanders of European descent had (Table 2.3).
The concentrations in Auckland of the small groups of New Zealand-born Pacific Islanders and New Zealand-born Asians, who had been living overseas in 1991 (2,200 and 840 respectively), were lower than the overall concentrations of these population sub-groups in this city. Sixty percent of the New Zealanders of Pacific Island descent, and 45 percent of the New Zealanders of Asian descent, who could be classed as return migrants in 1996, were living in Auckland at the time of the 1996 Census (Table 2.3).
2.1.5 A complex population mix
Although the numbers of return migrants in some of the ethnic descent categories are small, it is important to bear in mind that New Zealand's main ethnic sub-populations are made up of complex mixes of recent immigrants, long-established immigrants, return migrants, and people who can be classed on the basis of census information as being "non-migrants". Any informed discussion of immigration and urban population change must clearly recognise that there are very few sub-populations, defined on the basis of ethnicity, which can be classed simply as "immigrant" populations.
Table 2.3: Distribution of returning New Zealanders, 1996 a) Numbers1
Ares of
Usual ResidenceDescent Population European Maori Pacific Is. Asian Total Main Urban Areas Auckland 17,853 2,274 1,329 375 19,911 Others 25,731 3,345 660 372 28,008 Total 43,854 5,619 1,989 747 47,919 Secondary Urban 3,162 492 72 24 3,450 Minor Urban 4,068 846 72 30 4,575 Total Urban 50,814 6,957 2,333 801 55,944 Rural Centres 978 219 15 6 1,107 Areas 5,766 978 63 33 6,342 Total Rural 6,744 1,197 78 39 7,449 Other 27 3 0 0 30 TOTAL 57,585 8,157 2,211 840 63,423 a) Percentages
Ares of
Usual ResidenceDescent Population European Maori Pacific Is. Asian Total Main Urban Areas Auckland 31.0 27.9 60.1 44.6 31.4 Others 44.7 41.0 29.9 44.3 44.2 Total 75.7 68.9 90.0 88.9 75.6 Secondary Urban 5.5 6.0 3.3 3.6 7.2 Minor Urban 7.1 10.4 3.3 3.6 7.2 Total Urban 88.3 85.3 96.5 95.4 88.2 Rural Centres 1.7 2.7 0.7 0.7 1.8 Areas 10.0 12.0 2.8 3.9 10.0 Total Rural 11.7 14.7 3.5 4.6 11.8 Other2 -- -- -- -- -- TOTAL 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 - 1
- Returning New Zealanders are people resident in New Zealand in 1996 who were born in New Zealand and resident overseas in 1991. Note all those people who were not born in New Zealand are omitted from this table.
Source: Unpublished data files prepared by the Customer Services Division of Statistics New Zealand from the 1996 Census of Population and Dwellings.
An unfortunate stereotype which still persists in parts of New Zealand is that people who are not obviously of Maori or European descent are considered to be "immigrants", especially when the debate about levels of overseas migration to New Zealand becomes emotion-charged and heated as it did in the early 1970s and, more recently, in 1995 and 1996. This stereotyping of "people of colour" as immigrants is a common one in many populations where people of European descent are predominant. It is part of the baggage which confounds sensible public discourse about development in multi-ethnic or multi-cultural populations.
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